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| Lore of the Vampire signage from 2024 |
Last year we looked at the thirty-year history of Halloween-events at Worlds of Fun. I stated in that blog that 2004 was truly a turning point in the history of a long line of various named events and started the astronomical growth to the event we have today. This year, we celebrate that 2004 was now 20 years ago and figured it was time to pay homage to the four attractions that would light the fire of the Haunt we have today, an adult-oriented thrilling event. If you haven’t already I would take a look at the three-part blog I wrote last year to get an idea of how these attractions and 2004 fit into the overall history.
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| 2004 Halloweekends Map |
After an incredibly successful 2003 Halloweekends, with the introduction of Carnival of Carnivorous Clowns and Magical House on Boo Hill, 2004 would introduce FOUR new Haunted attractions and they would be a microcosm of Haunt over the next 20 years. These four new attractions included:
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| Jeff Mast as Pig Man in 2005. |
Camp Gonnagitcha Witchahatchet: Usually referred to as simply Camp Gonna Gitcha or Camp, Camp was an outdoor haunt located where Prowler’s queue line area is today. It, like Lore of the Vampire, replaced the footprint of a defunct attraction, in Camp’s case Python Plunge. Camp would be located in the same location until 2007. In 2008 it was moved up to the Fury of the Nile area and was replaced by Cornstalkers in 2010. The main character for Camp was “Pig Man”, a deranged half man half pig that carried a gigantic bloody hatchet. The attraction re-used some basic structures from Python Plunge, as well as old inner tubes and floats from Oceans of Fun. Like many early Haunts, the designers would use a lot of what was simply lying around. The green school bus around Haunt these days was originally obtained and used for Camp Gonna Gitcha as the “Camp Bus”.
Fright Zone: The park’s first fright zone, named aptly Fright Zone, was located just outside of Camp Gonna Gitcha. It would run from Big Jack’s to Zulu and across the bridge up to the Zambezi Zinger queue house. This same fright zone layout has stayed about the same even until today changing names and themes from Fright Zone to Boneyard in 2014, back to Fright Zone briefly in 2022. The Fright Zone initially functioned as a sort of pre-show to Camp Gonna Gitcha and the two separate haunts had a symbiotic relationship in the early years. I have lots of great memories of the early Fright Zone, including a screamster who loved to beat up the plastic trash can by Big Jack’s. I am sure he destroyed more than one but it worked and it worked well. Today’s cymbal monkeys that are part of the Overlord’s Awakening originated with Fright Zone.
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| Haunted Homecoming Cast from 2004 |
Haunted Homecoming: Not the park’s first haunted stage show, but one of its most successful as it’s on its 18th season, not being performed in 2020 or 2021. One of the most fascinating details about this show is that not only is it a sequel to the park’s incredibly successful “Stax of Wax” show (1985-2002), but it along with Zombie High House all share the same backstory which is that of a high school from the 1950’s known as Cleaver High (hence the show’s secondary name Meat Cleaver High), and using a beaver as its mascot. The show over the years has added new sets, replacing old ones,, though a few have survived from the original show including the “Little Shop of Horrors - Dentist” set, and “Monster Mash”. Probably my favorite was a set they did a few years ago based on the “Cell Block Tango” from Chicago. Fascinating enough for the 2024 season they mixed things up again and added a set that was a tribute to “Camp Gonna Gitcha”.
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| Lore of the Vampire in 2008 |
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| Lore of the Vampire entrance in 2024 |
Then there is Lore of the Vampire, sometimes referred to as the Vamp House or just Vampires. The longest-operated haunted house in the park, except 2020, in which there was no Haunt at all, has operated every season since it premiered in 2004.
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| Banquet Hall in 2008 |
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| And in 2024 |
The 2004 press release described it as: “Visitors learn the Lore of the Vampire firsthand by exploring a catacomb of the undead. This new haunted walk-through experience takes guests through a morgue, a crematorium, a cemetery, a bride’s crypt, and dark tunnels all populated by gothic vampires.”
An interesting point to make with Vampires is that it often, unlike today, would operate in the daytime. It would open at 3 pm on Saturdays, and then operate all day Sunday too. Vamp would remain the oddball until 2009 when with the advent of the Overlord’s Awakening, Vampires would join in the parade.
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| Mark Costa becomes a Vampire |
So what was it like to be an early Vampire? A friend of ours, Mark Costa was one of the earliest Vampires. He was one of the earliest “jumpers” who would jump out of the shadows as guests first entered the haunt. He goes on to describe his experiences as a monster, or as they called them Screamsters:
“We would keep track of how many people got scared so badly that we knocked them down. Really it was a process. The make-up artists were clearly the stars of the show. They cleaned your face applied the make-up etc. They made the magic come to life!” For those people that had fangs, we had our own individual fangs that were molded to our teeth. We had more or less free rein of where we could scare people as long as we stayed within a certain section of the house.”
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| Safety line, left over from Orient Express, identifying the track bed area. |
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| Inside the tunnel you can still see concrete footers from Orient Express |
No blog on Lore of the Vampire is complete without mentioning its location, and more importantly the history of its location. As many know Lore of the Vampire resides in the station of the 1980 Orient Express roller coaster which was removed after the 2003 season. Vampires moved in immediately afterward but there are still remnants of the original ride. When guests enter Lore of the Vampire they are entering through the original ride’s exit, and on exploring the upper level of the house guests cross over the open track bed at least twice. The crossovers are carefully concealed but if you note an open bridge area, or the faded yellow painted safety lines on the ground, both indicate an open track bed area. Original “Asian-inspired” lanterns still adorn the house, and the coup de grace is the walk down into the tunnel. The tunnel was built for Orient Express and the coaster train would roll through the 100-foot dark tunnel before engaging on the lift hill. The echo of the lift hill out of the concrete tunnel is synonymous with the memory of the coaster even today. The truth is you can’t build such an awesome tunnel, and not use it even when the coaster is gone. The tunnel today is one of my favorite parts of Lore of the Vampire. Guests passing through the Lore of the Vampire/Orient Express tunnel should pay careful attention to note the enormous concrete footers with the track bolts still attached that litter the tunnel to this day.
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| Club Blood from 2009. I never really got this, and honestly never liked it. |
In 2009, for its 6th season Lore of the Vampire’s tunnel led into something new and macabre, but that just didn’t work quite as well as the park hoped. Club Blood, introduced a “vampire” nightclub into the catacombs (basement) of Lore of the Vampire. It featured a bar and rather lurid gothic-style dancers. 2009 also saw another change to Lore of the Vampire. Before 2009 Lore would open at 3 p.m. on Saturdays, and open on Sundays at 11 a.m..
Starting in 2009 with the introduction of the Overlord’s Awakening, the Vampires joined the parade for the first time. For the first few years, they would ride on the back of motorcycles as part of the parade. It was an awesome detail, but was cut a few years later for not being “family-friendly”. This leads to an important point. As we now are looking at 20 years into Haunt, I have stated this before and I will say it again, the intangible “non-corporate” elements are what made the event as successful as it is. Cars and motorcycles in a parade might be a pain, but they MAKE the experience and without them… it’s kind of underwhelming. I feel with the park ditching this key element of the parade, really takes away a huge chunk of experience.
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| New grand staircase added in 2022. Originally this was just an empty room with a jumper in the corner. |
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| New theming in the basement added in 2022. |
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| New, updated parlor for 2022. |
Club Blood would last officially until 2014, but would really pretty much never be staffed after 2010 or so. Lore of the Vampire would mature over the next few years, while the rest of the Haunt event changed around it, Camp Gonna Gitcha would be displaced by Prowler in 2008, before being permanently retired after the 2009 season. Fright Zone would be replaced by Boneyard in 2014. 2020 will forever go down as one of the strangest seasons, thanks to Covid-19, the park would only operate from June until September, with Haunt being completely canceled. Haunt would return in 2021 as what many called “Haunt-lite”, missing a couple of Haunts and “Haunted Homecoming” at Moulin Rouge. 2022 would finally see Haunt as we knew it, mostly, return. By 2022 it was time for Lore of the Vampire to be updated. According to Darren Keith of the Live Entertainment department:
“We completed the refresh and current look of Lore of the Vampire in 2022. That includes the large staircase in the entry, new parlor, new panels on the walls in the knight’s hall, new trim and paint throughout, library turning prop, and new drop down animatronic at the exit door.”
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| Lore of the Vampire promo shot from 2004. |
For the 2024 season, Lore of the Vampire returns. It remains one of my favorites (though Asylum Island will always and forever be the best). I will close this blog out with one final thought, Lore of the Vampire replaced another terrifying Worlds of Fun creation. One that could have been considered “long in the tooth” but also an indelible classic.It’s possible, this new generation of thrills can say the same.
