Part I of the three-part History of Haunt blog looked at the initial development of Boo! Blast and Halloweekends at WOF, but at this point in 2002, the event was more geared towards younger children than teenagers or adults. Many fans hoped for something bigger and better.
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The old Beat Street Sign was modified to Freak Street.
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| The structure for Carnival of Carnivorous Clowns was built in 1982 for River City. Today half of it still stands as part of Patriot Landing gift shop. |
It all started innocuously; Worlds of Fun introduced its first full-fledged haunted house intended for mature audiences in 2003. The first haunted house was known as Carnival of Carnivorous Clowns and located on what the park titled "Freak Street." it was exceptionally well thought out and featured both real human clowns and dummy clowns, which one could not tell the difference until too late. As would be the case for the next few years, though, Carnival of Carnivorous Clowns would use abandoned or underused buildings. Freak Street was just the old Beat Street, and Carnival of Carnivorous Clowns was just an old strip of gift shops turned into a haunted house. Sometimes ingenuity beats boatloads of money, which was the case in 2003. Carnival was an immediate hit. So was the other, more family-oriented haunted house, Magical House on Boo Hill in Camp Spooky. Like Clowns, Boo Hill would be re-using a derelict building, in this case, that had been most recently the park's Ambam (employee break area), built initially as Lucky Lyndy's Lunch Counter. In addition to the two new houses, the old favorites were back too: Diggers Used Coffin Lot, Spooktacular, and Trick-or-Treat Town. The event in 2003 would run from September 20 until October 26, six weeks as had become the standard.
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| Magical House on Boo Hill |
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One of the interior rooms of Boo Hill.
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| Upside down living room |
If 2003 was more of a "Let's try this and see if it works," then 2004 was the first step towards the empire that Haunt is today. 2004 saw the first printed park map specifically for Halloweekends (remember it was still Halloweekends at this point), and would see THREE new haunted attractions added in addition to Carnival of Carnivorous Clowns, including Lore of the Vampire, Camp Gonnagitcha Witchhatchet and Fright Zone. 2004 also introduced one of the park's longest-running shows, Haunted Homecoming at Moulin Rouge, a haunted spin-off of the popular Stax of Wax. The final addition to the Halloweekends 2004 season was Fright Night Fright Nights, which covered the five Fridays in October (with the event kicking off on Saturday, September 25). When the Fright Night Fright Nights debuted, the park was a literal ghost town, even quieter than Thursdays are today.
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| Today this show is on its 18th season, back when this poster hung it was on season numero uno. |
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| Promo photo for Haunted Homecoming |
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| Promo photo for Camp Gonnagitcha Witchahatchet. Notice the very early cymbal monkey on the left. |
2004 saw a few more minor details important to Halloweekends history, too. Makeup and Costuming for all three original haunts were applied and donned in the "Creature Crypt," otherwise known as the basement of All Stars Grill (Formerly the Indoor Ambam). Changes to makeup and costuming would occur in 2008 when it would all be centralized, but from 2004 until 2007, all makeup and costuming was individualized to each individual haunt. As mentioned, Camp, Lore, and Fright Zone would all share the Creature Crypt, but each other particular haunt until 2007 would have its makeup and costuming completed on location. With individualized sites, it gave each haunt "back room" more of a "home" like atmosphere and, in many cases, took on a festival atmosphere itself; with Halloween movies being shown and food brought in potluck style, it became nearly a party within a party,
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| Promo photo for Fright Zone which ran from the Scandi/Africa trestle to Moroccan Merchant. |
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| Entrance to Lore of the Vampire (which was the exit for the Orient Express) |
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Promo photo for Lore of the Vampire.
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Another tradition that started with Camp, Lore, and Fright Zone is the tradition of the park's "parade." Though many may point to the more modern version, which kicked off in 2008, it could be argued that the parade's predecessor could be traced to 2004. Once prepared, the Camp and Fright Zone screamsters grabbed an old rope and were lead, chain-gang style, down to Camp Gonnagitcha and Fright Zone. The vampires, which always opened earlier (4 pm) and also opened on Sundays, would "parade" thematically correctly, carrying umbrellas to shield their pale skin from the midday sun.
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| Winifred's Wise Whimsies in 2003 |
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| Scandinavian Halloween character from 2008 |
2004 had some changes in store for the family side of Halloweekends too. It would be the last season that the term "Boo! Blast" would be used to describe any Halloween event at Worlds of Fun. It also saw a relatively minor change to the title of the Witch's storytelling in Scandinavia; no longer known as Winifred's Wise Whimsies, it became known as Hexaba's Hogwash.
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| Spooktacular in 2004 |
From the auspicious beginnings of 2004, the 2005 and 2006 seasons would continue in much the same way. 2005 introduced two new attractions: Dominion of Doom on Forum Road/Heart of America Blvd and John Bundy's Slash. Dominion of Doom offered a simple haunted graveyard experience populated by the living dead. Personal recollection: I was a screamster in the first year of Dominion of Doom. I can attest to the struggles with making this haunt a success as, unlike the other attractions, Dominion suffered from the straight out and back roadway between Mamba and Detonator. It also had a high proportion of female screamsters, giving the haunt its moniker "dominion of dames," unlike Camp or Lore, its makeup and costuming were located in the tight confines of the Country Junction cabooses. 2005 also saw the addition of another John Bundy show, this one created for more mature audiences Slash. While Spooktacular would continue to run during the daytime, both shows would be housed in the Tivoli Music Hall. Slash would only run for two seasons and would be discontinued after the 2006 season.
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| Asylum Island signage near Monsoon. |
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| Exterior of Asylum Island |
While 2004 and 2005 saw significant growth for the overall event, no longer was Halloweekends an afterthought tacked on to the end of the season, it was still nothing like the madness it is today. We have one attraction to thank for that, which came in 2006. Asylum Island.
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| First season screamsters for Asylum in 2006 |
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| "security" signage for Asylum Island |
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| More Asylum signage |
Halloweekends and Haunt have always been successful due to the sheer creative talent behind it, whether that be Brent Barr, John Bundy, or one of the many others involved in the early years. Asylum took that perfect creative 10 and knocked it up to an 11. Not a single haunt before or after has captured its terrors, its length, or its sheer depravity. Located at Oceans of Fun in the Coco Palms Picnic Pavilion, Asylum Island took guests through a Mental Asylum overrun by the insane. You had your Doctors and Nurses, lobotomy patients, bathroom attendants, and yard keepers. The impact it had was immediate. Before 2006, lines for most haunts were 30, maybe 45 minutes long. After Asylum, lines were multiple hours long. Personal recollection: I remember a supervisor coming through Asylum in 2006 and letting us screamsters know people were waiting 3 hours… my mind was blown. 2006 also saw the addition of a small show that only lasted two seasons but that many still remember vividly, Jack's Rip Roarin' Improv at Country Junction.
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| Slash from 2006 |
After the 2006 Halloweekends, at least every year for the next few seasons, would add something that would move Halloweekends closer and closer to the modern version we know today.
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| Bloodshed, or Old McDonald's Slaughterhouse |
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| Bloodshed was the first structure built specifically to be a haunt. |
In 2007, the park added its first Haunt, designed in a building built specifically for it, Bloodshed or Old McDonald's Slaughterhouse. It would also be the last new Haunt to open with its own Makeup and Costume area, the A/V booth for the Forum/Heart of America Theater. Another new haunt premiered in 2007, CarnEvil. CarnEvil replaced the defunct Carnival of Carnivorous Clowns, which had been discontinued and departed its structure in 2005 due to the arrival of Patriot. The Clowns would take up residence in Bicentennial Square as part of CarnEvil, which would last in that area until 2015. Another unique aspect of the 2007 Halloween season was the event operating schedule change. For the first and only time, the park elected to stay open the entire week of Halloween, from Thursday, October 25 until Wednesday, October 31, and every day in between. It is a personal belief that this odd schedule change necessitated the name change from Hallo WEEKENDS to what we know today, Halloween Haunt.
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Master McCarthy's Dollhouse exterior (prior and current Zambezi Zinger queue house)
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| Re-used Carnival of Carnivorous Clowns signage for Carnevil |
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| Carnevil Entrance |
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| The first Haunt parade in 2008. Notice how light the crowds were! |
2008 saw the introduction of another new haunt, with its structure built adjacent to the old Zambezi Zinger queue house, Master McCarthy's Dollhouse. The park's third fright zone, Outlaw's Revenge, would debut in 2008, too, with its first-ever cowboy sliders (screamsters that would startle by falling and then skidding along the asphalt). With the addition of the two new haunts and the existing seven, the park would advertise nine extreme haunts! The most significant change, at least for historical purposes, in 2008 was a modification in logistics, which set in place an iconic, not-to-be-missed aspect of Haunt today—the parade. Before 2008, as mentioned, all makeup and costuming were done at each Haunt; for 2008, all the costuming and makeup were centralized near the park costuming building. This change necessitated the movement of screamsters from the centralized location to their individual haunts. Personal recollection: having participated in the 2008 parade, I can attest to the lack of coordination, which was awesome. The parade had no cars, no motorcycles, no Overlord, no signs, just groups of screamsters, vaguely organized by their haunt that ran wild through the park. Good times.
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First season Outlaws from 2008
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Outlaw's Revenge included dummy cowboy's to disguise the real ones..
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| Original entrance to Outlaw's Revenge scare zone in 2008. |
By 2009, the event had the name it has today; Haunt also had a parade, but what was missing that is identified as integral to Haunt? The Overlord's Awakening would debut in 2009. With the advent of The Overlord, one of Worlds of Fun's longest-operating Haunts would change forever. Lore of the Vampire, which had always opened earlier on Saturday (around 4 pm) and Sunday as well, would be modified to operate the same hours as all the other haunts. In addition to changing hours, Lore of the Vampire was updated with a new bar and dance area known as Club Blood. It never worked well and would only last a few seasons until 2014.
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| Overlord's Awakening in 2009, the only year Overlord had pyrotechnics. |
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| Club Blood in Lore of the Vampire |
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| Graphite inside the Lore of the Vampire/Orient Express tunnel leading into Club Blood. |
Until 2009, the family side of Halloweekends had remained relatively unchanged, but in 2009 many of the activities took on a decided "pirate" theme, No longer known as Boo! Blast, most of the family-oriented, scare-free attractions, were still in Scandinavia centered around the Tivoli and its newly re-named and re-themed Skullduggery (a variation of the magic show Spooktacular), another wonderful creation of John Bundy and one of his last at Worlds of Fun.
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| "Pieces of 8, from Skullduggery" |
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| Skullduggery |
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| Pirate dance characters in Scandinavia in 2009. |
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| More midway characters in 2009. |
The park added Captain Jack's Street Dance Party (a variation on the old roaming spooky characters), Snoopy's Big Treasure Hunt, and Captain Kitty's Costume Contest. Buccaneer's Hideaway replaced the old Trick-or-Treat Town in Scandinavia, and a new Peanut's sing-a-long show, Charlie Brown's Pirate Adventure, was added to Campground Theater in Camp Spooky. These themed additions would last through the 2011 season.
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| Campground Theater in 2007 |
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| Treasure Hunt map in 2010-2011. |
2010 through 2012 would see the end to several older Halloweekends/Boo! Blast favorites. The first to go was Camp Gonnagitcha, which had been moved to the Fury of the Nile queue line in 2008. It never worked quite as well in its new location and would be replaced by a popular favorite, Cornstalkers, in 2010. Another significant change in 2010 was another schedule tweak, which expanded Haunt to the current seven weekends that it occupies even today.
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| Cornstalkers entrance during the daytime |
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| And at nighttime. |
2011 again saw the retirement of several old favorites, with Dominion of Doom being replaced by the new London Terror. London Terror featured a London at night, populated by freakish characters like Dr. Jekyl/Mr. Hyde and Jack the Ripper with a more modern "steampunk" take. Ripper Alley today is its thematic successor. 2011 also saw the retirement of the classic street shows of Digger's used Coffin Lot and Witch Doctor's Revenge and the introduction of another one-season-only show at Country Junction, Half Pint Brawlers, which featured the tagline "Who wants to see a midget bleed?"
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| Half Pint Brawlers at Country Junction |
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| Alice in Wonderland kids attractions in Europa in 2014 |
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| Witch Doctor's Revenge from 2003 would be discontinued after the 2011 season. |
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Parking the grass lot in 2011, a sign of growing crowds.
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By the following season, nearly all traces of the original Boo! Blast had vanished. The final nail in the Boo! Blast Coffin, though, would be in 2012, when after nearly 20 seasons, John Bundy's illusionist magic show, Captain Cook's Pandemonium (Spooktacular in 2012), would vanish in the night. A popular and beloved show, it is still well missed. Many of Scandinavia's cute and quaint, scare-free attractions would disappear and re-appear in Europa under new themes, this time with an Alice in Wonderland theme. But unlike the Malice in Wonderland, it wasn't scary at all. The attractions included Mad Hatter's Scary Tales, a Kooky Caterpillar's Costume Contest, Mask and pumpkin decoration, and more.
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| Spooktacular 2007 |
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| Spooktacular 2007 |
New scares were afoot, as were even more changes. In 2012, Zombie High premiered next to Prowler and is still scaring strong today. Blood Drums would premier at Country Junction but would only last one season. One addition that has survived to today is the addition of Fright Lane, giving guests the ability to pay to skip the line. In 2012, nearly a decade had passed since the introduction of the first haunted house at Worlds of Fun, and everything had changed. The slow winding down fall season had given way to the busiest time of the Worlds of Fun season, and it would only continue to grow… And change.
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| Blood Drums at Country Junction in 2012 |
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| Zombie High new in 2012 |
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| Zombie High would be the third Worlds of Fun attraction to utilize the fictional highs school of Cleaver High and the Fighting Beavers. (which originated with Stax of Wax in 1985) |
