Around U.S., Halloween attractions ask guests to take part

Saturday, Oct 19, 2013 5:01 PM

Halloween Horror Nights takes place on select nights through Nov. 2 at Universal Orlando in Orlando, Fla. Theme park streets are populated by actors portraying zombies

Universal Orlando/Associated Press

A zombie grabs a flag from the belt of someone walking through the Prison of the Dead Escape at Shocktoberfest in Reading, Pa. Halloween-themed attractions are becoming more interactive, with guests no longer merely passive observers walking through a haunted house, but often engaging in a game or challenge as part of the experience.

Shocktoberfest/Associated Press

Guests navigate the “Insidious: Into the Further” maze at Universal Studios Hollywood. The Halloween attraction is based on the blockbuster film “Insidious: Chapter 2.”

Universal Studios Hollywood/Associated Press

A zombie awaits his fate from paintball-shooting visitors at Saint Lucifer’s Haunted Asylum in Flint, Mich. Instead of walking through a haunted house as a passive observer, guests are now being invited to partake in challenges and games of various sorts.

Saint Lucifer’s Haunted Asylum/Associated Press

NEW YORK – Ghost tours and haunted houses are hallmarks of the weeks leading up to Halloween. But this year, some attractions are raising their game with an interactive component.

Now, visitors aren’t just shrieking at the sight of zombies – they’re shooting them with paintball guns at Saint Lucifer’s Haunted Asylum in Flint, Mich.

They’re not just listening to ghost stories. They’re learning how to do their own paranormal investigations on ghost-hunting overnight stays at Buffalo Gap Historic Village near Abilene, Texas.

And they’re not just snaking through a haunted house on a long line, screaming as a bloody monster climbs out of a coffin. Instead, they’re paying extra to be stuck in a room where they must complete tasks and puzzle out challenges in order to escape, as in the “Trapped” attraction at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, Calif.

Busch Gardens in Tampa, Fla., just launched “The Experiment,” where visitors are asked to participate in experiences so intense that they sometimes decline.

“If you refuse three times, the experiment is terminated,” said spokesman Travis Claytor. The experiments “may or may not involve live animals or creepy crawlies,” he said. “There may or may not be something in there for germaphobes. Psychologically this is one of the most invasive experiences you’ll ever have. I was there ... on opening night and there were several people who could not make it through.”

Pat Konopelski, president of the Haunted Attraction Association, says the new intensity and increased interaction is simply the maturing of an industry that started out 25 years ago “scaring people with rubber masks and plastic knives. Every year people came back and wanted more.”

So now, he said, “not only are zombies jumping out and scaring you, but you have to turn it into a challenge, an interactive game.” Konopelski’s Shocktoberfest attraction in Reading, Pa., includes a component called “Prison of the Dead Escape” where visitors can choose to be humans or zombies in a game similar to flag football. Humans receive belts with three flags representing the human brain, heart and entrails, and zombies try to get those organs.

Konopelski also planned a haunted house tour where guests could walk through in the nude. Local officials put the kibosh on the concept, but you can still go through wearing underwear. The lack of clothes, he says, “heightens the vulnerability of the guests.”

In case you can’t manage to take a selfie while you’re scared out of your wits, the Erebus Haunted Attraction in Pontiac, Mich., is taking a page from theme parks that sell pictures of roller-coaster riders. Erebus has mounted 48 cameras in a single room where visitors typically scream their heads off, and they can now purchase 180-degree images of themselves in the throes of terror.

Here are some other Halloween-themed destinations, events and attractions around the country.

New Orleans

New Orleans’ annual Voodoo Music Experience festival often coincides with Halloween but this year takes place immediately after, Nov. 1-3, in City Park. Coming from a range of musical genres, headliners include Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Afrojack, Nine Inch Nails, The Cure and Kid Rock.

Other Halloween events in the Big Easy include a Vampire Ball thrown by the official Anne Rice Vampire Lestat Fan Club. A link from the author’s home page states that she will be attending the ball this year.

A brand-new Halloween parade in the French Quarter, Krewe of Boo, kicks off Saturday, and will be followed by a Spook Fest party for costumed attendees inside the Mardi Gras World attraction.

Pumpkins

Where do leftover pumpkins go to die? They are hurled across the fields of Delaware by man and machine at The Chunk, also known as the World Championship Punkin Chunkin, this year Nov. 1-3, in Bridgeville.

At Coney Island in Brooklyn, N.Y., Luna Park hosts Halloween Harvest weekends in October and on Columbus Day. Guess the weight of a giant pumpkin to win $1,000. The pumpkin will be carved into a masterpiece Saturday by Food Network’s Marc Maniac, and the public can carve pumpkins in a contest that day too.

Theme parks

In Florida, the streets of Universal Orlando are being taken over by zombies inspired by AMC’s popular show, “The Walking Dead,” for Halloween Horror Nights, held select evenings through Nov. 2. One of the park’s eight haunted houses also is themed on the show. Other haunted houses take inspiration from horror video game series Resident Evil and horror films “Evil Dead,” “The Cabin in the Woods” and “An American Werewolf in London.”

In California, Universal Hollywood debuted a new maze this season inspired by the heavy metal band Black Sabbath’s “13” album. The park also offers a “scare zone” populated by actors dressed as the nasty Chucky doll from the direct-to-DVD sequel “Curse of Chucky,” and a maze incorporating elements from the “Insidious” films.

Details at Cedar Point’s HalloWeekends in Sandusky, Ohio, include scare zones with themes such as Blood on the Bayou, Carnevil, Cornstalkers and Fear Faire. Busch Gardens, in addition to “The Experiment,” has its annual Howl-O-Scream attractions, including a haunted house called Death Water Bayou that was created with input from fans on Facebook.

For the younger crowd, Disney offers Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in Florida, and Mickey’s Halloween Party at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif.

Ghost tours

Unlike the in-your-face scare zones and trapped-in-a-room experiences popping up at theme parks, ghost tours – whether in inns, historic sites or neighborhoods – tend to be more fun than fright. Expect a good ghost story and readings of alleged paranormal activity on hand-held meters.

A list of 30 B&Bs and inns with ghost-themed stays can be found at www.betterwaytostay.com/thirty-great-places-sleep-ghost. Or take a look at haunted hotel packages offered by Historic Hotels of America: www.historichotels.org/hotel-deals/featured-packages.php.