| Halloween Haunt | |
| Frequency: | Annual |
| Location: | Canada's Wonderland 43.8425°N -79.5419°W |
| Years Active: | 2005-2019, 2021- |
| First: | 2005 |
| Genre: | Halloween |
Halloween Haunt, previously known as "Fearfest", is a Halloween event at Canada's Wonderland located in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. It runs after the park's regular operating hours on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings in October until the end of October or early November – up to, and recently in the 2019 season, not including Halloween night. It is Canada's largest haunted theme park featuring over 300 monsters, nine walk-through "maze" attractions, six uniquely themed atmospheric scare areas, and three live shows. During its operation, the grounds are transformed via decorative props, thematic music, eerie lighting to further create its scary atmosphere.[1]
The haunted theme park concept was first introduced in 2005, then called Fearfest while the park was under the ownership of Paramount Parks. Fearfest at Paramount Canada's Wonderland originally operated on weekday evenings through October, with eight frightening mazes, later on in the years when Paramount sold the park new owners added the "Skeleton Key" and "Fright Lane".
Most of the park's regular rides and attractions (with the exception of Nickelodeon Central, KidZville and Hanna-Barbera Land) continued to be staffed and operated during Fearfest, including the 'Haunted' Thunder Run coaster, which was slightly thematically changed to match the park. The park grounds were divided into three separately themed scare areas – The Curse of Sleepy Hollow, MTV Rockin' Scare, and Backlot Blood Bath – each having 2–3 mazes associated with it.[2] Each maze and scare area generally has its own unique back story, sometimes linking several mazes together.
The following year, Paramount extended its regular operating season through the family-oriented Halloween event "Spooktacular" in the typically closed child-oriented areas of the park, to match Fearfest's attendance in October. In 2006 the park ran Spooktacular from October 14–29 on weekends during the day, and would reopen the park as Fearfest in the evening.
With the change in ownership of the park from Paramount to the Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, the Fearfest name was dropped and renamed Halloween Haunt, remaining consistent with similar attractions at other Cedar Fair theme parks across North America. In addition, Spooktacular was not revived for the 2007 operating season. Despite this, Canada's Wonderland still continued regular daytime park hours during the Halloween Haunt run. To replace Spooktacular, the park created Camp Spooky, to fit in with the Peanuts theming of the kids area. With an existing history of running haunted attractions since 1973 at Knott's Berry Farm's event, Knott's Scary Farm, Cedar Fair was able to incorporate four additional mazes to the roster while retiring the Legend of the Lost and Slaughter Street attractions.
In 2008, Halloween Haunt saw an extended seasonal run into November, breaking the park's own attendance records for the event. Cedar Fair also retired the MTV Rockin' Scare area, including the Total Request Dead and Ozzburnes mazes in order to introduce three new ones for the season. The "adult-oriented'" horror musical show Dead Awakening also opened during the 2008 Halloween Haunt, performing at the Wonderland Theatre.[3] There are currently seven atmospheric scare areas with free-roaming monsters in the park: Gates of Terror, Ghostly Pines, CarnEvil, Wicked Hollow, The Plague and Trick or Treat. A new scare zone, "Frontier's Revenge", is being introduced for the 2019 season.[4]
Halloween Haunt did not occur in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event returned in Fall 2021 as an outdoor only event by eliminating all Mazes.[5] The mazes returned in 2022 when most COVID-19 restrictions put in place by the province of Ontario were lifted.
| Attraction | Type | Opened | Location | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cornstalkers | Maze | 2005 | White Water Canyon | |
| Dark Ride | Maze | 2023 | Front Gate | |
| The Ruins | Maze | 2013 | Wonder Mountain | |
| Spirit Manor | Maze | 2015 | Action Theatre | |
| The Crypt | Maze | 2018 | Medieval Faire |
| Attraction | Type | Location | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gates of Terror | Scare Zone | International Street (by Front Gate) | |
| CarnEvil | Scare Zone | International Festival (by Klockwerks) | |
| Necropolis | Scare Zone | Grande World Expo (by Time Warp) | |
| Kingdom of Carnage | Scare Zone | Medieval Faire (by Castle) | |
| Trick or Treat Street | Scare Zone | Frontier Canada (by Splash Works) | |
| Wicked Hollow | Scare Zone | Action Zone (by Skyhawk) | |
| Streets of the Undead | Scare Zone | Actions Zone (by Sledge Hammer) |
| Vampire Disco | Action Zone | Kingswood Theatre | |
| Freak Show | International Festival | CarnEvil | |
| LED Drumline | Roaming | Roaming | |
| Dixieland Zombie Marching Band | Roaming | Roaming | |
| Day of the Dead Festival | Medieval Faire by Riptide | Kingdom of Carnage | |
| Skeleton Crew | Action Zone by Coasters | Streets of the Undead | |
| Inferno | Medieval Faire at Arthur's Bay | Kingdom of Carnage |