Halloween Haunt, previously known as "Fearfest", is a Halloween event at

Canada's Wonderland Canada's Wonderland, formerly known as Paramount Canada's Wonderland, is a amusement park located in Vaughan, Ontario, a municipality within the Greater Toronto Area. Opened in 1981 by the Taft Broadcasting Company and the Great-West Life As ...

located in

Vaughan Vaughan () (2021 population 323,103) is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located in the Regional Municipality of York, just north of Toronto. Vaughan was the fastest-growing municipality in Canada between 1996 and 2006 with its population increas ...

, 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.

History

The haunted theme park concept was first introduced in 2005, then called Fearfest while the park was under the ownership of

Paramount Parks Paramount Parks was the operator of Paramount's Kings Island, Paramount's Kings Dominion, Paramount's Great America, Paramount's Carowinds, and Paramount Canada's Wonderland, which annually attracted about 13 million patrons. National Amuseme ...

. 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 Since the 1990s, ''Nickelodeon'', a worldwide children's television network and franchise, owned by Paramount Global, has had an involvement in the creation and theming of amusement parks rides. Several amusement parks have featured themed are ...

, 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. 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 Cedar Fair, L.P., formally Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, is a publicly traded master limited partnership headquartered at its Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. The company owns and operates eleven amusement parks, nine include ...

, 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 ''Peanuts'' is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. The strip's original run extended from 1950 to 2000, continuing in reruns afterward. ''Peanuts'' is among the most popular and infl ...

theming of the kids area. With an existing history of running haunted attractions since 1973 at

Knott's Berry Farm Knott's Berry Farm is a theme park located in Buena Park, California, owned and operated by Cedar Fair. In 2015, it was the twelfth-most-visited theme park in North America and averages approximately 4 million visitors per year. It features 40 ...

's event,

Knott's Scary Farm Knott's Scary Farm or Knott's Halloween Haunt is a seasonal Halloween event at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California. It is an event in which the theme park is transformed into "160 acres of horror", via a series of roaming monsters, terr ...

, 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. 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. Halloween Haunt did not occur in 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. The event returned in Fall 2021 as an outdoor only event by eliminating all Mazes. The mazes returned in 2022 when most COVID-19 restrictions put in place by the province of Ontario were lifted.

Current attractions

Mazes

Scare Zones

Shows

Retired attractions

* Forest of Fear – Scarezone (''retired 2021)'' * Frontier's Revenge – Scarezone (''retired 2021)'' * SCI-FI House-Maze (retired 2019) * Blackout-Maze (retired 2019) * Toxic Party Zone – Show (retired 2019) * Radioactive: LED Dance Show – Show (retired 2019) * The Gallows – Show (retired 2019) * Bloodshed – Maze (retired 2019) * Forest of Fear – Maze (retired 2019) * Code Red – Maze (retired 2019) * Sinner's Lounge – Show (retired 2018) * Bloody Buccaneers – Scarezone (''retired 2018)'' * Club Blood – Maze (''retired 2018'') * Mysterion The Mind Reader – Show (''retired 2018'') * Cryohazard – Scarezone (''retired 2017'') * Louisiana Scream – Maze (''retired 2017'') * Streets of The Undead – Maze (''retired 2017'') * Toxicity – Show (''retired 2016'') * The Asylum – Maze (''retired 2016'') * Terror of London – Maze (''retired 2016'') * Clowns at Midnight – Maze (''retired 2015'') * Steampunk – Scarezone (''retired 2015'') * Mother Noose – Maze (''retired 2014'') * Blood on the Bayou – Maze (''retired 2013'') * Iron Empire – Maze (''retired 2013'') * Kingdom of Carnage – Maze (''retired 2013'') - Converted to Scare Zone 2021 * Red Beard's Rage – Maze (''retired 2013'') * Blood Drums – Show (''retired 2013'') * Haunted House 3D – Action Theatre Show (''retired 2013'') * Miner's Revenge – Maze (''retired 2012'') * Beyond The Grave – Show (''retired 2012'') * The Hanging – Show (''retired 2012'') * Fun House Express – Action Theatre Show (''retired 2012'') * Elvira's Superstition – Action Theatre Show (''retired 2012'') * Psycho Circus – Show (''retired 2011'') * Fangs – Show (''retired 2010'') * A Midsummer Nights Scream- Maze (''retired 2010'') * Dead Awakening – Show (''retired 2009'') * Massacre Manor – Maze (''retired 2009'') * Slaughter Mill – Maze (''retired 2009'') * Total Request DEAD – MTV Rockin' Scare Maze (''retired 2008'') * The Ozzburnes – MTV Rockin' Scare Maze (''retired 2008'') * Legend of the Lost: The Director's Cut – Backlot Blood Bath Maze (''retired 2007'') * Slaughter Street Fear Zone – Backlot Blood Bath Maze (''retired 2007'') * Spooktacular – KidZville/

Area (''retired 2007'')

References

External Sources

Canada's Wonderland official site

Halloween Haunt official site

Halloween Haunt Map; 2007
{{Halloween events Halloween events Canada's Wonderland