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

Halloween Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration geography of Halloween, observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christianity, Western Christian f ...

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, Taft Broadcasting Company and the Gr ...

located in

Vaughan Vaughan ( ) (2022 population 344,412) 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 increa ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. 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 a subsidiary of National Amusements-owned Viacom, headquartered at its Paramount's Carowinds amusement park in Charlotte, North Carolina. At the time of its acquisition, the company owned and operated five amusement park/ wat ...

. 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 MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

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 Entertainment Company, or simply Cedar Fair, was an American company headquartered at its flagship Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio, United States. The company was a publicly traded master limited partnership that origina ...

, 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'' (briefly subtitled ''featuring Good ol' Charlie Brown'') is a print syndication, syndicated daily strip, daily and Sunday strip, Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. The strip's original run ext ...

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 amusement park in Buena Park, California, United States, owned and operated by Six Flags. In March 2015, it was ranked as the List of amusement park rankings#North America, twelfth-most-visited theme park in North Ameri ...

'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, terri ...

, 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 and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. 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

* Illusionist – Show (''retired 2022)'' * The Farmstead – Scarezone (''retired 2022)'' * Ghostly Pines – Scarezone (''retired 2022)'' * Pandemonium – Maze (''retired 2022)'' * Sink the Jerk – Show (''retired 2021)'' * 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/ Nickelodeon Central Area (''retired 2007'')

References

External links

Canada's Wonderland official site

Halloween Haunt official site

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