Halloween23: Fear Tiers – Halloween Haunt at Kings Island (2025)

Haunted House rankings and reviews by Professional Haunters!

Overall Event Fear Tier: B Tier (Certified “Top Haunted Event”)

A Breakdown of the Houses at this event

NEW FOR 2025! Order of the Dragon: Overall Ranking – 9/10

This was a very solid haunt, and a big step in the right direction for the event – inside the house was very HHN, and they immediately tried to get you disoriented, sending you through the same rooms twice, people swinging from the ceiling, jump scares where and when you’d least expect them for once, very good costume design (featuring original looking humanoid bat creatures) and a lengthy, tight corridor, with little to no light, only where it’s needed most, throughout the attraction.

The reason it received a 9/10 in our Fear Tier rankings is because of the weird… pre-show? Not a pre-show, but there’s this weird winding path that goes from the queue line to where they stop you right before entering the house, to tell you not to touch the actors, etc. etc. But it’s just a winding dirt path with literal garbage statues at the corners, and an actor in a denim jacket and a hooded mask running around like a child trying to “scare” people, if you could even call it that. Now, again, this is coming from a 10+ year veteran of haunted attractions, who spent 7 of those years in an outdoor scare zone at King’s Island’s sister park Cedar Point. That was not the way to handle that assignment – I would’ve been hiding behind the garbage pillars, the giant fence, or trying a statue/prop scare. Anyway, in its inaugural season, it’s definitely already a top attraction at the park.

Alien Abyss: Overall Ranking – 4.5/10

This tanked bad over the years – during its inaugural run, in 2023 (I believe), we gave it a “Haunt of the Year” award. This year, they were stuffing people like sardines through; there were half as many actors, and because of the stuffing, you stopped every few feet and were “forced to face terror” (actors) staring at you post-scare, in an effort to pull a perfect “scare then disappear,” unable to leave their scenes because their door was also blocked by the large crowds.

this still has one of the best and most original themes, tying it into the park’s “Area 72” section, which, thanks to the original anchor piece, “Flight of Fear”, has been themed as a secret government Alien/UFO research base – so it was badass when they built a new haunt building that looks just like the others on this “research compound,” and put up a sign with the acronym D.A.R.C. (Department of Alien Research Compound). It was an amazing haunt at first go-through, with a new and original take on what aliens may look like, a dark winding path through a government building and science/research center, and a grand finale straight out of a Terrifier movie. I didn’t love some of the little details they added, but other than that, perhaps it’s just mismanaged this season.

Kill Mart: Overall Ranking – 10/10

So, I’d definitely place this in the top three at King’s Island, I don’t know about the best at the park, BUT, It did get a solid 10/10 rating. Chaos was falling from the shelves, the trees were alive, there’s zombies in the men’s department, and the pets have mutated, all while Mr. Lucky (previously known as “At the Mall” ) was blasting throughout the store. It was simple, original, and wonderful.

Hotel St. MicHelle: Overall Ranking – 4.5/10

This Haunt was put together well, but….it just wasn’t much. A lot of interesting scenes, crazy animatronics, real props (like actual pianos being played/hit etc.), but it was just walking through a hotel with people poking out at you, if there were even people in that scene. I must say, the scenes were very well put together and detailed (as hinted at earlier), and they didn’t shove too many people through which was amazing. but yea, not much to report back.

Slaughterhouse: Overall Ranking – 8/10

This has been a banger every year I’ve gone – they did take one specific part out that I thought was pretty gnarly (so, should’ve stayed), but it’s done very well. from the sets pushing you through the slotted wood halls like an animal being led to slaughter, to the ripping of human extremities from their torsos live in front of you, this house gives you everything you’d want – It received an 8/10 because, as brutal and gory (fun?) as it was, this wasn’t really set to be one of the ‘Scariest” out there, but it did definitely give you a fear factor Haunt goers will enjoy, and I may put this towards the top of Amusement park Slaughterhouses (because every park has one it seems like) out there.

Cornered: Overall Ranking – 5/10

“He likes the fan on when he sleeps” (iyk,yk) – Anyway, This had some good jump scares from people in the ghillie suits, but the theming was kinda all over – I could be the one confused, but I swear there was a hall with portholes (?)….under water?,,,no idea about that one, and there was a few turns/rooms with just no one in them for awhile, which kinda brought you out of the experience for awhile. definitely 10/10 ending with the lawnmower going full tilt on the guys face…. on the wall…yea it was still a cool scene even though the placement was odd (he’s just sleepy).

It was a basic good ole’ pop scare walk through with not much music or anything going on, and it wasn’t too long wither. perfect middle of the road Haunt.

The Conjuring: Beyond fear: Overall Ranking – 9.5/10

This was an amazing new Breed of Haunted Attraction. They managed to mix parts of a Haunted house (walking through halls with jumpscares etc.), an interactive escape room, and a theatrical performance all in one. it’s not that lame escape room stuff where you have an hour to get out of a singular room either – It’s a full haunted house, but you have characters helping you find your way through the entire thing (there’s no clear way in or out of each room), and you have to interact with each scene to get through it, and each one has it’s own scares, all relating to the story of the conjuring universe, with the famous Annabelle Doll appearing with your group, seemingly out of thin air and in a guests hands at random times (I have no idea how they got it – it was not given to them knowingly in any scene).

I gave this a 9.5/10, because it’s an amazing new attraction category, but, obviously with being the first of it’s kind, there were some bumps in the road – The actors that were giving you direction to get through each scene were trying to talk to you with one of those personal hip speaker things, over all the scenery music etc., and like half of them you could barley hear or understand, and there was odd little endings, where like, certain people had to pick up certain things in each room in order to “Escape”, but then at the end it wasn’t used for anyhting, and in scene, asked to put it on a shelf to try to end the curse….kinda a scene buster there – I literally would’ve understood having to return them to a bin outside the Haunt more (because they need them back, but you need the keys to “Escape”) rather than writing in an ending where we gotta make the shelves look nice with all our keys and trinkets at the end. Guess it’s good writing though that they were able to add an item return method into the act.