The Haunted House of Canada 
By: Giuseppe Belfiore

   With just a few sleepless nights away from Halloween and people picking their costumes out, Canada's Wonderland's Halloween Haunt is open for the 19th consecutive year. The park originally brought this exciting new addition in 2005 and never looked back. It was an instant success, getting better and better each year; however, is the popularity and atmosphere the same this year as we have seen in previous years? 

    I went to see if the place reached the expectations that I had from when I went in the previous years, and all I have to say is, it was much better than expected. The first thing that you notice upon entering the park is the halloween decorations all over the entrance in front of the mountain, with everything from a multitude of pumpkins to gigantic skeletons and flashing lights all over the place. There, you are also greeted by a plethora of jumpscares from many different characters, such as killer clowns, witch-like creatures, and other supernatural beings.

    If jumpscares are not your thing, do not worry, you can purchase one of the “ boo necklace” from the many vendors found in the park, though they are expensive at $16 a piece.  The main attractions, the mazes, are found all over the park and are definitely worth checking out. I visited them all but will give you highlights from three of them to give you a sense of what to expect and not ruin all the fun.

    The first one that I visited was the Crypt. It was definitely good with the nice decor of ancient statues and skulls; however, I felt that the costumes lacked creativity and all of them seemed to be the same look, gray mummy-like tattered clothing.  With that in mind, I give it three and a half stars, with a good concept but could have been executed much better. The second one that I visited was The Spirit Manor.  It was nice and had the decor of an old, rotting house and pretty creative costumes.What stood out was the characters of young haunting children with screeching voices. However, I felt that the maze was too rushed, and the jumpscares were particularly unimpressive and could have been better. With all that in account, I will give this two and a half stars, good but could have been much better. The final one that I want to bring up is the newly added Demons of the Deep. I really liked this maze, it was very unique; it had good costume designs, original decor, and even a scene at the start where we see the backstory of the maze. This one was by far my favourite out of all of the mazes and didn’t really have any major flaws, unlike the other ones that I rated. I easily rate this maze a five out of five, and it is probably my favourite thing at halloween haunt.