Conjuring guests into HalloWeekends

Editor's note: Justin Dietz is a Register correspondent representing Fun Food Blog at cpfoodblog.com and @funfoodblog on X. SANDUSKY — The 2025 Cedar Point HalloWeekends event has started, and there is a lot to be scared about for fans of the haunted season. The mystery is whether the Six Flags pay-to-play for haunted mazes will pay off in the end. Guests were surprised in August when the park announced the mazes, which were previously included in the price of admission, were now going to be an upcharge attraction. Recapping The Conjuring We visited the park on Saturday, during the opening for HalloWeekends, armed with a season pass haunted attractions express pass to see how the new process worked. We bought the add-ons when they first went on sale for $69 and included the fast lane for the mazes plus a single nightly access to The Conjuring: Beyond Fear experience. Now the price has been raised to $99, and it does not include fast lane to the mazes and no longer includes The Conjuring. Due to the popularity of the new The Conjuring: Beyond Fear experience, we lined up at 4:30 p.m., knowing the attraction opened at 6 p.m. Even that early, we were about 40 people back in line. When the house opened, they let groups of about 10 people in at a time approximately every 10 minutes. With a theoretical capacity of only about 60 people per hour, we knew it was imperative to get in line early to give us enough time the rest of the night to enjoy the event. We entered the house at 6:29 p.m. and exited at 6:48 p.m. The house was advertised as a 20-minute experience, which tracked. The story starts out in a room, telling you about Ed and Lorraine Warren's collection of haunted objects as seen in the first "The Conjuring" movie. But things quickly go wrong as the spirits awaken. The story then progresses through a series of rooms as your guide takes you through the interactive experience, and guests uncover the various Conjuring Universe characters. Overall experience Without getting into spoilers, The Conjuring: Beyond Fear experience takes you deep into the horror movie franchise with a variety of effects that elevate the haunt experience like nothing guests have ever seen at Cedar Point. While guests may hiccup at the idea of having to pay extra for The Conjuring, it is absolutely worth the cost. This single haunted house takes the HalloWeekends experience to another level and is something that guests would expect to see somewhere else, like Universal's Horror Nights. There is no doubt that when guests think of Cedar Point, they know it as the world's leader in the roller coaster industry. If The Conjuring: Beyond Fear gives any indication of where HalloWeekends is headed as a premium haunt experience, the future looks bright. The rest of the story Saturdays of HalloWeekends are always historically the busiest days of the year, and this past weekend was no different. Crowds were plentiful, however, we did the Bloodbath, Slaughterhouse and Fearground Freakshow mazes, and the regular line for each had only 10 to 20 people in them with no waits with our express pass. When we transitioned over to the Blood on the Bayou outdoor scare zone, which is not an upcharge attraction, there was a continuous stream of guests going through the experience. This year, Blood on the Bayou is staged as an 1980s summer camp with some mysterious things going wrong. We loved the new theme and shorter route that only goes around the river raft lake. Lastly, we did Cornstalkers 2.0. This is the only outdoor attraction that is an upcharge and included with the haunted attractions express pass. Despite the other upcharge mazes we visited that had no lines, this queue had a substantial number of guests in it, including the express lane, and it was the only maze we had to wait a little while to enter. While the theme of Cornstalkers is always good, this maze really needs a major story-driven revamp. Besides walking through corn stalks and some occasional actors popping out for a jump scare, there really is not much of a story to transition throughout the maze. So where are the guests at for HalloWeekends? The popularity of The Conjuring: Beyond Fear house proves guests are willing to pay a premium to bring in Hollywood-level intellectual properties for HalloWeekends. But guests seem to be voting with their wallets that they are not willing to pay extra for haunted mazes that have not changed in years and were included in previous events. Granted: Septembers for HalloWeekends are generally lower crowds than October. It will be interesting to see how the lines progress through the end of the season and if the crowds are willing to pay up when they already paid for admission.