Wow.

So where to start?  Perhaps one of the most eagerly-anticipated of Haunt mazes, and one of the biggest disappointments in a long time at Knott's Scary Farm.  In short, Lost Vegas was a "funny maze", which simply doesn't work with most guests and definitely doesn't work with hard core Halloween Haunt fans.

But why was it so anticipated?  Perhaps it was because everyone loves Las Vegas - Haunt monsters go there whenever they can, Vegas is the epitome of "wild sin" and mobster lore, and hell - even Theme Park Adventure was based out of Vegas for several years.  The palette is rich and the maze could have been dark, sexy and really rich in detail.

Instead, we got a neon "funny maze" that was filled with mostly forgettable characters and lackluster sets.  That was the fate of Lost Vegas when it made its debut a few years ago.  And it never got much better.  In fact - not that it really pertains to this year's review - we feel that Lost Vegas was its strongest in the first week or so when it first opened at Knott's Scary Farm.  We liked the male poke dancers - and... yeah.  Then they were gone and the only genuine belly laugh in Lost Vegas was gone with them.

For the most part, Lost Vegas was a bland, "funny maze" that most will forget about very soon.  Regardless of how fired-up some of the talent was in 2008, the maze just never recovered and fell victim to the same fate as other mazes that had a lot of people excited about them and that fell flat over the years - Bigfoot's Revenge, Spider Woods, Gothic Graveyard and Red Beard's Revenge.

That's not to say that there weren't any good things found in Lost Vegas.  The soundtrack was good.  Not great, but it was good.  Walking through, listening to "Viva, Las Vegas" was always fun.  And on a personal note, a sound clip of Theme Park Adventure's Rick West was mixed in to the soundtrack and would play in the loop maybe every 20 minutes or so; something like, "It's Rick West, calling from fabulous Las Vegas!"  That was from a voicemail that Rick left for one of the sound designers at Knott's years ago.  Funny stuff, kids!

The design of the maze was mostly dependant on the use of 3-D glasses.  That resulted in fewer detailed sets and more bright colors/simple set decoration.  And that, in our opinion, is not the direction Halloween Haunt needs to be going.  Not with mazes such as 13 Axe Murder Manor, Slaughterhouse and Asylum that rely on surroundings just as much as talent to play into the fear of the guests.  More detailed mazes and fewer 3-D flat sets; that is what we would like to see at the Scary Farm.  The bottom line is, not everyone shells out the money for the glasses, nor do some people want to wear the glasses in these mazes.  The result is a blah experience in a maze that is suddenly much less detailed than most of the other attractions at Halloween Haunt.  We've said it before and we'll say it again and again - 3-D mazes are so '90s; haunted attraction audiences want big, detailed over-the-top mazes now.  Give us rich experiences where we believe we're in an asylum, vampire-filled underworld or mystical labyrinth.  That is what haunt fans want from these events.  The whole 3-D gimmick is old news.  Wow us.  Impress us.

We do need to give props to the talent in Lost Vegas that did do their best every night to scare and work the crowds.  While Lost Vegas didn't really produce any "Haunt icon" monsters, a fan and crowd favorite that we cannot help but single out is a guy that most everyone knows as "Jeremy".  Dressed as one of the cocktail girls - switching between a female voice and a loud, husky male voice not only threw people off - it was friggin' hilarious and totally unique; a personal spin that Jeremy put on an otherwise wallflower of a character and stood out from the rest.  That is the essence of what Haunt is all about to us - the unexpected gems that can be found anywhere on the Scary Farm.

Again, it all stems from people being people.  Not budget.  Not corporate prodding or talent "guidelines" of how their character should be.  Jeremy was just being himself and it was brilliant.  That to us, is the beauty of Halloween Haunt.  Unique, funny, scary, artistic and creative people.

Some of the props in Lost Vegas were decent; we did like the evil slot machines and the demonic "ice sculpture" in the buffet room.  That is some good, old-fashioned Scary Farm know-how, there.  We love that.  In-house props and elements win over store-bought or off-the-shelf gags or creatures every time and we implore Knott's to keep it going.  The talent of the men and women that create props for these mazes is fantastic and should be used to the fullest extent and in every case possible.

Some people will disagree because they do like "funny mazes" such as Lost Vegas.  Theme Park Adventure just simply prefers spooky, dark mazes when it comes to any haunted attraction.

We won't miss Lost Vegas.  What we do think about - and will whenever we ponder this maze down the road - is what could have been.  What should have been, you know?  However, whether you liked it or not, Lost Vegas was what it was.  In our opinion, Knott's took a gamble on this concept and crapped out.

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