By Erica Solvig
The Cincinnati Enquirer

MASON - Paramount's Kings Island has begun scaring up attention for its annual fright festival, announcing Wednesday new family-friendly daytime activities and stepped-up thrills at night.

The fourth annual FearFest - pitched as "fright by night, fear by day" - runs weekends, Oct. 4 through Nov. 2. It is included with park admission.

This year's Halloween event is being promoted as a daylong regional attraction, drawing people from across the Tristate, park spokesman Jeffrey Siebert said.

It includes five new children's activities such as the Pumpkin Patch Express, a train ride that will stop at a pumpkin patch where kids can pick out a pumpkin to decorate, as well as the inflatable maze Boo's House.

Also new this year is Route 666, where park visitors ride the antique cars through a dark, abandoned highway. Curse of the Crypt returns this year, but is revamped with vampires, werewolves and other creatures.

"All the research we've done over the last three years says our guests want this scarier and scarier," Siebert said Wednesday. "So we've really juiced up the scariness factor this year."

Starting at 3 p.m., the indoor attractions - House of Darkness and Maze of Madness - will open. Outdoor attractions like PsychoPath, a nighttime walk through the woods, open at dark. Seventeen of the park's major attractions also will stay open after dark.

Trick-or-treating returns this year, Oct. 25 and 26, with Kahn's Masquerade Parade at 2 p.m. for children to walk around the park and show off their costumes.

E-mail esolvig@enquirer.com