• Susan Glaser, cleveland.com

Sandusky, Ohio -- The screams along Cedar Point's main midway may take a more frantic tone this weekend, as the park debuts its 18^th annual version ofHalloWeekends, a month and a half long tribute to Halloween that can be frightening, family friendly or both.

HalloWeekends 2014

As with Cedar Point's main summer season, HalloWeekends typically offers several new shows and attractions. Here are five new features for 2014:

1. Hexed, a witch-themed haunted house, debuts in a new building adjacent to the GateKeeper roller coaster. Park spokesman Bryan Edwards said the building is home to a school for witches "with spells and potions that go horribly wrong."

2. Tombstone Terror-tory, a new outdoor fright zone, features an Old West theme spread across Frontiertown, the area in the back of the park, which will be transformed into a ghost town.

3. "Midnight Syndicate Live! Legacy of Shadows" is a new show featuring Cleveland-area musicians Edward Douglas and Gavin Goszka. It's the first time the duo known as Midnight Syndicate, well-known for their Halloween-themed soundtracks, will perform live.

The show – which will combine music, theater and film – will be offered three times daily on Fridays and Sundays, and four times on Saturdays, in the park's Good Time Theatre. The park warns: This may be too intense for younger viewers. "I've heard it gets very scary," said Edwards. "I'll be sitting in the back with my flashlight."

4. New for younger visitors: an expanded Howl-O-Palooza kids area, relocated along the midway near Wicked Twister. The area features cornstalk and hay bale mazes, pedal tractors, trick-or-treat stations and more. Also new: Monsters' Trick-or-Treat, "The Pumpkin Patch Party with the Peanuts" in the Camp Spooky Theatre and "Snoopy's Halloween Hijinks" in the Planet Snoopy Gazebo.

5. And for those who find the lines at Cedar Point the scariest thing of all: There's Fright Lane with Skeleton Key, a Halloween-themed version of Fast Lane, the park's pricey way to avoid long waits for its top coasters. This HalloWeekends version offers priority access to six haunted attractions – all five haunted houses plus CornStalkers fright zone – and also includes a key that "unlocks" a secret extra room inside the haunted houses. Prices are $35 to $75 per person, depending on the day you're visiting, on top of regular admission.