Archive for November, 2011

London’s Christmas Nightmare

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

The list of holiday haunts keeps growing. Today, we’re profiling a Christmas haunt from across the Atlantic: “Christmas Nightmare” at the London Bridge Experience/London Tombs.

This Christmas, The London Bridge Experience & London Tombs invite you to encounter the darker side of the festive season in their special Christmas Show “Christmas Nightmare”.

Take a journey through the historical, yet hysterical, Christmas time tunnel, courtesy of a ghostly Ebenezer Scrooge, where he will introduce you to a number of seasonal characters who have helped shape the face of Christmas over the centuries.

On your journey, you will have the chance to join the Roman winter feast of Saturnalia, where Christmas dinner is served with a twist! Visitors will get the chance to get up close and personal with the infamous ‘vomit collectors’ who were traditionally employed to clear up the vomit of diners who purge themselves to make space for the next course!

If that doesn’t put you off, we then transport you back to the medieval Viking Age where you will be invited to raise a glass or two with a Norwegian Viking storyteller. Interestingly, find out how the origin of the “modern” Father Christmas story being pulled in his sleigh, comes from the ancient Nordic God “Thor” and his sledge which was traditionally pulled by ferocious horned goats.

Another, urban legend is the Frost Fair which took place each winter on a frozen River Thames. Londoners in the 1600s were able to take advantage of these freezing conditions by ice-skating across the river. However, with this sparked the fear of frozen lakes & rivers, with the tragic story of John Smith, who fell through the ice where he met his bitter death. Visitors are then invited to experience the darker side of Christmas with the ghost of Charles Dickens, as he reflects on his experience of living among the destitute streets of London.

This special event runs from December 1 through January 2.

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Posted in Christmas Haunts, UK | No Comments »

“The NightSCARE Before Christmas” at Moxley Manor

Saturday, November 19th, 2011

It seems that in addition to Valentine’s Day haunts, a new trend of haunts is growing: Christmas Haunts!

Moxley Manor Haunted House, in Bedford, Texas, will be presenting “The NightScare Before Christmas,” a Christmas-themed overlay to their usual haunted house.

The haunt will be open every Saturday night from November 26 through December 17, from 8 to 10 pm. Tickets are $15, or buy online and use the code name “Santa” for a special price of $12.

If spending the holidays with your family isn’t scary enough for you, be sure to head down to the haunt for some extra terror!

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Posted in Christmas Haunts, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas | No Comments »

Scare Zone’s 2011 Top Haunts

Wednesday, November 9th, 2011

Well, the 2011 season is over, so it’s time to rank the best that we Stalked! Haunt experiences can be a highly individual and subjective experience; what may scare one person might not be frightening at all to another, and what scares you one night might fall flat on a return visit. For this reason, the Scare Zone writers will be providing separate rankings.

Also, while we did visit quite a few great haunts across the country throughout the year, please note that we’re only ranking the haunts we visited in California and Nevada during the “official” Haunt Season (September – October). For a list of all the places we visited and to read our full reviews, please click here.

Now, on to our 2011 Top Haunts   

*Maze also refers to an individual haunted house or walk-through attraction.   

 

M. Leota’s Haunt Rankings

Best Maze Design (lighting, sound, FX):

1. Haunted Play Presents Delusion (Los Angeles, CA)

2. La Llorona (Halloween Horror Nights, Hollywood)

3. Curse of Sarah Winchester (Winchester Mystery House, San Jose, CA)

 

Best Maze Theme (consistent story/setting):

1. Haunted Play Presents Delusion

2. La Llorona (HHN Hollywood)

3. Castle Vampyre (Freakling Bros.)

 

Best Individual Scene in a Maze:

1. “Hallway/bathroom scene”: Haunted Play Presents Delusion

2. “Flying Vampire”: Castle Vampyre (Freakling Bros.)

3. “Cockroach room”: Delirium (Knott’s Halloween Haunt, Buena Park, CA)

 

Best Maze Name:

1. La Llorona: Villa de Almas Perdidas (HHN Hollywood)

2. Endgames: Warriors of the Apocalypse (Knott’s Halloween Haunt)

3. Gates of Hell (Freakling Bros.)

 

Best Scare-Actors:

1. Circus of Horrors (Freakling Bros.)

2. Haunted Play Presents Delusion

3. Gates of Hell (Freakling Bros.)

 

Highest Scare Factor:

1. Tie: Castle Vampyre, Gates of Hell, Circus of Horrors (Freakling Bros.)

2. The Thing (HHN Hollywood)

3. Sinister Pointe (Brea, CA)

 

Most Improved Maze (compared with  2010):

1. Lockdown: The Asylum (Knott’s Halloween Haunt)

2. Hellfire (Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor)

 

Best New Maze for 2011:

1. La Llorona (HHN Hollywood)

2. Curse of Sarah Winchester (Winchester Mystery House)

3. Delirium (Knott’s Halloween Haunt)

 

Best Overall Maze of 2011:

1. Tie: Circus of Horrors, Castle Vampyre, Gates of Hell (Freakling Bros.)

2. La Llorona (HHN Hollywood)

3. Curse of Sarah Winchester (Winchester Mystery House)

 

Best Haunt Scare Zone:

1. Ghost Town (Knott’s Halloween Haunt)

2. Necropolis (Knott’s Halloween Haunt)

3. The Barricades (Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor)

 

Most Unique Haunt Experience:

1. Gates of Hell (Freakling Bros.)

2. Haunted Play Presents Delusion

3. Ghost Ship (Newport Beach, CA)

 

Best Value Haunt:

1. Freakling Bros. Trilogy of Terror (especially for the $10 fast pass t-shirt)

2. Knott’s Halloween Haunt

3. Reign of Terror (Thousand Oaks, CA)

 

Top 2011 Stand Alone Haunt

Freakling Bros. Trilogy of Terror

Top 2011 Theme Park Haunt

Halloween Horror Nights, Hollywood

 

Matt E. Horn’s Haunt Rankings

Best Maze Design (lighting, sound, FX):

1. La Llorona: Villa de Almas Perdidas (HHN Hollywood)

2. Haunted Play Presents: Delusion 

3. Curse of Sarah Winchester (Winchester Mystery House)

 

Best Maze Theme (consistent story/setting):

1. Haunted Play Presents: Delusion 

2. La Llorona: Villa de Almas Perdidas (HHN Hollywood)

3. Reign of Terror

 

Best Individual Scene in a Maze:

1. “Feed the Beast” in Circus of Horror (Freakling Bros.)

2. “Collapsing Bridge” in Hellfire (Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor)

3. “Flying Vampire”  in Castle Vampyre (Freakling Bros.)

 

Best Maze Name:

1. Habitat of Hags (Pirates of Emerson)

2. La Llorona: Villa de Almas Perdidas (HHN Hollywood)

3. Delirium (Knott’s Scary Farm)

 

Best Scare-Actors:

1. Gates of Hell (Freakling Bros.)

2. Haunted Play Presents: Delusion 

3. Sinister Pointe

 

Highest Scare Factor:

1. 3-way tie Freakling Bros. Mazes: Circus of Horrors, Castle Vampyre, Gates of Hell

2. Alice Cooper’s Welcome To My Nightmare (HHN Hollywood)

3. Sinister Pointe

 

Most Improved Maze (compared with  2010):

1. Lockdown (Knott’s Scary Farm)

2. Hellfire (Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor)

3. Village of the Dammed (Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor)

Best New Maze for 2011:

1. Sinister Pointe

2. Curse of Sarah Winchester (Winchester Mystery House)

3. Haunted Play Presents: Delusion 

 

Best Overall Maze of 2011:

1. 3-way tie Freakling Bros. Mazes: Circus of Horrors, Castle Vampyre, Gates of Hell

2. Sinister Pointe

3. The Thing (HHN Hollywood) Curse of Sarah Winchester (Winchester Mystery House)

Best Haunt Scare Zone:

1. Ghost Town (Knott’s Scary Farm)

2. Zombieville (HHN Hollywood)

3. The Gauntlet (California’s Great America Haunt)

Most Unique  Haunt Experience:

1. Haunted Play Presents: Delusion 

2. Ghost Ship

3. The 13th Floor at Circus Circus

 

Best Value Haunt:

1. Knott’s Scary Farm

2. Freakling Bros.

3. Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor

 

Top 2011 Stand Alone Haunt

 

Top 2011 Theme Park Haunt

 

Scare Zone’s Worst Rankings

This is where we load up the buried skulls and drive them off to the crematory. Of course, being in the world of horror, we’re aptly aware that not everything will die immediately or forever, but we can hope.

Worse Mazes

1. Slaughter of the Swines  and Maze of Mayhem at Bonnie Screams

2. Mental Maze at Pirates of Emerson

3. Terror Tram: Scream 4 Your Life at HHN Hollywood

Worse Value

Worse Haunt of 2011

 2011 Repass

This year we experienced new haunt environments along with new levels of scares. During the official haunt season (Sept. – Oct.), we ventured throughout California and out to Nevada to visit as many new haunts as possible. Along the way, we encountered one of the best haunts we’ve ever been to and one of the worst. We give credit to all the haunts out there who are challenging themselves to create new environments and stories to scare us with. While some of our reviews may seem harsh, we take haunting and our earned dollars seriously, so we don’t have tolerance for the so-called haunts who are more interested in taking people’s money than putting effort into a quality production.

There were many high-quality haunts and mazes that didn’t make our top list, but they did offer a great time and good scares such as Fear Overload, California’s Great America Haunt (the CarnEvil maze was great), Reign of Terror, Theater 68, and a few of the Knott’s Scary Farm mazes. We also acknowledge all of the great haunts out there that  we didn’t get to this season, like The Haunted Hotel, Old Town Haunt, and Coffin Creek, just to name a few. We’ll also be curious to see how first-year haunts such as Haunted Play Presents Delusion and Ghost Ship do in their second years, if they come back.

Finally, we have to thank our fellow Haunt Stalkers from Theme Park Tourist for sharing their UK Haunt reviews and all our other fellow Haunt Stalkers who shared their experiences and ratings with us this season and throughout the year. We appreciate all your support and engagement with our site, and we look forward to sharing more scare-ventures together.

Scaringly yours,

M. Leota & Matt E. Horn

Co-Founders & Writers,  Scare Zone

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Posted in Haunt Reviews, Nevada, Northern California, Southern California, Terror Tips | No Comments »

Haunt Review: Reign of Terror 2011

Monday, November 7th, 2011

 

Sadly another season of Haunt Stalking is now over. During the last weekend, our final stop was at Reign of Terror (ROT) in Thousand Oaks, CA which ended up being  a very good way to close out the season. Last year ROT ranked as one of our top haunts for Best Sets/Props/Atmosphere and this year they managed to sustain their rapport of high quality haunt design while offering an expanded maze with more rooms and new scares.  With the return of the “The Haunted House” and “The Asylum” and the addition of a new segment called “Blood Manor”, ROT once again proved that it ‘reigns’ with high-quality set designs that make guests feel as if they’re inside a real haunted house.

We know that being repeat visitors to a haunt could diminish some of the scare factor as we have an idea of what to expect. So this year, we brought along a first time visitor to see how impressed and scared they were by ROT. As it would turn out, they were very much impressed and scared. Upon arriving to ROT we were greeted by the resident witch who welcomed us back and we also got to say hello to ROT’s creator, Bruce Stanton, who proudly welcomed guests as they entered the queue. ROT’s very elaborate pre-show line is still one of the best queues of any haunt we’ve been to; featuring weather effects, horrifying  props, and roaming scareactors. The line is akin to something you’d see at Disneyland and it also has a wait time similar to a Disney-line. The long wait can be attributed to the fact that they only let small groups in at a time to avoid lines from forming inside the house.  To bypass the long wait, we once again opted for the front-of-the-line pass which is an extra $7, but we found it to be worth it as the ticket proceeds benefit the local Teen Center and we’re deathly afraid of waiting in lines.

Given that haunt season has now passed we’ll describe in more detail some of the scares we encountered, or shall we say endured, while inside ROT. While it appears that no one is home, that will turn out just to be wishful thinking. The first scene places you inside the dimly lit and cobwebbed parlor entry of the house which features a fireplace, piano, and an old woman, looking like Mrs. Bates sister, sitting in a rocking chair slowly knitting.  The fun and scares ramp up in the second room where a seemingly dead woman is laying on a couch. We expected at some point she would spring to life, but she quietly lay, that is right until the last guests was about the exit the room and she then came to life scaring us all to death. For those of us in the front it was extremely suspenseful to walk past her in anticipation of her pending attack. This is just one of many examples of how ROT has mastered the ability to build up tension and sustain the suspense throughout the house. The timing of the monsters is always key to a good scare and they were able to keep everyone in the group on their toes regardless if they were in the front or back. There are some rooms, like the dining room and dark hallways where there were no scareactors present but we still apprehensive walking through these foreboding rooms.

Another great scare occurs in the kitchen where all seemed calm until a monster comes lunging out out of the refrigerator. This was the scare that had half of the group nearly down to their knees and throughout the rest of the house there were scares with monsters popping out of windows and from underneath beds or other furniture. They really go out of their way to ensure that the scares are not predictable with just a monster hiding around the corner. We did find a few of the triggered animatronic scares to the be off cue or broken down, but of course it was the end of haunt season so some wear could be expected.

The thememing inside ROT stays consistent as we ventured through just about every kind of room you could possibly inside a haunted house including closets, dining rooms, and bathrooms. The one thing that was hard for us to distinguish was the transition between “The Haunted House” and the new “Blood Manor” scenes but this may of been on purpose. Towards the end of the house there were some scenes with a lot of blood splatters and stains on the walls and furniture so we assume these were apart of the blood manor segments.

The transition to the “Asylum” maze is more poignant with a creepy “outdoor” scene bridging the transition to the Asylum. While we’ve grown a little tired of Asylum themes being used at haunts, ROT manages to keep it mostly scary. However, what tends to happen, and what we experienced here, is the scareactors who are portraying the “crazy patients and doctors” loose their scariness when they overact and start speaking too much. There’s a thin line between dramatic and corny and in a few scenes some of the them were just corny. It can be seen as a way to break up the tension, but we just like hardcore scares all throughout.

All in all, this was another great year for ROT. We’re glad to see that they’re continuing to build on the foundation they established as family yard haunt. Next year is supposed to offer an even longer house with more scenes. Given it’s permanent location, we would love to see them open during other non-traditional haunt holidays such as Valentine’s day. We also would like to see them open on more nights during haunt season as it was a challenge to get out see them when they were only open 2 nights a week and that may also help with the long lines. It’s obvious that this a popular local haunt and it’s well worth the drive from L.A.  to experience during the haunt season.

Ratings:

  • Haunt Design: 4.5 skulls
  • Scare Factor: 4 skulls

Overall Rating for Reign of Terror 2011: 4 skulls

*Click here to read about our skull ratings.

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Posted in Haunt Reviews, Southern California | No Comments »

Have Yourself a Scary Little Christmas at Sinister Pointe

Friday, November 4th, 2011

This December, Sinister Pointe is giving Southern California a delightfully frightening Christmas gift. They’re bringing us a “not so merry holiday haunt” to their new, permanent location in Brea called “Christmas Fear.”

The existing haunt will be given a holiday theme, and they promise “new surprises.” Although some interactivity will be present, the “choose left or right” will not be available, meaning that victims will follow a single path to their festive doom.

This event will take place for ONE WEEKEND ONLY (December 9, 10, and 11), so be sure to plan ahead. Tickets are limited, so we suggest buying in advance. Tickets are $15 for regular admission, or $23 with fast pass. Click here for tickets.

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Posted in Christmas Haunts, Screaming Soon, Southern California | No Comments »

Behind the Screams at Halloween Horror Nights 2011

Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011

HHA_2011__4675

Now that Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood is over for the season (sadly along with most all of the other haunts) here’s all their 2011 “Behind The Screams” Videos. Along with revealing what it took to pull off the scares you also get a glimpse into what we believe to be one of their best Horror Nights yet. For those of you who couldn’t or didn’t go, here’s what you missed.

La Llorona

Alice Cooper’s Welcome 2 My Nightmare

The Thing

Hostel: Hunting Season

Rob Zombie’s House of 1,000 Corpses

Terror Tram: SCRE4M For Your Life

Klownz Scare Zone

HHN 2011 Guest Reactions

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Posted in Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood, Haunt Videos, Southern California | No Comments »