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:
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
