Halloween 2014 – LA Haunt tour, etc
Posted by admin in Past Halloweens
So on the weekend of the 16-18, cat & I road tripped to Los Angeles for my second annual LA haunt tour & this time instead of just picking big amusement park haunts, I carefully chose a varied selection of home haunts & haunts done by theater companies & WOW did I luck out on picking ALL WINNERS! Haunts like Big Worms, Urban Death & Evil Twin studios were amoung TPA’s highest rated haunts of the season!! It was just a fluke as I was picking based on location of where my friends were at!
Day 1 – we drove straight to Long Beach from Vegas & went to an awesome beachfront restaurant where they had an amazing pre-fixe dinner special that I couldn’t even finish! This was after our nap on Long Beach. We were so close to the Queen Mary that we just walked over after dinner & avoided the $15 parking fee they had. We lined up for about 20 mins before opening & it was SUCH a swarm to get in, I was like “what’s the point of lining up & going early?” Well, I’m glad we did cuz we skipped the 1st haunted house (Voodoo) and went straight to the 2nd one & were the first ones in! We breezed through all the other haunts (5 out of 6 ain’t bad) super fast & then watched the side show act with all the main characters & it was only 9PM! 2 of the houses were inside the ship itself & one also allowed you to see the old swimming pool which was creepy as heck. Being inside the ships bowels gave it a very real & spooky element. The clown haunt was also really good as there was a mirror maze that confused us. The actors were so lackluster & most did little more than just pop out & make a loud noise… boring. Many of the haunts also lacked a good finale…. as if you should be running out the exit screaming but none had that. It was nice seeing the inside of the ship as it was the first for both of us. It was a carnivale theme & was well done for what it is. My only advise would be for the actors to go to scare school & be into their characters & also understand TIMING to maximize the scares.
That night I had the WORST sleep ever as I was on an air mattress in Cat’s brothers attic & it was FREEZING & hard to sleep on, lol
Day 2 – Got ready for Let’s Make a Deal 1pm taping. Got there so early so we went to Hollywood Forever cemetary to tour around & look at some famous graves.
Got picked for Let’s Make a Deal (my episode airs 3/31/2015) and got to hug & touch Wayne Brady’s hand. I kind of hardcore freaked out so I’m super embaressed about it & do NOT want to watch it . I really really freaked out. Later on I kissed some random blk dude that was also picked with me so we had to do our paperwork together after.
It got out so late that we had to drive directly to the Valley & had dinner with Jack the Zipper, Cat’s friend. Then we headed to the opening night (hour) of Big Worms Sherwood Scare which was super amazing & immersive! You actually forget you’re inside someone’s backyard/house & think you’re in an old hollywood studio!! They had a 3D projector, actual film footage they shot of a young girl who “died” there & now haunts the studios. The sets were top notch & area tight enough that you’d feel scared & claustrophobic. I forgot we weren’t the only ones in there & lost myself in the story. Cat held onto me & used me as a battering ram against any ghosts. lol. Ow, my hair!!! The ending was super scary & I ducked & ran outside as fast as I could. All this for $3!?!
Then we hit Backwoods Maze in burbank. small line up at around 8:30 & it was free. Super detailed with lots of sets & props & some great scare-actors. Cant’ wait to go again next year. I’m realizing that haunt enthusiats are a really cool bunch & I’m proud to call myself one!
Then for our last stop of the night we hit Www.hollywoodhaunter.com who was in the show The Great Halloween Fright Fight which I just downloaded but haven’t watched yet. She was the only one repping the Westcoast, the bestcoast, so I’m happy I got to meet & chat with her.
Day 3 – got up fairly early in Altedena & met my friend for breakfast. Then we walked over to the canyon & hiked up to find a place to play kissyface for a bit. Then Chad & Matt picked me up & they wanted to do test drive some cars in Pasedena. I took a nap before dinner & Carol came over! We all went down to the opening weekend for Raymond Hill Mortuary http://www.eviltwinstudios.com/ in South Pasedena & we got there like 1/2 hour after opening so the line was about 25 mins total. IT was a group of 6 of us so it was a good size but we still got seperated at some point inside. This haunt is FULLY interactive & there was a point where someone had to get the bible from a dead guy inside a coffin & usually I expect others to expect ME to do this crap but I am too scared of dead bodies so I pushed Matt at it & he DID IT!!! OMG I’m so proud of him lol. We had to lie down on mortuary slabs & get pushed into the wall. I basically closed my eyes fully for that part. We had to crawl in this pitch black tight maze that smelled like dirt (no clue how they did that!!!) and crawl over a body in plexiglass which I completely freaked out about…. I didn’t want to go forward & crawl over it but realized I had no choice at that point & just closed my eyes. That’s how scared of dead bodies I am…. it’s so messed up. Matt almost took down the fence as we ran screaming from the graveyard at the very end. Everything happened so fast & the dead bodies were freaking me out so much that I blanked out a good part of it…..
www.urbandeath.com was our last stop & it ROCKED. I can’t even describe it & I read so many reviews on it beforehand too. Walking through the maze with just one little flashlight & being forced to be so close to the monstrosities was too freaking much. The horror vignettes were out of this world & the timing was exceptional. Bravo to this amazing theater group for giving me nightmares for the next few days! None of the vignettes were too long & I think that was the key… less is more because it leaves the rest up to your imagination as to what possibilities can happen next. There were too many WTF moments to count. The walk through the haunted maze back, I let Cat go in front for ONCE & I hid behind her in real fear… that’s how scary it was. Chad needs to do this one next year for sure.
My haunt tour 2014 Rating!
Numero Uno, the most awesome goes to – Raymond Hill Mortuary www.eviltwinstudios.com
#2 – Big Worms Sherwood Scare www.sherwoodscare.com
#3 – www.UrbanDeath.com
#4 – Backwoods Maze in Burbank https://www.facebook.com/TheBackwoodsMaze
#5 – Queen Mary Haunted Harbor, a great deal for only $20. Just come super early!
I’m already making plans for next years Haunt Tour 2015. What sucked was that a lot of the home haunts weren’t open until the 25th weekend. so I missed out on so many like Boney Island or Rotten Apple’s haunts.