Haunt Tour 2015 – Immunity & the 17th Door
Posted by admin in Past Halloweens
Thurs Oct 22nd
Knotts Scary farm – Seriously, we left Cat’s house just after 4pm because traffic was so fucked & the 5 wasn’t even moving because of accidents & road work so we got OFF the highway & got Chinese fast food & then took surface roads all the way there. We literally arrived at the gates at 6:55. Having gone to many haunts in the past I’ve now grown used to the “formula” of many of the theme park haunts. Yes, Knotts started it & many props for that but I didn’t enjoy the Knotts haunts as much for 2 reasons:
1. reliance on jump scares. Characters that don’t do anything other than ump out, make a loud noise & try to grab you
2. lack of crowd control & the endless conga lines. Because of this, it amplifies #1 as a problem. I even tried my usual tactic of slowing down to the point where I can’t see the people ahead of us but this year there’s always some crazy bottleneck. After a couple haunts, I just wanted to get through them already & go on the roller coasters.
Favorite houses this year were Voodoo (new one I’d never seen) and Tooth Fairy (seen it before but it’s awesomely gory and tells a story)
The other ones weren’t that memorable… ok, maybe the Pinocchio one was ok. Skipped Paranormal because of the lines. Most we waited in line was probably 20-25 mins?
The coasters were the big highlight. Cat had never been to Knotts before & never been on many of the newer coasters, like the overhead tracks (feet dangling) ones so she MADE us ride every coaster, even if the lines were long by the time it was 11. lol. I was just excited to see Cat so giggly and excited on the rides that it was super worth it!! I’m a coaster junkie so I can do this all night; I was just so cold, lol. We left at closing 1am & didn’t get back to Burbank til 2am. I didn’t home til 2:30 so I was pooped! This was definately my last time at Knotts Scary Farm because the haunted houses feel too monotonous now. It’s nice for newbies & teenagers that enjoy jump scares but it feels like I’ve evolved and grown out of them.
Friday Oct 23
la.mazerooms.com 12:30PM
Cat, Matt & I got there right at 12:30 & there was a brownout in the area!!! The girl working there said it’s been browned out for 4 hours & she was in the process of calling the other locations to fit us in when miraculously the power turned on again as we were waiting! Halloween miracle peoples!
She suggested doing the JAIL BREAKOUT because it’s harder & funner than the “HOTEL” room I booked. So we got locked into individual jail cells & the game started!! We had 1 hour to escape from jail which consisted of getting out of our cells, out of the holding area & then out of the wardens office. We learned that the 3 of us worked together pretty well as a team & the puzzles were pretty neat. I actually didn’t expect them to be technologically advanced but a couple of them were! We broke out with 5 mins to spare. I’m definately hooked & want to try the Vegas escape rooms now. It was kinda hard to understand our hints over the walkie talkie with the lady’s accent & I’m a little dissapointed we had to use our hints. It was all our first times playing this type of game. The completion rate for that room is 45% apparently, so we did it!
We drove down to Tustin right after that & it took an hour & half… lol. Thanks Matt for driving! We went for all you can eat Korean BBQ closeby & checked out Party City until it was ready to stand in line for…
www.17thdoor.com !!! 7pm
We signed our waivers & got in line. We waited maybe 15 mins & we were in! They sell timed tickets & they were already sold out before it even opened. Ours were 7-8pm time slot. VERY smart idea. I’ve never seen a haunt flow so smoothly ever; it should be the ideal for all haunts. I’ve learned so much from seeing how this team did their haunt. So the 17th door is brand new to the scene, created by a hubby & wife team new to doing haunts, period. They nailed it perfectly. There’s 17 experiences you have to go through & the storyline was flowing & cohesive for the most part. There was a couple scenes that I wasn’t sure why they were there & how it advanced the story. There were a lot of innovative things done I’ve never seen before & it set the bar to a very high level. The scariest part for me was seeing Paula’s ghost appear & then reappear even closer to me! They’re allowed to touch you & stuff (the waiver). “STUFF” meaning we had water splashed on us, bugs thrown as us, we drowned in a room full of balls, grabbed, tickled, had to walk through a pitch black corridor alone, be locked in a small tight pitch black box. We also played a weird spin the bottle, guns pointed at us, got threatened to be hit with rotten food, had a stinky fish rubbed on our face, icky smelling gloves in our face, electric shocks on our arms/hand; they really bombarded all our senses including smell. The whole thing was over 30 mins & traumatized Cat which means it did it’s job! Many of the issues that fictional character Paula had to go through were issues that mainly only women can identify with so I wonder if it would affect a group of men going through..? I know everyone has a different triggers to what upsets them emotionally & psychologically & even though I couldn’t identify with many of the issues touched upon here, it was still the pinnacle of my entire haunted attractions experience in my years so far. I can see why men rated this slightly lower than women on Yelp & it really depends on what your individual experiences were & what scares you. I’ve learned there’s no one formula in scaring a person & everyone has different triggers depending on what they’ve been through. This haunt hits many issues such as: bulimia, bullying, claustrophobia, guns, drugs, suicide, being alone & seperated from your group, rape. That’s a pretty extensive list that would affect a good portion of people going through. I’ve learned what scares me & what doesn’t scare me, but that’s a whole other post.
Boot Hill – Super cute home haunt 15 mins from the 17th Door. It’s a yard haunt but had a nice facade from the sidewalk & some state of the art projections. Free & worth the drive if you’re already in the area.
Goldenrod, Irvine CA 92614 -FREE HOME HAUNT
Motel 6 http://www.motel6feetunder.org/ (we have the free tickets) Stood in line for about 25 minutes. They only let very small groups through at a time, which is how it’s supposed to be done everyone!! One of the fun things about doing the LA haunts is that you meet a lot of informed haunt enthusiasts in line which leads to good conversation & sharing of information. Good times. We went through as our group of 3 & got confused at the first maze, lol. We’d never been to an actual maze, where the actor moved a section of the wall before we doubled back, to reaveal the rest of the haunt! This happened a couple times which confused us, lol. There were some very cool elements I’d never seen & a lot of the maze were animatronics (but good ones, this is not neccessarily a minus). It wasn’t TOO short but short enough that it left me wanting more. I felt it lacked a big scary finish at the end… one that would send me running out the door screaming. It was fun & glad we got free tickets.
Saturday Oct 24
It’s bad that I can’t totally remember what I did in the day times right? LOL Did stuff with Chad & Matt. I got him into AHS Freak Show & we made 2 halloween cakes, one normal for Cat & one sugar free for us. OH YEAH, we went for Shabu Shabu in Pasadena. I’ve only done shabu shabu a couple times so I like going with them to see how they do it.
7:30 PM Ward 13 – Evil Twin Studios – We got there later than expected so the line was looooooong… as in 2 hours long, so we paid the extra $10 for the fast pass. Great new concept, very interactive but not scary at all to me. I enjoyed the theme a LOT last year & was expecting to be terrified just like last year but this year didn’t have the same effect. It’s NOT because I’m now IMMUNE to haunts because of the 17th Door, it’s because the insane asylum theme & characters didn’t scare me at all. We went with a group of teen boys & they were terrified! They kept making us go through the doors first because they were scared but I made them go first a few times so they can at least experience it.
Crazy people aren’t scary; I’ve visited inside a real mental hospital (Yes, I’m sure I’m not supposed to say that term) so that didn’t scare me the slightest. Young kids/teen actors don’t scare me. Actors who can’t improv shows me they don’t know their character & are kinda boring. We had to crawl again but this time it wasn’t over a dead body in the floor. Boooo…. we got strapped to a wheelchair & pushed around the asylum playground, FUN!!!! The last bit of the haunt had electrically charged walls that would shock you if you touched it with your hands so I just used my elbows to find my way out. The ending wasn’t scary like last year. It was fun & interactive enough to keep us entertained through the journey. The acting was “CUTE.” Afterwards, we drove in silence for about 5 minutes before Cat said “I was dissapointed that I wasn’t scared” and I’m like “me too!!!” I think 17th Door has made us immune to most haunts.
Backwoods Maze 1912 N. Pepper St., Burbank CA FREE – we skipped it this year
Opechee Haunt: 1728 Canada Blvd., Glendale CA 91208 FREE - turned out to be a kids haunt. we skipped it!
Rotton Apple http://ra907.weebly.com/ 907 N. California St. Burbank CA 91505 FREE - The line up was insanely long. We stood in line for 10 minutes & it didn’t move at all. We had to skip this because of time restraints. Here’s the walkthrough video. They built all this on their yard/house so it’s pretty badass. The first old guy is freaking hilarious http://new.hollywoodgothique.com/rotten-apple-hollow-review-video/
Boney Island 4602 Morse Ave, Sherman Oaks 91423 FREE – If you’re in the area it’s a must do!! I can’t even describe it & pics & video can’t even describe this magic Halloween Wonderland… of magic…. and happiness… and music. I’m already plotting how to get adopted into this family. The treehouse is badass & there’s a lot of little hidden comedic treasures but you need to take your time & find them. It proves you can have lots of Halloween fun without it being scary or gory. Sometimes, it seems like people resort to simple gore because they don’t have the imagination to do it without the gore. This place is my magical wonderland for the 20 minutes we were here.
11pm – http://www.urbandeath.com/ – The last year (first time) Cat & I went through this, it was almost life changingly scary & innovative. Going through a second time… you kind of know what to expect & you know the general formula so you mentally prepare yourself. You want that same 1st time high so bad but because it’s the 2nd go around, you actually HAVE expectations instead of having NO expectations like the 1st time. I need to learn to let that go. It was still scary & disorienting during the walkthrough, the only light being a small flashlight in super close quarters. The vignettes were cool. The stage show felt shorter than last years & lacked a big final finale. We are definately a lot more immune than last year & yup… our expectations have changed. I wish they didn’t & we could have the same unknown wonderment as we do our first time going into a haunt.
This is the best list of all the haunted attractions in the area: http://themeparkadventure.com/socal-haunt-directory-2015/
Now I have to go find a Michael Myers mask the day before frickin Halloween because hubby decides YESTERDAY that that’s who he wants to be. I’m just excited & grateful every time he expresses interest in participation.
Then it’s the charity haunted house again at 6pm!!! IT was BUSY last night for a Thursday; we barely got a dinner break sometime in between 6:30pm-close, lol. It sucks that I’m sick with a cold but nothing some Theraflu can’t fix for a few hours.
I’m grateful & forever thankful for my life, my husband, my proximity to Los Angeles & my friends there, people who make an effort to participate in Halloween, the amazing scare actors in every single haunt, the awesome charity haunted house I’m involved with this year, new friendships, food, our health & Halloween love. And good food. OMG Halloween is tomorrow & this is the best October of my life so far. Time goes too fast…. tell the people you love that you love & appreciate them because tomorrow is not gaurenteed