Hollywood Gothique

Haunted Houses, Theme Parks, Yard Haunts, Mazes, & Ghosts Ships in the Orange County Area

Delirium was the best of three new attractions at last year’s Knotts Berry Farm Halloween Haunt. Although perhaps a bit short on scream-inducing scares, the walk-through maze benefited from a surreal if somewhat vague theme, which allowed for a variety of weird and wild imagery: eyeballs embedded in walls, corpse covered in cockroaches, and assorted [...]

Ghoulish piano player aboard Ghost Ship
I thought I had said everything I had to say about Ghost Ship, the new Halloween attraction in Newport Beach that completed its final voyage of the season last night, but I stumbled upon something in an apparently irrelevant article that seemed worth noting. In a Salon.com review of “Lulu,” [...]

The Captain of the Ghost Ship, seeking volunteers to join his crew
A final update for those considering a trip out to Newport Beach to enjoy the much maligned Ghost Ship:
As last we noted, the opening weekend reactions prompted Ten Thirty One Productions to promise a new and improved attraction during its second week of operation. Although [...]

I just wanted to offer a brief update on my review of the Ghost Ship’s maiden voyage last weekend. As I mentioned there, some customers were disappointed with the debut of the new Halloween event. These customers posted negative comments on the Ghost Ship Facebook page and at Yelp.com; there is also an extensive diatribe at [...]

Dates: October 14-15, 21-22, 28-29
The Ghost Ship is an enjoyable novelty: a short pleasure cruise with a Value-added Halloween theme. The enjoyment one receives is much as one would expect on any cruise: the refreshing chill of a cool sea breeze on the observation deck; the glittering lights of docks and buoys reflected off the ocean; the relaxed, transitory camaraderie of fellow travelers sharing a deck on a ship sailing over water smooth as glass. The happiest audience will be one that enjoys these regular attractions and appreciates the Halloween elements as a bonus.

The Sinister Pointe Halloween attraction erupted from the grave like a screaming banshee two years ago, scaring Orange Count residents as never before; at least, that’s what we heard, second-hand. In 2008, the haunt proprietor had earned a reputation for an officially licensed SAW maze; that reputation grew with the 2009 debut of Sinister Pointe, [...]

At Hollywood Gothique, we are all about Halloween in Los Angeles; nevertheless, we do make the trek out to Orange County to partake of the terrors on offer in that fearsome and mysterious land. This week, we checked out Sinister Pointe and Ghost Ship (the later of which, from the makers of the Los Angeles [...]

Dates: October 5-9, 12-16, 19-23, 26-31.
This year, we approached the Knotts Berry Farm Halloween Haunt with an edge of fear in our soul that had little to do with the eager anticipation of ghost town ghouls, fallout shelter mutants, lock-down asylum lunatics, or apocalyptic wasteland warriors. Rather, advance word had sinisterly suggested that the annual Halloween theme park attraction was but a pale, ethereal shadow of its formerly spirited self – a “creaky, middle-aged zombie that’s lost its will to rise from the grave every night,” in the words of this Los Angeles Times review of opening night. To our ghoulish delight, however, these dire prophecies of doom turned out to be ephemeral warnings of a disaster that failed to materialize. True, there is little that is innovative or ground-breaking this year; nevertheless, the depth and breadth of horrors on display continue to make this annual ritual a must-see for Halloween acolytes.

Dates: October 14-15, 21-22, 28-29
Location: 2901 W. Coast Highway, Newport Beach, CA 92663
Link out: Click here
Description: Ten Thirty One Productions – creators of the Los Angeles Haunted Hayride, one of our favorite Halloween events in Los Angeles – set sail on a new adventure, a ghostly cruise in Orange County. We’re not talking about a [...]

Dates & Hours:

Oct. 8,14,15,21,22,30 from 7pm-10pm
Oct. 28,29,31 7pm-11pm.
For the benefit of young and timid trick-or-treaters, there is a period from 6:30pm-7pm with no scares.

Location: 537 Palm Dr., Brea, CA 92821
Description: Haunt Worx Productions presents Dark Realms: An American Haunt. Although located in a private home, this Halloween event is more in the nature of a community [...]

We never made it out to the Tustin Haunt in Tustin, CA, and now it seems we have have missed our chance. Too bad, it looked quite intriguing.
A ghost from the 2008 Tustin Haunt – the last time the haunt offered a walk-through maze
Located behind the Orange Curtain (i.e., in Organge County), this “semi-pro” attraction [...]

We made it out to the Terry Haunt only once, back in 2009, but it was quite an elaborate family affair – a former yard haunt that had expanded beyond the confines of its home, first moving to a recreation center and later (the year we attended) to an abandoned supermarket. The search for locations [...]

Dates: October 6-9, 13-16, 20-23, 26-31 (subject to change, so check)
Location: 195 Arovista Circle Brea, CA 92821
Link out: Click here
Description: After going on hiatus in 2010, the highly regarded Sinister Pointe Haunted Attraction returns for another season of screams. This year, the highly regarded Orange County Halloween haunt promises a horrifying hybrid of THE HILLS [...]

Location: Knotts Berry Farm, 8039 Beach Boulevard, Buena Park, CA 90620
Link out: Click here
Description:
Camp Snoopy transforms into Camp Spooky for Halloween. This family-friendly event, including in the regular price of admission, runs at during daylight hours – a sort of safe alternative to the scary Knotts Berry Farm Halloween Haunt taking place at [...]

Dates: September 16 to October 31
Location: Disneyland Resort, 1313 S. Disneyland Drive, naheim, CA 92802
Link out: Click here
Description: Disneyland presents its annual Halloween fun spectacular. The event offers spine-tingling thrills that are not too scary for even young children, including a Halloween Screams fireworks spectacular, photo ops with your favorite Disney Villains, a costume party [...]

Location: 8039 Beach Boulevard, Buena Park, CA 90620
Link out: Click here
Description: True to form, Knott’s Berry Farm launches their annual Halloween Haunt during the last week of September, getting a jump on the competition, most of which waits until October. As in 2010, the Knotts Berry Farm Halloween Haunt makes its debut on a Friday, [...]

We certainly hope you followed our advice and got a jump on the Halloween season by attending the Knotts Berry Halloween Haunt, Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood, and the Queen Mary Dark Harbor. If you failed to heed our sound suggestion, it may already be too late to catch up, because even more [...]

Location: 12500 Euclid Street, Garden Grove, CA
Dates: Ocober 8-10, 15-17, 21-24, 27-31
Hours: 7-10pm Sundays, 7pm-midnight on Fridays & Saturdays
Tickets: $13
Description: The City of Garden Grove brings the abandoned Black Angus restaurant back to life -or death- this Halloween, by opening “Diner of the Dead,” a heart-pounding, horror-filled maze set inside the vacant, 10,000 square-foot restaurant at 12900 Euclid Street.

Dates: September 24-26, 30, October 1-3, 6-10, 13-17, 20-24, 27-31.
Location: Knotts Berry Farm
Description: After my mournful despair expressed over the lack of originality on display in the’ 2010 incarnation of Halloween Horror Nights at at Universal Studios Hollywood, it is ironic to note that the 2010 Knotts Berry Farm Halloween Haunt offers even less that is new and novel: only two walk-through mazes and the Sleepy Hollow Mountain Log Ride. Nevertheless, this year’s Knotts Scary Farm manages to impress with sheer quantity and variety: the Halloween theme park event not only offers dozens of mazes, shows, and scare zones; it also provides a wide spectrum of themes and tones, ranging from grim and grizzly to moody and ethereal to clownish and campy. Although Knott’s Berry Farm cannot match Universal Studios in purely technical terms terms, the wide range of imaginative hauntings includes something for every Halloween-loving soul.

Location: 1313 S. Disneyland Drive, Anaheim, CA 92802
Description: Disneyland Resort launches its annual Halloween Time Celebration, which runs September 17 through October 31.

Here is our video walk-through of the Empty Grave Halloween haunt, located in the Anaheim Garden Walk, an upscale shopping center not far from Disneyland. Although we enjoyed the haunt when we visited late in October, we were worried that the video would not do it justice: the Empty Grave utilizes large empty space filled mostly with [...]

From the demented mind that brought you the Haunted Cellar comes this new Halloween attraction, one of the largest single-maze haunts anywhere, offering “over 50,000 square of terror.” Having never visited the old Haunted Cellar, we cannot vouch for whether The Empty Grave is truly “all new” or merely rebranded and expanded, but it does [...]

The Terry Haunt in Anaheim has been around in one form or another for over ten years. Once a Halloween yard haunt, it expanded beyond the confines of its home and turned into a community haunt a few years ago, benefiting the Loara Band Booster Club. After sitting out 2008 because of location problems, the [...]