REVIEW: Creep LA: HAUS OF CREEP

Well, my spookies, it's September. How did that happen? And not only is it September, but it's almost October. Our favorite month, she is unstoppable -- and she's almost here!

But no need to rush things. September has her own special charms, of course. Not least of which is the fact that September kicks off Creep season here in Los Angeles. And this year, more than any other, I was stricken by the fact that Creep has to happen here in Los Angeles -- it couldn't happen anywhere else. It's so uniquely of and for this city. And that has never been more true than of Creep's 2019 installment, HAUS OF CREEP.

Off-Season Spooky: The 3 Hottest Tickets in Town

Winter can be hard on the Halloween fan, what with the spooky season in your rear view and the year's endless months sprawling before you, with hundreds of days until October once more dawns black and orange, heralding the return of the Best Time of the Year.

And that's to say nothing of spring, with its sunshine and flowers and bunnies. I mean, pastels? THE HORROR!

But despair not, gentle creeps. Here are three off-season spooky events taking place this spring in Los Angeles:

Surely you remember my recent review of Delusion: The Blue Blade. Again, this is not a haunt, and it's not exactly horror, but there are some creepy moments, and some killer set pieces, and I firmly believe that if you're the kind of person who spends March wishing it could be October, you'll enjoy yourself.

Tickets available now through March 17, 2019.

Another immersive theater experience making a triumphant return this spring is The Willows - you can read my thoughts about the 2017 production here. 

Tickets are on sale now for showtimes through the end of March, with more tickets to be released for later shows. 

Finally, Reign of Terror in Thousand Oaks is putting on a special one-night only event on Saturday, March 9, 2019 from 7-11 PM, but unlike the aforementioned productions, this is a proper haunted house. From the RoT social media:

ALL your FAVORITE features, and creatures, await your Springtime visit to Reign of Terror Haunted House's SPECIAL EVENT on March 9, 2019! Including the expanded underground 'slime bog' inside Miner's Revenge, the outcasts inhabiting the 'Inbred' attraction, the 'White-Out Experience' inside our Fun House, plus all the outlandish occupants, sights, sounds and scents that make ROT the most fiendishly fun you can have in a Haunt!

Tickets are available now on their website, with  proceeds benefiting various animal rescue groups. If you've never been to Reign of Terror, it really must be seen to be believed, and what better time to go than right in the middle of the off-season?

Enjoy!

REVIEW: Creep LA: Awake

If you're looking for a haunt (or is it immersive theatre?) that really lives up to its name, Creep LA is your jam. Year after year, they're the classiest, weirdest, most intelligent game in town. If other haunts are "Top That" from Teen Witch (and don't get me wrong, I LOVE "Top That"), Creep LA  is that scene in 2015's The Witch where the bird is pecking that lady's tit while she laughs dementedly. Both are great in their own way, of course, but one makes you laugh with your friends while the other leaves you shuddering alone.

Are you ready to shudder? Alone?

REVIEW: Creep LA 2017

Our evening begins on a nondescript loading dock outside of a building in a part of downtown Los Angeles that feels miles away from the trendy bars and restaurants that have started to spring up in the area. This section of town is all concrete and asphalt and sickly yellow-green streetlights. We are herded into groups of 8 and given black bandannas to cover our mouths shortly before we enter a sparsely decorated room illuminated only by candlelight, where we wait. And wait.

And then...she enters.

I'm uncomfortable and nervous and titillated and disoriented. This can only be Creep.

Photo by Hatbox Photography

Creep LA - perhaps the most exciting new haunt I experienced during last year's haunt season - has done it again with their new iteration, a partnership with the popular podcast/Amazon Prime series Lore.  In a world full of jump scares and gore, Creep brings the slow-burn, lingering terror. This experience is not about horrific set pieces and chainsaw chase-outs; rather, it's about catching something out of the corner of your eye, connecting with an actor who is inhabiting a character so fully that you're not even sure if they're acting anymore, losing yourself in the story and surrendering completely to the darkness.

Photo by Hatbox Photography

In fact, Creep isn't really a haunt or a maze at all - it's fully immersive, interactive theater, closer in spirit to New York's Sleep No More than it is to Knott's Scary Farm or Halloween Horror Nights. You become part of the action, moving from room to room, meeting new characters, and yes, even being touched by them from time to time. (Rest assured you won't be harmed or antagonized.)

Photo by Hatbox Photography 

The fairy tales, myths and legends of Lore are a natural fit for Creep, which always prioritizes storytelling above cheap scares. While I think it's best to head in knowing as little as possible about what to expect, I'll gladly tantalize you with a few keywords: Forest. Coffin. Asylum. Seance. Lobotomy. Doll. Wolf. (And as with most of life's best experiences, the whole thing wraps up with cocktails.)

Intrigued? Don't sleep, creeps: Creep LA: Lore runs through November 12, and many dates are already sold out. Grab your tickets now before they fade into the fog.


Disclosure: I was provided with complimentary passes to review this event.

Get Your Tickets for Creep LA: Lore NOW

Creep Los Angeles, now in its third year, is still pretty new to the LA haunt scene, but they've certainly carved out a niche with their uniquely cinematic, elegantly terrifying immersive events. Last Halloween, Creep was one of the absolute highlights of my haunt season. I had never experienced anything quite like it. Then, this spring, the creeps of Creep emerged with an interactive theater production called The Willows - another deliciously deranged and haunting entry in their singular body of work. But what would the autumn bring? Surely they were planning a proper October haunt, yes?

Yes, indeed they had something suitably sinister up their creepy sleeves: This year, Creep LA is partnering with the popular podcast-turned-Amazon-show Lore to bring Los Angeles a "fully interactive, multi-sensory, walk-through experience" that draws on the subject matter of the show to take guests on a unique descent into their "darkest nightmares."

Grab your tickets ASAP - Creep has a nasty habit of selling out fast - by visiting their website tomorrow, September 15 at 10 AM PT. Creep LA: Lore will take place in downtown Los Angeles on select dates from October 5 thru November 12, 2017. Tickets start at $65 for a 1-hour walkthrough experience. ADULTS ONLY.

See you creeps there!

REVIEW: Creep Los Angeles 2016

We are driving down a dark road in an industrial area. I haven't seen any houses in a while; just gas stations with their buzzing fluorescent lights, fast food joints and mysterious unmarked warehouses. Have we passed it? Our eyes strain to make out numbers. Then, projected on the side of a building, stark white on black: CREEP. 

"There it is!" I exclaim. I make a U-turn and pull into the lot.

A small group of people linger out front. A man in a dark hoodie and mask hands us cards inscribed with a single word and silently points to the X's on the ground in front of the door. We take our places. An orchestral cover of Radiohead's "Creep" plays. Are those children singing? It's hot in LA - still summer, really - but Halloween is in the air.

The door swings open. It's our turn to enter.

I ask to use the bathroom. It's lit only by candles; incense smolders in the sink. One of the creeps repeatedly pounds on the door while I try to pee. "This is all part of it," I reassure myself.

They call us forward, four at a time, and ask us to sign waivers. I don't even read mine, I just scribble my name. "Don't fuck it up," a creep hisses in my ear. After everyone has signed their lives away, they gesture: This way. Look for the man with the clipboard and introduce yourselves. We slink down a twisting maze in pitch blackness, the eight of us, thrown together by fate. Where are we heading?

Suddenly, a light. No one jumps out at us. There are no flayed corpses or fog machines or spiderwebs. Just a room that looks like a nightclub from a David Lynch movie, bathed in red light. PJ Harvey's "Electric Light" is playing. We order vodka sodas and wait, nervously. What have we gotten ourselves into?

A beautiful woman asks me to dance and makes me promise to go wherever the darkness takes me. A stranger pulls me away from my husband and takes me into an enclosed space. A man tells us the story of Erebus Burwyck, who believed the path to transcendence was paved with suffering, both mental and physical, before hammering nails into his face.

Then, the man with the clipboard says the word printed on the cards we were given. Purgatory is behind us now; only hell lies ahead.

We are led away. Our adventure begins in earnest.

What happens at CreepLA? To say much more would be to spoil the surprise. Suffice it to say that this haunt is totally unique, and true to its name. Will you be touched? Absolutely. You may be blindfolded, or told to hide. Your face may be painted. You're guaranteed to have a different experience than your friends. (But for those who fear McKamey Manor-esque hijinks like faux water boarding or live insects on your face, rest assured that nothing like that will befall you from the creeps at CreepLA. You will be touched, but you won't be harmed.)

If you're game, this is an experience that's rich with petrifying possibilities. Enter the darkness, and let the darkness enter you.

Disclosure: I was provided with complimentary passes to review this event.

Review: Haunted Play Presents "DELUSION"

It seems like every year, just as I'm starting to feel like I might be (gasp) a little burnt out on haunted houses, a new (or at least new-to-me) attraction comes along that restores my faith in Halloween and, you know, humanity as a whole. Quick recap of this phenomenon: 2008, Universal Halloween Horror Nights - I hadn't been in years and I was absolutely floored by how rad it was. 2009, L.A. Haunted Hayride's inaugural year - a totally unique experience for me, as it was my very first haunted hayride. 2010, Reign of Terror in Thousand Oaks - I couldn't believe the attention to detail and length of the maze. And what takes the creepy cake this year? A haunted house/theater hybrid known as Haunted Play presents "DELUSION."

Much has been made about one very specific aspect of Delusion's online FAQ:

• Q: Will they touch me?
  

• A: All haunted houses say their actors won’t touch you. That is NOT the case here.

This is basically the haunted house equivalent of the old Psycho trick of killing off the star of a horror movie well before the end of the film - it creates anticipation and makes the audience feel like all bets are off, and absolutely anything could happen. Well, rest assured that you probably will be touched if you attend Delusion, but it probably won't be as traumatic or violent as what you're imagining! (But really...who knows? Mwahaha.)

Yet my favorite aspect of this play/attraction isn't wondering whether or not the actors would touch me - it was being able to walk through such a fabulously creepy crumbling old mansion. Yes, the above photo is actually where Delusion takes place - an eerie, rundown, Haunted Mansion-esque estate. And the interior is even more deliciously spooky, with the kind of attention to detail that really makes a haunt.

Since Delusion was created by a Hollywood stuntman, you're probably expecting some cool stunts, right? Again, you won't be disappointed. The actors in this haunted play execute stunts more sophisticated than anything I've seen in a haunted house. When one of the "patients" (check out the website for the full Delusion backstory) laughs maniacally and then suddenly flies up out of view, it's like witnessing something out of The Exorcist in real life. Likewise when another character is dragged down the hall kicking and screaming by an unseen force. You expect these kinds of effects in movies, but not at a haunted house.

Another quality that sets Delusion apart is the fact that it forces you to become an active participant in the story. You will be asked to perform certain tasks, and your life (and the lives of your dozen or so companions) may hang in the balance. Oh, and wear comfortable shoes - you may be running from room to room in order to evade the ghouls!

Halloween is just two days away, but if you're looking for some last minute scares, I recommend trying to fit this one in. And if you miss out this year, go ahead and mark your calendar for October 2012 - I guarantee Haunted Play is going to be one to watch for many Halloweens to come.

Disclosure: I was provided with complimentary passes to review this event.

Review: Theatre 68 Haunted House

As a Halloween fan in southern California, it's easy to get caught up in going to the same professional haunts year after year. They're always fun, but after a while they do start to get stale. The maze layouts, the props and set pieces, even the scare tactics all start to feel rather...predictable. And predictability is not conducive to terror. That's why it's so much fun to discover a smaller, more unassuming haunt; you have no idea what to expect, and suddenly you're vulnerable again! Like a virgin...scared for the very first time.

So yeah, it was indeed a "white wedding" for me when I visited Theatre 68's 6th annual haunted house in Hollywood last night. Located on a rather nondescript block of Sunset Blvd. - east of the Sunset Strip, west of Sunset Junction - across the street from a Food 4 Less and tucked in the back of a small strip mall, the theatre sure didn't look like much from the outside. But once you walk down a short hallway festooned with cobwebs, you'll find yourself in a lobby decorated with photographs and mug shots of famous serial killers, an appropriately unsettling choice of decor. The best part of this haunted house is probably the fact that you are only allowed to go through 2 at a time, so you'll be able to enjoy the atmosphere and relish in the fact that the monsters are working to scare you, and you alone.

There were so many unique touches to this haunted house. You begin by being escorted into a dark room where you watch an introductory news bulletin on TV about a serial killer who is loose in the area. After the broadcast is abruptly cut off, a frantic reporter runs into the room and tells you where to go next - and then the experience truly begins.

I have no idea how they crammed so much haunted house goodness into such a small space, but we were going upstairs, downstairs, into rooms that appeared to be dead ends (but weren't, thanks to a mysterious moving wall), through closets filled with clothes on hangers, and more. I loved the ghoulish glowing bride and the poor fellow who "lost his head," but all of the sets were very creative and different from anything you can expect to see at Knott's or Universal.

If you don't have a lot of cash to spend on a "pro" haunt, I definitely recommend Theatre 68: Tickets are only $12, and if you bring a canned good you'll get $1 off. (Food will be donated to local organizations that serve the homeless for Thanksgiving - and, of course, your admission will help fund a small local theater instead of merely lining the coffers of a corporate conglomerate.) Another benefit of visiting Theatre 68's haunt is the fact that it's open seven nights a week, so you can check it out anytime.

Theatre 68's haunted house proves that passion, ingenuity and genuine enthusiasm can still be found in the heart of Hollywood for under 20 bucks. It's a Halloween miracle!


Disclosure: I was provided with complimentary passes to review this event.

Spooky Trip: San Diego's Whaley House

Whaley House, long ago.

Whaley House, not so long ago.

The Whaley House, a rather unassuming brick structure located in charming Old Town San Diego, has a reputation that belies its unremarkable facade: It is commonly known as "the most haunted house in America." Now I'm not sure how, exactly, one can quantify the "haunted-ness" of a locale, but in any case, I had been eager to check it out for years. When I heard that the Whaley House was offering free admission for Museum Day, I knew it was my chance to offset the cost of the 4-hour round trip car ride down to San Diego and back, and Mr. Spooky and I seized the opportunity.

No, we didn't see or hear any ghosts - surely there were too many tourists (and too much daylight) for that. But you know that feeling you get in some older buildings or other places that are said to be haunted - that feeling like the air itself is oppressive, like you're slightly seasick even though you're standing on level ground, that sense that history is closing in around you? That uneasy feeling in the pit of your stomach? Yeah, parts of the Whaley House definitely had that - something that I also felt the first time I set foot on the decks of the Queen Mary.

After exploring the house itself, we walked around Old Town San Diego, ate the most amazing fish tacos and sweet, chewy churros I'd ever had in my life, and finished off by taking a stroll by the eerily lovely Victorian homes in nearby Heritage Park. If you're in southern California and you're looking for a fun and affordable spooky day trip, a jaunt to the Whaley House is highly recommended.