A manor towers against a black sky, its windows glowing red, its grounds bathed in blue. The town marshal stands on porch, welcoming us to Sundown Manor. He opens the door, releasing the green light trapped inside. But as the green dissipates, I see the interior: aged, decrepit, but beautifully elegant. I step through and the manor opens up into a massive parlor, its floor is a sea of emerald, its master seated upon a majestic throne overlooking the entirety of the room. He stands, displaying his curved horns, as he floats across the water. It’s our turn now, as we step into the green sea—and we sink. Beneath its light, beneath its fog. We sink further and further down, until only the top half of our body emerges from the fog. Yet, our demonic lord is still walking along the fog, proving that devils, too, can walk on water. We’ve found ourselves inside Fear Farm Phelan Haunted Screampark experiencing their main maze: Sundown Manor.

Fear Farm Phelan: A Family Affair

 Fear Farm Phelan Haunted Screampark is an extensive property in Phelan, CA that offers two mazes and a hayride—as well as a small bar and café. With a footprint rivaling that of the LA Haunted Hayride, this gives this haunted attraction plenty of room to work with; but as this is their home as well, these attractions, props, and facades end up staying up for most of the year as well, allowing for some strong attention to detail and décor. While this haunt does serve its fair share of scares, it caters to its younger audience, allowing young kids to interact and pose for pictures with the monsters—or just give them a hug.

Speaking of their younger audience, I’ve personally never seen actors be so kind to children in a haunt setting before. Numerous actors would approach kids, make jokes with them, and then pose for pictures. I didn’t see any children crying, or even scared in the exterior portions of the Fear Farm Phelan Haunted Screampark. This allows children to enjoy the haunt property—and one of the mazes—to get a feel of what a real haunt can be like.

Fear Farm Phelan Haunted Screampark offers a “Monster Repellent” glow stick for a dollar that will ward away any of the monsters from young children or scared teenagers. But, if the actors catch any adults trying to wear it, it’s basically “Monster Pheromones” and you’ll be a main target. There’s no extremity here though; You won’t be touched or tormented—just a bit more special treatment.

Fear Farm Phelan Haunted Screampark is also offering a lights on tour of the haunts that may be too scary for the kids on Halloween. Reach out to them for times—the sets are beautiful and worth appreciating in the light.

Graves Bros Undertakers

Grave Bros Undertakers—named after the mortuary in which it begins—is the child friendly haunted attraction. With only one actor in it, it’s a simple stroll through the Wild West sets of the Fear Farm Haunted Screampark. Entering the mortuary, you pass through a few winding corridors, mostly outside, until it ends, depositing you back into the streets of the Farm. It’s not much for the adults, but is perfect for children looking to experience a maze—but without loud noises, strobe effects, or actors jumping out constantly.

Sundown Manor

For the adults, Sundown Manor offers a much more traditional haunt experience, with its linear progression, jump scares, and beautiful sets. Built as a façade for a convention, this manor can be seen from almost anywhere in Fear Farm Phelan Haunted Screampark—towering towards the sky. The outside may be beautiful, but the inside is even better. Themed as a gothic manor, this feels similar to haunts like Willoughby’s Revenge at Six Flags Fright Fest or Mansion of Lost Souls. Guests travel through a living room full of laser light and fog, dining halls with a feast to enjoy, children’s bedrooms overflowing with dolls, and an outdoor garden populated with mannequins.

The first effect in the parlor is easily my favorite of the event. To be specific, they have an actor on stilts, but his stilts are perfectly aligned to the height of the laser permeating the fog. Thus, when the actor stands from his throne, it appears if he is walking upon the laser light—but when you try, you sink down below the fog. It’s a fantastic optical illusion and one I’ve never seen done to such perfection before.

A Haunted Hayride

For those of you who attended the drive through experience for Fear Farm Phelan in 2020, the haunted hayride will look very familiar. Taking the sets and path of that experience and placing audiences on a hayride, guests can now get more up close and personal with the sets—and the actors chasing the open-air tractor trailer.

The hayride is filled with classic haunt themes, from aliens, to clowns, to chainsaw wielding maniacs, to gorillas. Did I just say gorillas? Yeah, there’s a gorilla that chased us.

Don’t worry about them catching you though because this hayride is much faster than others. The tractor zips around corners, moving at fast speeds, only contributing to the speed. It also doesn’t stop, like LA Haunted Hayride, at various points to watch scenes, it’s one continuous path. The tractor takes you to one end of the property, then loops around, bringing you through some of the prior sets a second time to ensure the scares land.

A highlight of this hayride is Gutman’s. Gutman is a fan-favorite of Fear Farm Phelan, a mascot of sorts, but also a stuntman, scare actor, and sideshow all wrapped up into one. We first see him as he’s hanging upside down, from chains dangling across a make-shift barn labeled with his name. Yet, as the tractor approaches, he flips from them, landing elegantly, and proceeds to chase down our trailer—jumping onto it and joining us in the hay. It’s a great scare and an impressive feat. Just make sure you are looking for it or you’ll miss it.

That brings me to my only criticism of the hayride—and Fear Farm Phelan Haunted Screampark itself—the tractor is just a little too fast. While I appreciate the adrenaline of the speed, and more importantly, the need to get the long line through the experience, the quick pace prevents you from seeing and appreciating the details of the hayride. If the experience was slowed down just slightly, some of the beautiful sets could be witnessed and some of the scares could land a bit more effectively.

Final Thoughts

Fear Farm Phelan Haunted Screampark is part farm, part micro theme park, and all haunted house. It’s an incredible place in which the passion of actors, of set designers, and of Halloween fans is felt all around you. Even the guests are all happy to wait in line, as Sprinkles the Clown and his many, many friends rush by you, offering photo ops to audiences and kids alike. With so much attention paid to kids, it’s no wonder this haunted attraction is so popular, allowing children to grow up appreciating this kind of experience and graduate into the scary mazes and hayrides.

With two mazes and a hayride, this is an exceptional deal. Drive out to the high desert, and make a night of it, adding All Saints Lunatic Asylum, Manor of Fears, and High Desert Haunted House to the agenda, making this a full night of scares under a desert sky.

For more information about Fear Farm Phelan Haunted Screampark, checkout their website, Facebook and Instagram pages. For information about similar events, check out our Event Calendar.

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Fear Farm Phelan Haunted Screampark is a a fun night out in the Phelan area.