Haunting’s 2023 Halloween Reviews
As the spirits return to their graves and the glowing smile on the Jack O Lantern dims, our Halloween Haunt Guide comes to a close with fewer and fewer events. But we don’t want to keep up an empty guide throughout the year–rather, we want to showcase the wonderful haunted houses, conventions, immersive horror experiences, yard displays, and other Halloween events we experienced this 2023 scene. Welcome to the 2023 Halloween Reviews from Haunting.net.
If you’re looking for another Halloween Guide, check back in 2024. Here’s we’ll showcase all your favorite Halloween events (not the reviews currently here) so you can plan the absolute best Halloween possible. Or check out our Event Listings, which tells you current immersive events and even more control in filtering events so you’re only seeing what you want to see.
Happy Hauntings!
Table of Contents
Immersive Horror
Immersive Horror experiences offer a step up from the traditional haunted house, offering participants a more active role in their narrative. Participants can often explore a location, spending more time in rooms, and engage in a strong narrative. Think of this as a personal, intimate, and evocative experience. While the experiences here do offer engage and interaction with actors, this is in service of a narrative and rarely includes actor contact. These are safe, vetted, and are meant to a lasting memory with the audience.
Los Angeles
Hotel Who’s La Séance: Spiritualism, Intrigue, & Recommendations for this Murder Mystery
The Hotel Who – La Séance – Castle Ivar – Hollywood, CA
San Gabriel Valley & East LA
Downtown Rep’s Fangs is the Strongest Literary Theater for this Halloween
Downtown Repertory Theater – Fangs – Mountain View Mausoleum – Altadena, CA
San Fernando Valley
Haunted Soiree Combines Deep Lore, Monstrous Creatures, and Immersive Elements This Halloween
Meyer2Meyer Entertainment – Haunted Soiree: Théâtre du Vaurien – The Nocturne Theatre – Glendale, CA
Haunted Houses
Haunted Houses or “Haunts” are walkthrough mazes in which guests, usually in a single file, walk through a themed set and have actors in costume jump out–“jump scare”–the participants. These are the bread-and-butter of the Halloween season and can be experienced by teens to adults alike. While there are other categories that have innovated on this concept (e.g., immersive horror), these are the best foray into Halloween experiences and offer a wonderful adrenaline experience. Actors here should not touch audiences and the narratives are implied but rarely explored.
Los Angeles
Angel of Light is the Best Immersive Haunt in Los Angeles
Parma Pictures, ODEON & Fever – Angel of Light – The Los Angeles Theatre – Los Angeles, CA
San Gabriel Valley & East LA
The Haunted Rose Brings Universal Monsters to Life in a Cinematic Haunt
The Haunted Rose – Threshold of Darkness – The Whittier Museum – Whittier, CA
San Fernando Valley
BCR A Place to sCARE Offers an Interactive Haunted House for Charity
BCR: A Place to sCARE – Nightmare – Burbank, CA
Orange County
Hauntington Beach Manor’s Followers of Pythia is a Dark Labyrinth through your Mind
Hauntington Beach Manor – Followers of Pythia – Garden Grove, CA
OC Nightmare Offers Interactive Scares Just a Scream from Disneyland
OC Nightmare – STC Anaheim Garden Walk – Anaheim, CA
Santa Clarita
Dangling Carrot’s Grisly Garden – A Film Industry Fabricated Halloween Haunt
Dangling Carrot Creative – Grisly Garden – Valencia, CA
Inland Empire
ScareScape Brings Fear, Drinks, and Mazes to the Inland Empire
Creative Minds Productions – Murrieta, CA
Out of State Haunts
The Lester Haunted Hospital – A Strong Haunt in Limestone County, Alabama
The Lester Haunted Hospital – Lester, AL
Stitch Factory Farms: Agri-Industrial and Loud in Hazel Green, Alabama
Stitch Factory Farms – Hazel Green, AL
Home Haunts & Elaborate Yard Displays
Home Haunts offer the same thrill and style of traditional Haunted Houses, but are built in the yard, home, or street of a residential area. These experiences usually run for only the final weekend of October and are free, resulting in long lines – so if you plan on going, get there early or plan on waiting. Further, these experiences are often family friendly as they appeal to the entirety of the community.
Los Angeles
San Gabriel & East LA
MacDevitt Manor Creates a Ghastly Midnight Circus in West Covina
MacDevitt Manor – Midnight Circus – West Covina, CA
San Fernando Valley (North Western Corner of LA)
Haunted Groundz Targets Halloween Magic in an Interactive Shooting Range
Haunted Groundz – Granada Hills, CA
Rotten Apple 907 Invites us to Go to the Movies
Rotten Apple 907 – Let’s Go To the Movies – Burbank, CA
Orange County
Deadwood Inn Wants you to Check into Room 1313 and not Check Out
Town of Deadwood – Deadwood Inn – Buena Park, CA
Ferris Haunt Transported Me to Another Dimension of Halloween Fun
Ferris Haunt – Garden Grove Research Institute – Garden Grove, CA
Mystic Terror Captures the Evolution of Horror with Halloween Heritage
Mystic Terror – Halloween Heritage – Garden Grove, CA
Monstrous Meltdown by Prism Haunt Restores the Magic of Their Home Haunt
Prism Haunt – Monstrous Meltdown – Mission Viejo, CA
Santa Ana Haunt Gifts us One More Year of Shades of Hell 2023
Santa Ana Haunt – Shades of Hell – Santa Ana, CA
Santa Clarita
Inland Empire
Straite to Hale Welcomes A Sinister Circus to This Rancho Cucamonga Home Haunt
Straite to Hale – Rancho Cucamonga, CA
Theme Parks & Large Scale Haunts
As the popularity of Halloween increased, Theme Parks capitalized on the success of Haunted Houses, integrating these attractions into their Halloween season offerings. In this section, you’ll see the theme parks that offer walkthrough attractions. With the larger budgets, these attractions are usually impressive in scale, incorporating familiar intellectual property (e.g., Stranger Things, Silent Hill, The Exorcist, and Saw at Universal Studios), and numerous scare actors. Yet, this also leads to longer lines and the “conga line effect” in which audiences see a scare happening to the people in front of them, reducing the effect of the jump scare. These are fantastic for a fun night out and often are a staple of anyone’s Halloween season.
Santa Clarita
Fright Fest 2023 Expertly Brings Saw and The Conjuring to Life
Six Flags Magic Mountain – Fright Fest – Valencia, CA
Extreme Haunts
Extreme Haunts are haunted houses that push the boundaries of physical comfort, often utilizing actor contact, phobia-exploration, light shocks (i.e., electricity), and/or bugs to ensure fear in their participants. These have light narratives that are expanded in their experiences, but often the focus is the intensity, boundary pushing, and adrenaline response of their audience. These are not recommended for first-time haunted, for young kids, or for those who don’t fully understand the expectations of these experiences. These are for those who want something more from their Halloween experience. They also require a waiver to ensure expectations are understood.
Out of State
La Casa de Satanas – Ur F*@cking Hysterical Recollection
La Casa de Satanas – Ur F*@cking Hysterical – Chicago, IL
The Fear Experiment’s Bedtime Stories 2023 – What Did I Just See?
The Fear Experiment – Bedtime Stories – IL
Traditional Theater & Movie Screenings
Next up on our list, we have some traditional theater experiences and halloween movie screenings. Traditional Theater is exactly what you think it is: these are Halloween or Horror-Themed stage shows with some light immersive elements. The shows range from family-friendly to to more adult themed cabaret shows. Halloween movie screening are Halloween Themed or Horror movies screening in immersive environments.
Los Angeles
ACB Trailblazes Modern Ballet with The Rite and Burlesque
American Contemporary Ballet – The Rite & Burlesque – Los Angeles, CA
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