REVIEW: NIGHT OF TERROR

December 5, 2019

REVIEW: NIGHT OF TERROR

A few years ago we made waves by stumbling upon (and later being kicked out of) the only hell house (that we are aware of) in the county of Los Angeles. This annual attraction is titled “A Night of Terror”, and is hosted by the Freedom Christian Center, a non-denominational church in Santa Fe Springs, whose strange history contains some unsavory allegations that we won’t address in this review.

For one weekend this past Halloween, A Night of Terror took place in the Freedom Christian Center’s massive, single-floor building which regularly would appear to be a typical suburban Los Angeles office space. The parking lot contained a massively bright spotlight which pointed up into the night sky, acting as a beacon for visitors from far and wide. The line to get into the maze stretched around the parking lot and off the property and contained hundreds upon hundreds of people - who mostly seemed to be followers of the church’s controversial pastor.

It took us hours to get inside, but once we did we were pleasantly surprised by the loud, demonic sounds which greeted us through the maze’s introductory hallway. Filled with an insane amount of fog and a single light that shined towards us, it was very difficult to predict when we would run into the live demons who would pop out at us out of nowhere. After this extremely suspenseful and intense experience, we followed a path that led us outside to the parking lot. There we saw a bloody and grotesque car crash scene that included actual cars and numerous “dead” children who were laying motionless on the ground in pools of blood.

After the parking lot we were looped back inside the building, where we passed a Hummer limousine with children dancing and staring blankly at us. We then entered a “party room" - complete with a gas-masked DJ, mountains of “cocaine” fit for Tony Montana, awkward strippers, and a guy holding a gun directly at a dead kid on the ground while drunk party girls danced around as if everything was normal. This highly fictionalized version of a party with violent scenarios and sexually charged displays was a bizarre, fantasy version very unlike what one would encounter on a typical night out clubbing in Hollywood.

The next room was filled with numerous, graphic scenes of dead children that again fed into the church’s fantastical narrative of situations from the real world. We walked by a girl sitting on her bed as she held a gun to her head underneath a Sublime poster. We also saw, on the other side of the room, numerous hospital beds in which teenagers lay dying from various kinds of drug overdoses.

As we exited past all of the dead children, we finally entered into hell. This room was remarkably rendered and had a very authentic, infernal atmosphere. Saturated with intense red lights and thunderously loud demonic wailing which shook the floors, we were met by demons who looked incredibly realistic. The environment of this room was a sensory overload and absolutely horrifying, to the point that we were shocked that children were allowed to experience it. But this exercise in fear mongering then seemed very intentional as the maze finally ended in the worship room (which like years before had its exits blocked). There, we were seated in order to experience the Las Vegas style sermon delivered by the church’s controversial pastor.

This very dull experience began with teenagers who enacted deaths from tragic circumstances. These acts took place in the middle of the room, and included one lonely spotlight and the “voice of god” over the PA. God berated the teens and emotionally abused them in front of the sold-out crowd of spectators. God's voice continued to taunt them, constantly repeating that they were not in the “book of life” and that, when alive, they ignored Jesus when he “called on them”. On cue the room's PA would then emphasize god's final word as trap music rumbled the room and Satan and his demons ran out onto the stage to take the kid's into the depths of hell. After what felt like an eternity, this droll and negative show ended abruptly with a dance sequence in which a young girl danced her way to a prop gun which she held to her head and committed suicide in front of the crowd.

The self-serving finale occurred when the church's pastor, dressed in an Adidas tracksuit, came out and apathetically stumbled his way through the church’s sales pitch followed by a request for people to be baptized by him. He surprisingly managed to convince a few kids in the crowd through the use of psychological manipulation and emotionally triggering mechanisms. At a certain point, a group of us had enough and wanted to leave. Like last year, we tried to politely leave with a group of other families, but we were blocked from exiting by the church's security guards. Once again it took someone yelling, in this case a random dad, for us to be released. As we all walked off, the dad (whom we didn't personally know) summarized it best by stating “that was fucking brutal”.

As always, A Night of Terror was truly a surreal experience that was filled to the brim with pathological negativity, fantasy life scenarios, an abusive god, and exquisite demons. I'd suggest this event for those who have an evening to kill and are morbidly curious about cultish religions and/or hell houses. However, if you are young and/or have suffered from trauma, this would definitely not be the place to visit.

VC

December 05, 2019

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