REVIEW: la’s haunted hayride
OCTOBER 12, 2021
review: la’s haunted hayride
Throughout the years LA’s Haunted Hayride has offered its visitors a voyage through a transformed Griffith Park filled with ghouls and spectral delights. This family friendly event transforms the forest into an eerie landscape illuminated with orange lights and filled with creeping fog. Monsters run amok as they interact with visitors, and attractions include mazes and the famous haunted hayride.
The night takes place in a fictional haunted town from the 1970s/80s called “Midnight Falls”. Werewolves in varsity jackets and infernal prom queens roam the town square while Monte Revolta and his Band of The Living Dead perform on the center stage. The theme of Midnight Falls continues into “The Haunted Hayride” itself and the three mazes: “Trick or Treat”, “Midnight Mortuary”, and the “Dead End Diner”.
In previous years the mazes were less than thrilling and we noted in past reviews that the “Dead End” maze felt uninspired and lacked an identity. However, thanks to the Hayride's collaboration with Plague Productions (who have done some of our favorite Knott’s mazes), this maze has been given new life and is now reincarnated into the “Dead End Diner”. You will enter into a retro diner where you quickly find out that you might be served as the next meal.
We also loved Trick or Treat. In previous visits this was our favorite maze because we really enjoyed going from house to house and ringing the doorbells to see what kind of monster would open the door to give us a “trick” or a “treat”. This year the timing felt slightly off - but it was still really enjoyable.
The biggest surprise this year was Midnight Mortuary. This maze really felt like a classic and had dozens of memorable, original characters - like the axe wielding ghoul in the first room, the man with a melted face, and the creepy living doll in the toy room. The lighting, sound and set design of Midnight Mortuary was exceptional and it is by far our favorite attraction that the LA Haunted Hayride franchise has created.
While we love riding the Hayride - it wasn’t our favorite this year. There was a lot of dead space and we weren’t as impressed with it after visiting the great mazes. If you have to pick one attraction to enjoy, we highly recommend a visit to Midnight Mortuary.
We ended our night admiring the legendary Scary-Go-Round. While this rickety horse skeleton ride hasn’t been operational in a few years, we were very happy to see it in the center of the field among the mazes. A few months ago its creator, Albert Cuellar, passed away suddenly. Albert was a local legend who worked with everyone from Tim Burton to Slayer. Seeing his art amid monsters running about and scaring visitors was a very peaceful way to end our visit to Midnight Falls.
VC
October 12, 2021
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