Producers behind Winter Fest OC and the Creative Director and Producer of Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor have collaborated to create a socially distant Halloween themed drive-thru event for scare seekers.
Hosted by the OC Fair & Events Center, guests “will experience theatrical, immersive storytelling and terrifying sets” with popular urban legends brought to life all from the safety of their own vehicle.
In their opening week, Urban Legends Haunt received a lot of negative feedback via their Instagram page, all of which have now been disabled and deleted by the account.
YouTube-based singer, songwriter, and producer Kurt Hugo Schneider attended the event in their opening week. “Incredibly the hour and a half wait to get in was still more entertaining than the 20-minute show.. a below average middle school drama production would probably be better … save yourself!” said Schneider. “The only scary thing about this “haunt” is thousands more people are going to see it…”
The event organizers are continuously taking feedback from visitors about the haunt and making adjustments accordingly. Since their opening week, they’ve hired more scarers, added more smoke, and have enhanced the overall experience for their guests.
There were five zones with different immersive scenes including a drive-in theater, an industrial zone, and a carnival. Each zone included performers and scarers, lighting, music, and special effects that went along with the specific scene.
The first zone acted as a welcome to the experience. It was a drive-in theater with interactive, psychotic theater attendants. The video that was playing on the projector screen was an introduction and background of the different stories that will be shown in the next sections.
The next two zones were the industrial zone and the carnival zone. The two were the only sections that had jump-scares.
The industrial zone featured scarers jumping on cars, flashing bright lights, and banging on large sea containers. With a lot of smoke, scare-seekers are sure to get a thrill out of the industrial zone.
The carnival zone had several scarers in frightening clown costumes with a few of them holding a chain saw to provide that extra scare tactic.
The last two of the five zones were more of a performance and were the only zones that featured well-known urban legends: the sasquatch, otherwise known as bigfoot, in the campground scene and Bloody Mary in the final scene.
Visitors entered each zone in groups at a time and were signaled where to park and turn off their car.
Although the experience isn’t quite haunting just yet, this an entirely new experience for both the guests and the event organizers. The staff of Urban Legends Haunt is doing what they can to bring back Halloween amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
The drive-thru Halloween haunt follows all mandated COVID-19 safety social distancing restrictions. All guests in the car are required to wear masks when windows are rolled down. All scarers were wearing masks that were incorporated into their costumes and they do not touch or reach inside the vehicles.
There are no age restrictions for the event, but it is recommended for ages 10 and up. There will be a family-friendly night for children under 10 on October 31st, and they are offering special discounted days for community heroes such as law enforcement and hospital workers.
This event started October 1st and will run through November 1, 2020. Tickets start at $69.99 and are sold per vehicle. Visitors have the option to purchase VIP tickets for a higher price; VIP tickets are recommended as there is a designated VIP lane that offers the best viewing experience for the event.
For more information and tickets, visit their website https://urbanlegendshaunt.com/ and for regular updates visit their Instagram @urbanlegendshaunt.
