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The Long Halloween Diaries 2016 - The Tension Experience: Ascension

9/26/2016

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(For those new to this article series, please check out my introduction to The Long Halloween.)

I can’t tell you how long we’ve been in the back of this van. The hoods over our heads block out all but the brightest of light. We’ve been told not to speak, and I’ve lost track of counting the streets a while ago. Every so often, we stop, I can hear the van door slide open, and someone getting out. Then we’re moving again. Classical music blares in the background, distracting and disorienting me. I know Fiona is nearby, but I can’t reach for her.
 
Then we stop, and my mask comes off, and the madness begins.
 
So starts The Tension Experience: Ascension.
 
The Tension Experience is a new haunt for 2016, and as such we were a bit hesitant about attending (having been burned by untested events in the past, we generally prefer to go places that have been established), however with good word of mouth, we decided to give this one a shot.
 
Tension all about mystery, and the fact that I’m not going to give away any serious spoilers about it probably won’t help you get a serious idea of what it’s about, but I’ll do the best I can. What I can say is that it isn’t a traditional haunt, it’s more a part of the growing field of immersive theater, where you sign yourself up to be a part of an interactive experience, where you’re part of the show. Some of these shows push you more than others, while some you’re just along for the ride.
 
Tension is one of the ones that pushes you.
 
From the very moment you park in their dingy-looking parking lot to the moment you’re in the van, to the very end of the show where you’re standing, confused and talking about just what the hell happened with the rest of the people in your group, it is an experience that gets in your head and tweaks it in every way it can, for better and for worse.
 
The story is layered and in depth, but ultimately unnecessary to the actual experience. As attendees, we’re brought into the cult of the OOA. It’s a quasi-religious organization, and if you check out their website or any of their real-world experiences they’ve been holding since about April, you’ll get a lot of story. I mean, a lot of story. It can be a bit daunting, and a bit intimidating, but know that not much of it really matters in the long run.
 
And… all right, I’m going to get to my complaints about the show before I get to what I really loved about it. This is a new show, and a lot of that shows. They make a lot of promises, like it being an immersive experience customized to your personality and actions, and when there it feels like a fairly linear (if often non-linear) experience where your choices don’t mean much. A lot of tantalizing story possibilities are brought up, without resolution, like a frightened woman sneaking me a note at show’s beginning that had information that never came up again. They rely a little too much on shock tactics (overwhelming each of the five senses in fairly unpleasant ways in one section) and had several long, empty stretches where we were just sitting in blind silence. While disorienting at first, it got boring in a hurry after a while. As well, and this is just a personal phobia thing, if haunts could stop cramming things in our mouths in an effort to seem more extreme, that’d be very appreciated, thankyouverymuch.
 
As well, if you’ve got problems with nude strangers, or changing your own clothes in public (long story), this may cause some issues.
 
Now, complaints aside, I want to say that I really like this show. At nearly two hours in length, it has a way of overwhelming the mind and getting into your head, creating a feeling of intensity and paranoia like I’ve never felt before in a fictional setting. Perfect example: more than an hour into this experience, I’m a mess, I’ve been covered in things and had all sorts of things done to me, and I look at myself in a mirror. I don’t see myself anymore, I see this haunting, intense face, the face of a guy who’s survived a horror movie. After the experience is over, Fi and I get home, and we still wonder if we’re in it, knowing rationally that we haven’t been followed, and yet still full of paranoia. I write this article the next morning, and I still have a weird feeling like I’m being watched.
 
The non-linear portions of the show, where groups are split up, encourages conversation afterward as you find out what separate and unique experiences you and your friends had, as well as the strangers you were with. It creates an odd sense of community in this way, when we’re left to clean up after the show together, talking with people who were strangers hours before like they’re close friends due to this bizarre, shared experience.
 
As well, all my complaints about how the show physically tests you aside, I found a lot of the experience of it pushing boundaries to be both fascinating and thrilling. I was uncomfortable, the people around me were uncomfortable, and yet for two hours I was able to forget about the world and feel like myself because of how much it pushed me.
 
And at least one of the plot twists, which I won’t share, has me both deeply amused and feeling betrayed all at once.
 
Well done, Tension. Well done.
 
So, while it is imperfect, The Tension Experience: Ascension is still an exciting and different new immersive experience, and one I would highly recommend for people who are willing to push themselves.
 
Score: 8.5/10

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We survived the Tension Experience!
Thank you for joining us this Halloween season, and as always, please drop me a line on Facebook or Twitter! I'm big into liking/following back! 

Facebook: http://facebook.com/mattcarterauthor  


Twitter: https://twitter.com/MCarterAuthor

-- Matt Carter

(We know there's a lot of Matt Carter's online you could spend your time with, so thanks for hanging around this one!)

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The Long Halloween Diaries 2016 - Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights

9/24/2016

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(For those new to this article series, please check out my introduction to The Long Halloween.)

So, yeah, if you’re hanging around this blog and saw my introduction to the Long Halloween recently, one of the things you’re probably wondering is, “Hey, isn’t this September? Halloween isn’t until October!”
 
Well, long story short on this is that, with so many Halloween events in the Los Angeles area, the most competitive among them tend to open earlier and run longer, which for Fi and I is pretty fantastic, as it means we can almost do one of our favorite events either on or around her birthday (September 23rd). Thankfully, this year her birthday actually fell on a day when Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights was open, letting us make it the kickoff to our Long Halloween season.

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My selfie game still needs a lot of work, if you can't tell.
As I’ve said before, Halloween Horror Nights is one of our all time favorite Halloween events. Set in a major theme park and with the special effects, makeup and set-building technicians of a major motion picture studio behind them, Halloween Horror Nights is consistently one of the highest quality Halloween events out there. Adapting major horror properties into their events, you will more often than not feel like you’re walking through your favorite horror movies.
 
This year in particular was a very special year, as they were going for a greatest hits reel of some of the greatest icons of horror, along with some newer highly requested properties. How successful were they this year adapting them? Well, let’s dive in, shall we?
 
NOTE: For the sake of this series of articles, the term "maze" will actually very likely never mean maze. The terms "maze" and "haunted house" are pretty interchangeable from everything I've seen, though from what I can tell "maze" is usually used by larger events and theme parks when they are running a number of haunts. They are usually straightforward and offer little in the way of getting lost, but hey, you never know, they might surprise you.
 
SPECIAL THIS EVENT SPECIFIC NOTE: Normally I try and take a ton of high quality pictures of these events to properly memorialize them for my audience. However, my camera decided to die right around the time Halloween Horror Nights opened this year. We made do with Fi’s quite decent cell phone camera, but admittedly some of these pictures are better than others. I’ll try and get a higher quality camera for future events that allow them.


THE HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS EXPERIENCE
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Typically we like to get to the park quite early to take in the opening scare-emonies, which is basically an announcement that the park is opened followed by a bunch of guys with chainsaws running at us. I know, neato. Anyway, that didn’t happen this time, as we got there so early we were ushered in via an early entrance program, and, well, got to see close to half the Halloween Horror Nights mazes while it was still light.

While it was great to see the mazes sooner (I’m as impatient as anyone), a lot of them had windows allowing us to see daylight, which is a big no no when it comes to scares.
 
But, I digress. Once the lights went out, the true entertainment of the park came out, and we got to take in the “scare zones”, stretches of the park set up with costumed actors jumping at you with weapons and going for cheap jump scares. While most years the park has multiple themed scare zones, this year Universal went with one overall theme, The Purge: Election Year, and stretched it throughout the park. Being a big fan of this movie, we had a lot of fun dodging through the massive stretches of purged out park, including the half-assed mini maze, The Purge: Gauntlet of Fear. While hardly anything new, given that the park has done Purge themed scare zones in two past years, we still enjoyed it.


THE MAZES

The Exorcist
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Like I said, this year is billed as a greatest hits sort of experience, with a lot of top notch classic and modern horror movie experiences, and perhaps none has had more hype than The Exorcist. While the idea is cool on paper to have an Exorcist maze, the reality is far more disappointing. Remember how the movie mostly takes place in one bedroom? Yeah, that’s a problem when it comes to creating varied maze experiences. The maze is basically a collection of repeating bedroom sets broken up by occasional black hallways with Captain Howdy’s face popping up in the dark. While the Regan makeup is amazing, and the Pazuzu statue scare toward the end is trippy, this maze was easily the weakest of the night.
 
The fact that there were two guys in front of us, constantly breaking the mood by hopping out of line to shove their camera in Regan’s fish tank every time it popped up, was also an odd experience.
 
Maze Ranking: # 7

Krampus

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Krampus
 
After a long, sort of death march, across Universal’s lower lot to the filming backlots, we made it to a trio of mazes that were all ones we were looking forward to. The first was Krampus, based on the recent so-so horror movie. That being said, though the movie was so-so, I knew it would translate well to a maze because it’s colorful. The scares are varied and weird, from children being eaten by chimneys, to demonic (but delicious smelling) gingerbread men taking over a kitchen, to killer toys run amok, to evil snowmen, to the demonic Krampus himself. Combined with some high quality sets which are distinct, ever-present Christmas music, and random rooms where the temperature greatly drops (always welcome in Southern California), and this was a dark, fun time.
 
Maze Ranking: # 4
 
American Horror Story

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I’ve got an odd relationship with American Horror Story, the show, which’ll take up more words than I want to put here. The maze, however, was one I was looking forward to, because I know the show’s very into its surreal imagery and fantastic sets. On this front, the maze greatly delivered. It recreated all the most famous scenes from seasons 1, 4 and 5, and brought monsters like the Rubber Man, Twisty the Clown and James Patrick March into their respective, creepy worlds. That being said, what this maze had in amazing sets (including a very cool freak show entrance pavilion) and the ever-present theme song, it lacked in performers, being one of the most sparsely populated mazes of the night.
 
Maze Ranking:  # 5
 
Freddy vs. Jason

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I’m a huge fan of the Friday the 13th series, and a pretty decent one of A Nightmare on Elm Street, so I was curious to see what it would be like to see the two titans of horror go head to head. While not explicitly based on their mashup movie, Freddy vs. Jason turned out to be the highlight of the night. Switching seamlessly between Elm Street and Camp Crystal Lake, this maze was heavily populated by Freddy, Jason and their victims, to a point where you could rarely go more than five feet without being attacked by one of them. Their makeup and costumes were fantastic, the sets were spot on, and the alternating ending (depending on when you go, Freddy or Jason will be the victor) makes this one worth doing more than once (we did, and were fortunate enough to see both endings). Easily the most fun we had all night, and one that thoroughly earned its maze ranking.
 
Maze Ranking: # 1
 
Halloween: Hell Comes to Haddonfield

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Theatrical Fog: AKA "Bigfoot Sighting" camera filter
I was probably the only person who wasn’t impressed with last year’s Halloween maze, so I couldn’t say I was really looking forward to this years, based on the mediocre Halloween 2 (the original Halloween 2, not the he-who-shall-not-be-named new film). Well, I’ll take back any doubt, as this maze was a strong contender for the best maze in the park. It faithfully recreated the major beats and moments from Halloween 2 shot for shot (sometimes literally, as in the finale where a great Jamie Lee Curtis lookalike shot out Michael Myers’ eyes), and if it weren’t for a mediocre and frankly bizarre ending walking through a giant pumpkin, this would’ve been the best maze of the night.
 
Special bonus points for beginning right outside the Doyle house, with Donald Pleasance’s insane voice echoing over speakers shouting my favorite, deeply silly line, “I SHOT HIM! I SHOT HIM SIX TIMES!”
 
…
 
Okay, maybe that’s just funny to me.
 
Maze Ranking: # 2
 
Eli Roth Presents the Terror Tram

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Though not technically a maze, I’m putting this here because it’s a similar experience. The long and the short of the Terror Tram is that you ride a tram out onto the backlot, which has been decked out for Horror Nights to a particular theme, and walk around famous sets while being harassed by performers fitting a certain theme. In the past, we’ve seen this decorated to fit the Walking Dead and The Purge, and, well, it’s always been a pretty weak attraction, since there’s only so much you can do using the same sets over and over.
 
This year was no different. It had clowns. They were creepy. It was fun. It was also forgettable. The wait is pretty atrocious, and there are several bottlenecks that can slow things down, and if I’m going to be honest, you could skip this and wouldn’t miss a single thing. Do it if you’ve the time (or, like us, front of the line tickets), but know you won’t miss much by skipping it.
 
Oh yeah, and watch your knees getting in and out of the tram. That’s my pro tip for the night.
 
The Walking Dead

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The Walking Dead has been a presence at the last four Halloween Horror Nights, and as such has started to wear out its welcome. I wasn’t terribly excited to hear that Universal had decided to transform it into a year round attraction, but since we paid for front of the line passes and it was open for Horror Nights, we figured we’d give it a go. In retrospect, I’m glad we did. Since the attraction is built to be year-round, the sets and effects are even higher quality than the average maze, with impressive animatronic walkers mixed in with a large number of made up scareactors. Covering the first five seasons of the show, we get top notch horrors featuring everything from the bicycle girl zombie of the pilot all the way up to the Wolves’ truck full of gnashing torsos. This one was the surprise of the evening.
 
Maze Ranking: # 3
 
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Blood Brothers

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During Fi’s and my first Halloween Horror Nights, there was a maze based on the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and it was one to remember, faithfully recreating the original movie on a scene by disturbing scene level. This year’s maze billed itself as a pseudo-sequel, taking place between the first and second movies of the TCM franchise, telling an original story of the Sawyer family. Unfortunately, without any serious story to latch onto, this became something of a generic cannibal hillbillies maze. A very well done one, with a lot of fantastic Leatherface scareactors, but nothing to really write home about in the end.
 
Maze Ranking: # 6


And so, that ends our Halloween Horror Nights experience for 2016. We had a blast, the mazes as always were great, and we’re looking forward to seeing what crazy experiences the rest of this season has to hold. The next one is going to be a weird one, as we take on the mysterious Tension Experience.

Thank you for joining us this Halloween season, and as always, please drop me a line on Facebook or Twitter! I'm big into liking/following back! 

Facebook: http://facebook.com/mattcarterauthor  


Twitter: https://twitter.com/MCarterAuthor

-- Matt Carter

(We know there's a lot of Matt Carter's online you could spend your time with, so thanks for hanging around this one!)

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The Long Halloween 2016 - Preview & Recommendations

9/18/2016

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Hello blog readers, sorry I’ve been away for so long. Between finishing the final steps of dealing with my father’s estate and the release of Almost Infamous, I haven’t had a lot of time for this blog. However, now that things are easing up some, I’m back, and dare I say I may be better than ever?
 
No, I won’t go that far, but I will do my best to continue to provide entertaining material for your reading pleasure.
 
In the spirit of that, I intend to talk to you today about my favorite time of year, which is right around the corner.
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I am, of course, talking about election season.
Well, okay, not exactly. If you’ve spent any time around this blog in the past, you know that my wife, Fiona, and I are huge Halloween people. We love horror movies, we love dressing up, and if there’s one thing we love most about the season, it’s the various Halloween entertainment options available. From haunted houses, to theme parks, to interactive theatre and everything in between, this is a pretty fantastic time of year for us, and as I did last year, I mean to share our Long Halloween 2016 adventure with you, dear readers. That’s right, you’ll be getting more reviews, amusing anecdotes, pictures and tips for how to best enjoy the haunt season. And while this is advertised as just an introduction to our festivities, I’m also going to give you a sneak peek below at some of my favorite Halloween recommendations in Southern California, where I'll also include links to them (and my own reviews of them from previous years). So sit back, relax, and let the terror flow through you…

MATT CARTER’S HALLOWEEN 2016 RECOMMENDATIONS:

Halloween Theme Parks:


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Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights – No offense to the long running Knott’s Scary Farm, but the gold standard of Halloween theme park events has to be, hands down, Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights. Featuring Hollywood quality mazes of some of the greatest licensed properties ever to adapt to haunts (this year alone brings Freddy vs. Jason, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween and The Exorcist to life), this one is a can’t miss event. That being said, since it’s a can’t miss event, the lines will get absolutely insane (up to 3 hours on some of the more popular mazes), so I can’t recommend getting front of the line tickets enough.
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Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor – A former cruise liner that now doubles as a museum and hotel hardly seems an obvious choice for a Halloween overlay, but knowing the ship’s reputation for being legitimately haunted adds an extra spark. While not nearly as slick as Universal Studios, Dark Harbor with its six mazes (three on ship, three on land) and carnival like atmosphere more than makes up for it with enthusiasm. Their scareactors are more than willing to get in your face to get an extra scream out of you. And when this happens in the pitch-black hull of a ship…

Theatre, Traditional & Interactive:


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Wicked Lit – If you want a little more class and a little less in the way of scares for Halloween, Wicked Lit is my top recommendation. Taking place in an actual cemetery in Altadena, Wicked Lit consists of a theatre company acting out three creepy and twisted classics of horror. Works from the past have included adaptations of Poe, Lovecraft and Stoker, and with a solid cast from year to year, they remain a standout among Halloween performances.
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Alone: An Existential Haunting – For something a little more surreal, I would highly recommend Alone. While admittedly I’ve only ever done this event once, it left enough of an impression that I would always recommend it. As its title suggests, in Alone, well, you go through the event alone. You start out in a non-descript building, waiting your turn, and once you go in, you’re in for a strange time exploring many facets of human emotion. While wandering through last years experience, I encountered short, interactive vignettes where I experienced wonder, sadness, joy, and on occasion, a little bit of fear. I refrain from calling this a straight haunt, because it is something so much more, and so strange, that it has to be experienced to be understood. Lamentably, they’ve stated that there’s only going to be a one-night showing this year, but if you’ve got time to keep an eye out on this one, it’s worth watching out for. Though one note for safety: you will probably get messy in this one.

Fun for the Whole Family:


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Rise of the Jack O'Lanterns – If you’re not into getting scared but still want a good Halloweeny time, I cannot recommend Rise of the Jack O'Lanterns enough. Hundreds of professionally carved jack-o-lanterns may not sound terribly impressive on paper, but when you can get results like this…
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This...
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This...
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And this awesome tree full of jack o'lanterns...
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You’re in for a good time. While they used to run the whole month of October in the past, this year due to venue availability they’re only doing select dates in a few cities around the country. So if you’re interested, check out their site for availability!

For the More Extreme Crowd:


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The 17th Door – There’s a definite industry of “extreme” haunts out there (i.e. Blackout, McKamey Manor), haunts that go out of their way to push people’s buttons and in some cases, straight up torture you. Fiona and I generally don’t like to go this far, since we like to have fun with Halloween and all, but the 17th Door may prove an exception. While not completely extreme, it rides the line, but in an intense, and ultimately entertaining way. It has a dark, too real at some points storyline, with scenes that go out of their way to push buttons including suicides, footage of actual surgery, and the use of mild electric shocks and dead cockroaches. This one’s not for the faint of heart, which is why they do have a phrase you can use for mercy that’ll get you out of the haunt (though of course, there are no refunds). If you’re looking for a boundary-pushing time, the 17th Door, now in their second year, is worth considering.

The Best Haunt in Town:


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Delusion – I’ve spent a lot of words on Delusion in the past, and I’ll spend as many as I have to to make everyone aware of how amazing Delusion is. While not as traditionally scary as most, it is known to craft a nightmare or two, while providing an experience unlike any other. You see, Delusion doesn’t craft itself as a haunted house, but more as a piece of interactive theatre. Attendees are just as integral to the plot as the actors in the haunt itself, and you will be forced to make decisions that will push the plot forward. Instead of just watching horror unfold, you're a part of it. In past years, we've been forced to hide under beds, negotiate hostage exchanges, masquerade as villains, and watch as members of our group are nearly executed in demon sacrifices. Delusion is a singular and unique experience, and is one I cannot recommend highly enough. Lamentably, they sell out *very* quickly (this year's initial run ran out of tickets within a few days of announcing), however, they will often extend the run. If this is something you want to check out, keep an eye on their site and social media to see if they'll make an announcement.

And that, dear readers, is my sneak peek and recommendations for the Long Halloween, 2016. Stick around for more event reviews as they come, as for us it will begin this Friday.

Will we survive The Long Halloween? Stick around and find out. The adventure begins this weekend…

Thank you for joining me this Halloween season, and as always, please drop me a line on Facebook or Twitter! I'm big into liking/following back! 

Facebook: http://facebook.com/mattcarterauthor  


Twitter: https://twitter.com/MCarterAuthor

-- Matt Carter

(We know there's a lot of Matt Carter's online you could spend your time with, so thanks for hanging around this one!)

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    Author

    Matt Carter is an author of Horror, Sci-Fi, and yes even a little bit of Young Adult fiction. Along with his wife, F.J.R. Titchenell, he is represented by Fran Black of Literary Counsel and lives in the usually sunny town of San Gabriel, CA.

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