Halloween 2012: Hell Break Haunted by Closures

For the record, we want to note that Hell Break L.A. (which we reviewed fairly favorably here) was apparently plagued by last-minute, unannounced closures – at least according to comments on their Facebook page, which is filled with frustrated rants from customers who pre-purchased tickets and arrived at the location, only to find it closed for the night. The Facebook page (which is run by an outside company) encourages customers seeking a refund to send their contact info in a private message. However, the page may be shutting down on Friday, so time is limited. The company that actually ran the haunt has been rather shy about making its name and contact info available to the public, but there is a phone number: 1-800-966-4355.

Hollywood Gothique would like to apologize to any of its readers who tried to attend because of our recommendation, only to find the haunt closed. We noted quite a bit of disorganization on the October 11 press night; perhaps too charitably, we credited this to opening-night jitters and assumed that the proprietors (who seemed aware of the problems and eager to address them) would get their act together.

Their failure to do so is rather unfortunate, as the actual walk-through was pretty decent when we saw it, suggesting lots of potential. However, events such as this require not just artistic inspiration but organizational skill. If Hell Break L.A. comes back in some form next year, we will certainly check them out, but we hope they get their act together.