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Halloween Harvest Festival 2009: Factory of Nightmares & Creatures of the Corn Video

Back in the day, Fright Fair ScreamPark used to be one of our favorite Halloween events in Los Angeles; they stretched themselves a bit too thin when they expanded into the “Halloween Harvest Festival” for 2005 (reviewed here), and for a while we thought they had lost the old magic, but 2009 sees them back in fine form. They are no longer just a single-walk through maze but an all-day event with fun for the whole family; of course, our interest lies in the scary night-time attractions, the Factory of Nightmares and the Creatures of the Corn.

This year, for the first time, we were able to capture them on video. We hope this gives a good representation of what they are like in person, but it is hard to do justice to Creatures of the Corn. One negative aspect of many Halloween attractions is long stretches of nothing happening as you walk through empty corridors waiting for the next scare. Creatures also features long passages, but the corn trail takes this potential weakness and turns it into a strength: the outdoor setting, the dim lighting, the rustling of the corn, and the sound of chainsaws and screams wafting on the air – intermixed with whispered threats from hidden monsters – combines to make this a spooky experience even when no horror is visible.

Hopefully you can get a sense of this from watching the video: it may look slightly monotonous on camera, but the effect as your walking through it is a delicious sensation, a combo of apprehension and anticipation unlike almost anything else you will experience at a Halloween haunt.