Hollywood Gothique
LA Attractions Gothique

Halloween Haunt Itinerary 2014: Orange County

The Empty Grave: ghoul in cemetery
A ghoul lurking inside the Empty Grave in Laguna Hills

When we think of Halloween in Los Angeles, we may inadvertently think of Halloween in Orange County, home of the Knotts Berry Farm Halloween Haunt, Disneyland Halloween Time, and several other October attractions, such as Sinister Pointe and The Empty Grave.

Halloween 2014 has seen some significant changes, with haunted houses moving or disappearing; Hollywood Gothique has also added a few new listings this year. So, those seeking the horrors that lie beyond the Orange Curtain are advised to check out the following Halloween Haunt Itinerary – if you dare!

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A. Fear Station Haunted Attraction

Fear Station 2014 correct datesLocation: 10660 Western Avenue, Stanton, CA 90680

Dates: October 24-26, 31, and November 1.

Hours: 6:30 to 9:30 pm.

Link out: Click here

Description: Fear Station returns for its second Halloween in Orange County. This Halloween attraction has its origins in Shadow Walk Cemetery, a home haunt dating back to 2000. For Halloween 2013, Shadow Walk Productions began collaborating with Stanton City to offer Fear Station. The Halloween 2014 version will offer two walk-through mazes and a scare zone.

General admission tickets are $10. Fast-pass tickets are $12.

Fear Station offered a brief walk-through at ScareLA in August, filled with killer klowns and cobwebbed rooms. We’re not sure what the complete version will be like, but we are eager to find out.

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B. Sinister Pointe: Beyond the Mirror

BeyondTheMirror2014Location: 31 Imperial Highway, Fullerton, California 92835

Dates:  October 23-26, 28-31; and November 1-2

Hours: 7-11pm on weekdays & Sundays; 7pm to midnight on Fridays & Saturdays.

Link out: Click here

Description: For Halloween 2014, the Sinister Pointe Haunted Attraction – an innovator in terms of interactive haunts – moves to a new location and offers a new version of its labyrinth, titled Beyond the Mirror: A Bloody Mary Tale. As always, visitors will need to surmount obstacles and choose a path through the twisted corridors to find their way out, but this year ups the ante: guests will be allowed to enter only in groups of four – no more, no less – which means you may be separated from your friends or thrown together with strangers, depending on the size of your group. As if that were not enough, once inside, you may find yourself split from your companions and forced to proceed on your own – completely alone, except for the monsters lurking in the dark.

Prices vary from weekdays to weekends. Weekend tickets will be distributed on a timed system, reserving a specific hour for you to enter the haunt.

Ticket prices are:

  • $17 – Weekday General Admission
  • $23 – Weekday Scream Pass (front of the line)
  • $20 – Weekend Timed Ticketing
  • $26 – Weekend Scream Pass (front of line)

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C. Perdition Home Haunt

Perdition Home Logo HorizontalLocation: 5181 Manor View Drive, Yorba Linda, CA 92886

Dates: October 23-26, 31, and November 1-2.

Hours: approximately 7-11pm (probably longer on Halloween night).

Link out: Click here

Description: The self-proclaimed “Goriest Home Haunt in Orange County” returns for its fifth Halloween.

Lovers of hard-core horror should seriously consider the trip out to Yorba Linda this Halloween. At ScareLA in August, Perdition Home offered a mini-maze filled with eviscerated bodies and electric firecrackers for a jolting effect. From the brief walk-through it be difficult to extrapolate what the full haunt would be like; fortunately, a slideshow presentation at one of the convention’s haunt panels depicted something rather elaborate and ghastly, along the lines of the Backwoods Maze in Burbank (an acknowledge source of inspiration).

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D. The Empty Grave Halloween Haunt

Empty Grave entrance with three monstersLocation: 23400 Laguna Hills Mall, Laguna Hills, CA 92653

Dates: October 23-26, 30-31; and November 1.

Hours: 7pm to 10pm on Sundays and weekdays; open till midnight on Fridays and Saturdays and on October 30 and 31.

Link out: Click here

Description: The Empty Grave Halloween Attraction reopens, this time disgorging its ghouls and demons in an entirely new location, creating “a world of terror, where the dead walk amongst you and your wildest nightmares are brought to life.”

Tickets start at $13 for a single General Admission pass, with discounts for purchasing multiple tickets ($20 for 2, $50 for 6, etc). VIP Quick Death Passes (with front of the line privilege) begin at $20 for single admission, $30 for 2, $70 for 4 (which doesn’t make sense, since you would be better off buying two sets of two tickets for $60), etc.

One of the defining characteristics of the old location (within the Anaheim Garden Walk) was the vast space (“over 50,000 square feet of terror,” per the website description), which created a sense of limbo. Hollywood Gothique is curious to see how the haunt adapts to its new digs.

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E. Mystic Motel Garage Haunt & Ride

Mystic Motel artowrk croppedLocation: 36 Lewiston Ct., Ladera Ranch, CA. 92694

Link out: Click here

Dates & Hours: October 25, 7-9pm; October 30, 7-9:30pm; October 31, 6:3-10pm; November 1 7-9:30pm.

Description: Mystic Motel returns for a second season of haunting in Orange County. This garage haunt made its debut in 2013 with an actual ride instead of a walk-through – a 38-second depiction of a trip through the basement of a haunted hotel, which visitors took on a mobility scooter adapted to run on a track. Following a successful Kickstarter campaign for Halloween 2014, the garage haunt will expand to include a walk-through maze of the hotel itself, creating a planned ten-minute experience.

Unlike most home haunts, Mystic Motel charges for admission. Tickets are $2.

Hollywood Gothique missed the Mystic Motel’s debut in 2013, but our interest was piqued by the home haunts panel at ScareLA in August. We’re planning to make the trip out to Ladera Ranch this Halloween.

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The entire trip for all five destinations would require nearly an hour and twenty minutes to travel fifty-two and a half miles. Your best bet would be to tackle the first three haunts – a twenty-mile trip requiring forty minutes of drive time. Check out the map below or find it on Mapquest. Haunts are listed in this order: A) Fear Station; B) Sinister Pointe; C) Perdition Home; D) The Empty Grave; E) Mystic Motel.

We recommend reserving The Empty Grave and Mystic Motel for a separate trip. The two haunts are within ten miles of each other, and you can make the drive in about twelve minutes. If two stops are not enough to make the journey worth your time, consider extending your tour to include Field of Screams in Lake Elsinore. This trip would cover 46 miles, taking just over an hour of travel time. The map for this alternate itinerary is below and can also be viewed here. For this trip, the haunts are designated: A) The Empty Grave; B) Mystic Motel; C) Field of Screams.