Review: Haunted Soiree – Vampire
Meyer2Meyer Entertainment is back with another creepy cocktail party at the Nocturne Theatre. This Halloween, however, instead of House of Spirits, it’s titled Haunted Soiree: Vampire.* As kids used to say, it’s the same thing, only different, and the differences extend beyond the name. You still get a two-hour immersive experience – haunted by captivating creatures, macabre magicians, and dangerous danseuses – but it feels slightly abridged. It’s a case of an exemplary entertainment outdistancing its rivals while not quite clearing its own high bar.
- Footnote: Nocturne Theatre’s Halloween 2023 was also titled Haunted Soiree, but it was basically House of Spirits by another name. This year, not everyone got the memo about the name change: you will hear bartenders, magicians, and other inhabitants referring to “House of Spirits.”
Haunted Soiree: Vampire – Review: What’s Different
Before getting into details, let’s do the tl;dr version of what separates Haunted Soiree: Vampire from House of Spirits.
- Admission no longer includes complimentary cocktails unless you have a VIP ticket – and even then, just barely.
- Bars now serve this year’s entire menu of themed cocktails instead having each bar hosting its own specialty. The only exception is a vampire wine cellar.
- There is no scary walkthrough. This was also the case last year, but there was a substitute scare experience, involving a séance. This year has something similar, but it is restricted to VIP ticket holders.
- The Creature Hunt (formerly Creature Challenge) is no longer a walkthrough experience in its own specially decorated location. Instead, it takes place throughout the entire haunted soiree.
- Make sure your smart phone is charged, because you will need them to access pretty much everything: cocktail menu, a list of lounges and shows, instructions and hints for the Creature Hunt.
- Generally, the theming seems less clear this year. Despite the “vampire” in the title, few of the characters came across like blood-thirsty revenants; most of the vampires we saw were costumed customers.
Haunted Soiree: Vampire – Review: General Admission vs VIP
Although the information on “How to Best Enjoy the Experience” (accessed via bar code) references only VIP admission, there are actually three ticket tiers at Haunted Soiree: Vampire:
- General Admission offers a ninety-minute experience with access to bars, lounges, and entertainment (including the Creature Hunt).
- Premium Admission extends your time to two hours and includes a “Crafted Welcome Drink.”
- Inner Circle adds discount drink prices and access to Ceremony, a mini-performance including  a “Vampire elixir and a decadent sweet palate cleanser.”
The welcome cocktail is passable, and Ceremony is nice, but we’re not sure that either or both are worth the extra price. Moreover, if you’re not spending time to wait in line for Ceremony, you might not even need the extra thirty minutes to see everything else Haunted Soiree: Vampire has to offer.
As for the Inner Circle “happy hour pricing,” stand back; we’re about to do some math.
Inner Circle admission costs $30 more than General Admission. The discount drink prices are $8 ($5 less than the regular $13 price). To earn back the extra money spent on your ticket, you would need to order six cocktails. Remember, this is in addition to the welcome drink received upon arrival. If you’re a heavy drinker it may pay off, but the additional spirits may send you into your own out-of-body experience.
Haunted Soiree: Vampire – Review: Creature Hunt
Seek where the silence is fractured by Screams. There you will find him; ask of his schemes.” – Tarot Clue from Creature Hunt
Besides drinking cocktails in a haunted house, the main attraction of Haunted Soiree: Vampire is the Creature Hunt, which takes place throughout the rooms of Nocturne Theatre. Basically a scavenger hunt, it challenges you to make contact with four creatures, who give you tokens (gummy worms, eyeballs, etc) which earn a reward if you gather all of them.
It’s a clever way of coaxing guests into exploring the entirety of the theatre, upstairs and down, but it’s a little confusing unless you fully read the instructions, which you find by scanning a bar code (pretty much everything is bar codes this year, including cocktail menus). Even if you read the instructions, it can still be confusing: you don’t just find the creatures; first, you find hidden tarot cards, each with its own bar code that (1) helps you find its creature and (2) suggests a secret phrases that will prompt the creature to hand over its tokens.
Problem is: the tarot card names and illustrations are not good likeness, and there are more than four costumed characters on premises. With their elaborate makeups, it’s not always clear whether you are talking to a creature or some other lost soul. Although one is a bat, none of the creatures seems to be a vampire: one resembles a mummy, another a giant bird. Go figure.
Fortunately, if you ask nicely, they may cut you some slack as the evening draws to a close, providing a fighting chance to complete the hunt. For ourselves, we only got three-fourths of the tokens, for reasons discussed below.
Haunted Soiree: Vampire – Review: Ceremony (VIP Only)
Ceremony is a short scene in a small room where a group of guests sits around an entranced figure who suddenly springs to life, delivering an invocation that mimics the Christian sacrament of the Eucharist. Other shadowy figures emerge, and things build to a reasonably creepy climax, but for a VIP-only attraction, Ceremony has a hard time justifying the extra expense and, especially, the wait time.
As part of the ceremony, you receive a chocolate and a drink (body and blood of Christ, or in this case is it Anti-Christ?). Both are small; the drink is a mere thimble – even though it’s one of the two free drinks included with VIP admission. It works for the scene, but it falls short of expectations.
The real problem, however, is the wait time. The path to the room is cramped, including a flight of stairs. Because the room accommodates only small groups, you can easily lose a half-hour or more waiting for this scene, which cuts into your changes of completing the Creature Hunt. Add it all up, and we’re just not sure Ceremony is worth the investment.
Haunted Soiree: Vampire – Review: Main Stage & Cabaret
The Creature Hunt may be confusing, and the Ceremony may not deliver the best cost-benefit ratio, but there is still an ethereal world of ectoplasmic delights taking place on the main stage downstairs and the cabaret upstairs. You can easily enjoy your time just by sitting in the audience, sipping a drinking while listening to live music or watching sultry aerial artists defying gravity. As if that’s not enough, there’s also a great magician in the Ouija Room, where you can ask questions of the giant Ouija Board, whose planchette is moved by unseen hand.
The main stage was dominated by the sinuous fire dancer, who manipulated the flames in a swirl of color while managing to avoid igniting herself – at least until she did so deliberately, to blazing effect.
Our favorites are the keyboard-singer duo in the cabaret: he with the hooded face, hunched over his instrument with eerie intensity; she with the vampire fangs and obscured eyes, her voice angelically powerful despite her demonic appearance. They can deliver a full evening’s entertainment on their own (which they do, in different guises, during the Nocturne’s Spirit of the Season Holiday Speakeasy in December).
Haunted Soiree: Vampire – Review: Cocktails & Vampire Wine Cellar
Although different, the cocktail situation at Haunted Soiree: Vampire is still satisfying thanks to its variety of flavor profiles themed to the season. Of course we missed the fun of searching for different mini-bars tucked away in half-hidden places, each with its own unique cocktail (often themed to its surroundings).
Fortunately, that disappointment was quickly quenched when we quaffed the venue’s signature offering, The Nocturne, a variation on the Old Fashion featuring Bourbon, Maple Syrup, bitters, and dried orange. Mrs. Hollywood Gothique opted for an Immortal Bloom (Gin, St. German, Blue Curacao, and lemon juice topped with soda water), which she deemed worthy of reordering.
The biggest disappointment was “Crafted Welcome Drink” (as its termed in the promotional materials), which is served outside the theatre to VIP ticketholders. Containing prosecco, lime, and pomegranate, it’s adequate as a value-added freebie, but it’s not something we would pay for. At least the pomegranate was in a hypo, allowing you the fun of injecting it into your drink.
If mixed things aren’t your thing, you can delve into the Vampire Wine Cellar, which serves literal Vampire Wine – that is the brand name, and it’s very good. We know it well from past experience, and the red blend we sampled lived up to our fond memories. Unfortunately, the lighting is way too dim to make the Vampire Wine Cellar an enjoyable stopping place (unless you like stumbling around in the dark – or being stumbled into).
Needless to say, you won’t see many vampires here. After all, we know that Dracula doesn’t drink wine.
Haunted Soiree: Vampire – Review: Conclusion
Meyer2Meyer Entertainment always delivers an elegant Halloween experience that feels more like a spooky Cirque du Soleil than a traditional Halloween haunt, and Haunted Soiree: Vampire is no exception. The magicians, aerialists, dancers, and singers provide creepy cabaret entertainment, emphasizing eerie artistry rather than heart-stopping jolts. The roving creatures and characters are almost surreal in their countenance, and the performers nail the personal interaction with customers brave enough to engage them. Also: bonus point for inverting the House of Spirits logo so that the peaked roof of the house forms a “V” as in “Vampire.”
What’s missing from the mirror in Haunted Soiree: Vampire is vampires. You will see fangs here and there, but don’t expect to encounter Count Dracula or the Queen of the Damned (the absence of the Cullen clan is much appreciated). Overall, the presentation is barely imbued the undead menace, gothic gloom, or sanguinary sights that would make you feel you were risking your neck. Instead, the vampire theme feels more like a thin overlay: take some characters and sharpen their canines.
To put things in perspective, Haunted Soiree: Vampire is still the most elaborate Halloween cocktail experience in the Greater Los Angeles area, outdistancing Frankenstein’s Mad Scientist Cocktail Lab, The Odinarie Black Lagoon Popup, and The Set’s Evil Dead Speakeasy. If you want to nurse a drink in an immersive environment haunted by strange creatures and amazing entertainers, this it it.
Just don’t expect to meet Count Dracula. For that experience, check out the Nocturne Theatre’s excellent production of Dracula: The Musical, currently on stage Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays through November 2.
Haunted Soiree: Vampire Photo Gallery
Click any image to walk through the entire gallery of Haunted Soiree: Vampire photographs…
Haunted Soiree - Vampire
Rating Scale
0 – Poor
1 – Mediocre
2 – Fair
3 – Good
4 – Great
5 – Excellent
This is one of those instances when our rating should be interpreted in comparison not to rival attractions but to its own previous incarnations. By that high standard, we are giving Haunted Soiree: Vampire a three-star rating, meaning we recommend it, just not as highly as in the past. More specifically, we the Inner Circle bonus features were counterproductive for us: we didn’t drink enough cocktails to compensate for the higher ticket price, and time spent waiting in line for Ceremony prevented us from completing the Creature Hunt. Overall, our time would have been better spent on the General Admission activities, hunting creatures in between sipping cocktails and watching shows.
Haunted Soiree: Vampire continues at the Nocturne Theatre until November 1. Performances are Thursday through Sunday. Start times vary from 8:30m to 9:30pm with an extra 7pm show on most Saturdays. Tickets are $50 for General Admission, $60 for Premium Admission, and $80 for Inner Circle. Nocturne Theatre is located at 324 N Orange Street in Glendale. Get more information at houseofspiritssoiree.com.
