Hollywood Gothique
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Scare Zone body-slams Haunted Hollywood Sports

The Zombie Kill-House looks like fun, but it costs $20 extra.
The Zombie Kill-House looks like fun, but it costs $20 extra.

Always on the lookout for new Halloween events in Los Angeles, we were anticipating a journey down to Bellflower to enjoy Haunted Hollywood Sports 2012 – until we heard what Scare Zone has to say about it:

For this review, we won’t torture you by going over each maze, as aside from having different names, it’s nearly impossible to distinguish one maze from the other. The designs of the mazes here are just long walks through the dirty paintball field with a couple of lights, tarps, and fog machines set up for good measure (Terror Tip: Don’t wear your best clothes here, and if you have dust allergies, stay away!). They also have a couple standard animatronic props that you can pick up from any local Halloween store. The scare tactics were lacking, and we did see a lot of good hiding places and opportunities for scares, but the monsters just weren’t there. We can’t be overly critical of the monsters and staff, as they were obviously working hard and trying their best to make the most of their abysmal settings. In some of the mazes, we encountered some of the most enthusiastic monsters we’ve seen this season. Sadly, the overall environment at HHS takes away from these ghouls’ ability to really be scary.

Add to this less than lukewarm assessment, some organizational problems with parking, tickets, and security – plus an additional $20 to enjoy the paintball “kill zones” – and the whole affair sounds distinctly unappealing.

4 thoughts on “Scare Zone body-slams Haunted Hollywood Sports

  • Topher

    I came across this and just wanted to clarify. Your review is a partial cut & paste of another site’s review? As in, you didn’t actually attend the event yourself? Great credibility! The unfortunate thing is that Scare Zone’s review was not 100% accurate.

  • Clarify? The post is clearly identified as a quote from Scare-Zone, not as a review written by Hollywood Gothique. No clarification is necessary.

    Rather than making remarks about “credibility,” you would perform a more useful service if you identified the inaccuracies in the Scare-Zone review.

    BTW, Scare-Zone is not the only source from whom we have heard a negative report of Haunted Hollywood Sports.

  • Topher

    Fair enough. However, their assessment did have inaccuracies, which I’m sure you’d acknowledge is not the correct way to publish a review.

    Killhouse prices are not $20. They are listed as 1 for $10 and 2 for $15. The equipment used is airsoft equipment, not paintball equipment. There is a difference between the two. The fact that they chose to NOT experience the Killhouses says a lot considering they said,

    “We imagine they’re just like the mazes except you get to shoot a paintball gun at the poor and probably underpaid monsters while you walk through the dirt”.

    (This is highly inaccurate; In the killhouses, you are guided through each by a staff member who is dressed in tactical army attire, similar to something you’d see in a movie, while being pursued by zombies. You are equipped with tactical airsoft/laser shotguns and proceed to shoot them out as they come at you.)

    They actually held an employment fair for people who were willing to volunteer their time to be a monster or zombie. Incentives included free paintball passes and I believe some annual memberships to the park.

    As far as $5 parking, it may be dirt, but I know I’ve paid for parking at various Halloween Events. And as far as security goes, I’ve seen some pretty ridiculous rules when it comes to security measures. In most cases, there’s a reason for each measure. I’ve learned to just bite my tongue, go through the process, and enjoy my time once inside.

    It’s just unfortunate because the event actually does have a great deal of potential, however it appears they chose to review it based on a visit which may have been opening weekend, which wouldn’t be the best time to review such an attraction. Especially given the fact that it is the inaugural year.

    The website, http://www.hauntedhollywoodsports.com shows the potential of the attraction.

    Like I said, their review wasn’t entirely accurate which is a bit of a disservice to those that access their site in an attempt to get a 3rd party review before attending themselves.

    That being said, I’d suggest checking it out.

  • Thanks. Part of the reason Hollywood Gothique has Comments enabled is so that people can give alternate viewpoints. And yes, bitching about $5-dollar parking is a bit much, as is “imagining” what happened in an attraction you did not actually see.

    As for reviewing an event opening night, this can be fraught with difficulties. But part of the reason for opening a Halloween event in September (as Haunted Hollywood Sports did) is to get word-of-mouth going. If they weren’t completely ready – and this goes for lots of other haunts – they should have billed that weekend as a “preview” and offered tickets at a discount (like the Queen Mary used to do, up until a few years ago).

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