The 3rd Eye: Horrors of the Orient Review

So you think you can escape the Horrors of the Orient? Light some incense and find out – if you dare.

Brand new to the Anaheim Gardenwalk this year, The 3rd Eye: Horror of the Orient fills the void left by the departure of The Empty Grave. The Haunt Proprietors, Richard and Christina, have been creating haunted houses for 12 years, having started with Halloween home haunts and then graduated to professional haunted houses.

Located on level one right next to the entrance of Bowlmor Lanes, The 3rd Eye: Horror of the Orient is conveniently located so that guests can enjoy a cocktail at the bowling lounge before heading over for some frights and scares. The haunt doesn’t utilize fancy animatronics, but be warned: there are moving props – amongst other things that don’t stay still.  Since childhood, we’ve always appreciated Asian Horror movies.  For some reason, they’re always just a bit creepier than the American ones. Therefore, we were excited and scared at the same time going through this maze.

The Third Eye 2019 Halloween Review: Maze

Similar to past haunts put on by the same proprietors (Richard and Christina’s Haunted House, reviewed here), The 3rd Eye: Horror of the Orient features a lot of black walls with fluorescent black lighting. Guests can see some cute little monster drawings with corny sayings like “Rawr!” at the beginning, mainly done to make scared children feel more invited. We got a good laugh from reading the text on the walls. They offer a less-scary haunt for kids and family, available upon request. Really.

The rest of the walk-through consists of countless twists and turns with a path that zig-zags repeatedly. Some parts of the maze may be a tight squeeze so it is best not to walk through with a bulky backpack (the pathways may have been expanded since we attended). The feeling we got was of a blackout/dark maze except that you can see where you are going. What you cannot see are the pop-scares. Some are controlled props; some are actual actors. In one section, you are required to crawl to your salvation.

The highlights of The 3rd Eye: Horror of the Orient are the trap doors. For the claustrophobic, good luck! The cleverly calculated controlling of these doors reminded us of elements from Mabel’s 6 Feet Under and even Old Town Haunt – scary for a lot of folks but nostalgically awesome for us!  What we were most enamored with was seeing favorite childhood characters from famous Asian horrors come to life.  A Chinese vampire-zombie welcomed us inside the maze. Later, a scare actor channeling her innermost Lam Ching-ying impression became the Daoshi, a High Taoist Priest (in this case, Priestess), who in layman’s terms we call a “Vampire Exorcist.”

The Third Eye 2019 Halloween Review: Conclusion

Richard and Christina’s goal was to make a haunt that shares the superstitions of Asian-Oriental culture and at the same time make it universally fun for all ages. Incorporating props that are not too scary  helps them accomplish that goal. The bulk of the scares come from the actors and the source controlling the moving props. If you are faint of heart, they will simply do a less scary walk-through experience just for you. Overall, we love that The 3rd Eye: Horror of the Orient may potentially educate haunt-seekers about Asian horrors and introduce Southern California to Chinese vampires, who truly are as iconic as the more familiar witches, goblins, and zombies.

The Third Eye Haunt 2019 Photographs