Halloween Review: Unhinged Hotel at Winchester Mystery House
At Winchester’s Unhinged Hotel, room service is stretched thin.

Winchester Mystery House stands by itself against the evening sky, holding darkness within (and not much else); it has stood for ninety years and might stand for ninety more. Within, walls continue upright, bricks meet neatly (too neatly), floors are firm (not always), and doors are sensibly shut (except when they’re guarded); silence lies steadily against the wood and stone, and guests who walk there, walk alone (well, not always alone but more than they should be).*Â
It’s never a good sign when there are more security people than actors in a haunted attraction.
That is what it feels like inside Unhinged Hotel, the 2024 Halloween Haunt at Winchester Mystery House. The massive historical venue offers more rooms than a dozen other walkthroughs combined. Too many, unfortunately, are untenanted; some, even, are undecorated. There is, however, a helpful person at nearly every turn, preventing you from wandering off the designated path. It’s comforting to know you are heading the right direction, but comfort is not conducive to fear. It kills the illusion of an hour-long excursion through a haunted hotel, dividing the scattered highlights into separate vignettes that never tie together. Guests who check in will enjoy the available amenities but leave wishing for more.
*With apologies to Shirley Jackson.
Halloween 2024 Review: Booking a night at Unhinged Hotel

The Unhinged Hotel tour gets off to a promising start. After having your tickets scanned and then passing some photo ops outside, you enter the reception area, where a ghoulish host checks you in and a chuckling bellboy sends you on a elevator ride to doom – actually, the basement. After that, first few rooms are uneventful, uninhabited, with little in the way of decorations or eerie lighting.

Gradually, things grow more sinister. At night, within the depths of the Winchester Mystery House, it takes only a ray of red illumination or or a dash of dark blue to make a wine cellar and a stairway look haunted. A few mechanical props start to appear. Stacks of boxes threaten to tumble upon you. A large shipping crate rattles as the monster inside attempts to escape. Still…no ghosts.
This kind of gradual escalation can be an effective strategy for building tension, but it goes on too long. It is many minutes before the first character engages you and your fellow hotel guests, in a scene that suggests the French Rennaissance. Though in retrospect it was perhaps meant to be a costume party, this is the first sign that the Unhinged Hotel theme will be only selectively enforced, with other ideas intruding somewhat randomly (such as a yeti somewhere upstairs and a monster menagerie in the attic). Except for one or two brief references (a grumbling characters yells, “Go find your own room,” and another writes delusionally in a diary about escaping the hotel even though he is obviously still trapped there), little else relates to the haunted hotel theme.

From this point on, you go up and down rickety stairs and pass through many corridors, searching for the next big scene. There are quite a few good ones, and the actors give it their best shot, but there is too much space separating them, too many rooms and hallways with little or nothing happening. Many are devoid of decorations or effects, relying on lighting and/or a cluttered appearance to suggest something sinister. A few are just ordinary rooms – too neat, cozy, and comforting to evoke a thrill. Then there is the issue of the intrusive security people showing up to direct you at every other turn – and killing the mood in the process.

Once or twice, you step briefly outside and meet a character before reentering the haunted hotel. Finally, you exit the building and pass through a fog-bound cemetery, haunted by a ghoulish caretaker; other characters (including a cowboy and the yeti) show up as you make your way back to Winchester’s main courtyard. It would be a wild exaggeration to say that these outdoor ghosts outnumber those inside the hotel, but the exterior population density certainly feels greater.

By our count, there were approximately ten actors inside the body of the house; the number goes up to 12 if you include the pair at the reception desk and up to 14 or 15 if you count those outside. Splitting the difference between the numbers, the math works out to roughly one actor every five minutes during the hour-long self-guided tour. That might be enough in a theatrical immersive experience wherein each character is given an extended scene to play, but Unhinged Hotel is not that sort of attraction. Except for a sort of concessionaire hawking the Monster Menagerie in the attic, there is little opportunity for extended interaction, so the cast give performances geared for a traditional haunted house – which works fine in their individual scenes, but it doesn’t add up to enough to fill the entire Winchester Mystery House.
This gives the overall impression of walking through a half-empty haunted house. With that much unused space separating the good stuff, we found ourselves no longer anticipating the next scare but instead wishing for the exit to arrive.
Unhinged Hotel Review: Other Amenities
Winchester Mystery House Gift Shop
After completing the tour, there is no need to leave, but your remaining options are limited to the gift shop, the bar, and the front gardens. The Winchester Mystery House always offers merchandise on the spooky side of the spectrum – and never more so than during Halloween. Some of it is specific to the venue, but much of it is seasonal, so it’s worth a look around.
Halloween-Themed Bar
The bar is your best bet. In addition to appetizing cocktails and snacks, the ambiance is quite nice, with beautiful lighting and decor ranging from cute to creepy, particularly the oversized vampire bat’s head mounted on the wall. Recommended menu items include Monster Nachos and Vampire’s Bliss, if you don’t mind sucking the later out of a blood bag.
Your third option to spend more time at Unhinged Hotel is the front gardens, which you enter through a door near the front of the gift shop. The gardens have been a significant element of past Halloween seasons, with elaborate decorations, mobile bars, and even digital projection on the façade of the Winchester Mystery House. This year, not so much.

The house itself looks fabulous thanks to lighting so precise that every detail seems clearly defined, creating a slightly unreal quality – like a computer-generated simulation that looks too good to be true. Also, from this vantage point, you get a clear view of the malfunctioning Bloomwood Hotel sign, which would have been the perfect thing to set the tone at the start of the tour instead of encountering it now. Nevertheless, it’s a great visual, and with the aforementioned lighting, it is almost impossible to take a bad photograph, making this a splendid opportunity to capture the Winchester Mystery House in all its haunted glory.
Unfortunately, that’s about it. The decorations consist mostly of a few simulated Jack O’ Lanterns, and there is nothing else happening unless you count occasional screams echoing from inside the house. It’s worth stepping out to take a photo or two, but you are unlikely to spend more than five minutes there.
Unhinged Hotel Review: Conclusion
Prosaic Rooms inside Unhinged Hotel
Winchester Mystery House’s brand-name Halloween experience, Unhinged, got off to an excellent start in 2019, and after hiccups caused by the 2020 pandemic, it seemed to get back on track in 2022 with Unhinged: Nightshade’s Curse. Unfortunately, Halloween 2024’s Unhinged Hotel feels like a step backwards, reminding us of their 2021 Halloween haunt, which tried to be Covid-safe by cutting back on the cast. At least that incarnation retained the effects and decorations, and its theme was sustained throughout. Unhinged Hotel feels comparatively empty, and most of it has little to do with hotels.
Also diminished are the value-added features. Previously it was possible to wander the grounds around and in front of the building, stopping for a cocktail at a mobile bar. This year, the outdoor scare zone is appended to the end of the tour; you walk through it after exiting the house, and you cannot return to it. You can wander the front gardens, but there is little to see except the house itself, which is indeed worth viewing, but even that can hold the attention only so long.
Memorable Moments inside Unhinged Hotel
To be fair, there is much worth seeing at Unhinged Hotel. The problem is accessing it. The interior of Winchester Mystery House is a perfect setting for a haunted attraction, but it is so big that it dwarfs this year’s presentation, which would work much better in a smaller venue. The cemetery scare zone is nice, but you get only one chance to walk through it. After that, you hang out in the bar, shop for merch, or gaze upon the decorated facade from the front gardens.
Basically, Unhinged Hotel is no longer the lavish 5-star destination it was in the past. It feels more like the amenities and staff of a 4-star motel spread out within a hotel-sized venue. The ice machine is there, and so is the bellboy, but you must walk a long way to find them.
Unhinged Hotel Review: Illustrated Walkthrough
In order to provide as accurate a representation of the tour as possible, we are including an extensively illustrated description of the walk-through Unhinged Hotel, including both the highlights and the gaps in between
Leaving your car in the free parking lot, you approach the grounds. Winchester Mystery House stands ominous against the night sky. Wafts of fog float over the room. Atmospheric lighting casts an eerie glow over the premises.
From this vantage point, unfortunately, trees and bushes obscure a key point. A neon sign flashes on the side of the building, announcing the Bloomwood Hotel. Faulty letters flicker, occasionally changing the name to Blood Hotel.
The security check at the main entrance to the grounds is less onerous than many others. You can pass quickly through the gift shop to the exterior courtyard if the entrance time on your ticket is drawing near. If you are early, you can while away a few minutes inside the decorated bar, but this is unnecessary. There is a loose attitude toward timed entry; as long as crowds are light, you should get in soon regardless of your ticket.
Exiting from the gift shop or bar takes you to the courtyard. At the far end, show your tickets to the attendant and pass through a short exterior walk past some photo ops and a video displaying some crazy clowns. It’s pretty creepy but not exactly related to the Unhinged Hotel theme – a sign of things to come.
Soon, you reach the sign for the mansion tour, along with another sign explicating the usual rules about what to expect and how to behave. Inside, you will encounter a ghoulish receptionist, who checks you in and restates the rules of Unhinged Hotel: still photography is allowed but not video. Then a rather mirthful bellhop closes you into a ricket elevator for a quick descent taking you into the depths of the hotel’s basement.
The first few rooms are nondescript, barely decorated, with only a dim-colored light to accent the spookiness of being inside Winchester Mystery House at night. It’s not a bad way to start a slow build, but in this case the build is a little too slow.
Further along, atmospheric lighting increases, and there are more decorations. You pass a few mechanical effects. Stacked objects threaten to cascade down on you. A box containing some kind of monster rattles threateningly. Pots and pans rattle overhead. Still, very few ghosts materialize, though you may glimpse a ghoulish chef in the kitchen.
Your first memorable encounter takes place in an opulent room where the decor and costumes suggest you have stepped into the French Renaissance, though it may only be a cocktail party. Are these ghosts from centuries past or hotel guests in costume? It is hard to say in the darkness. The elegant lady presiding over the scene engages you in conversation and offers to help you find your hotel room – which is rather jarring since she is obviously of too elevated a station to perform the duties of a mere servant.
You do not find your lodgings. Instead, you pass through a washroom where one of the machines contains a dead victim. Next, you briefly exit the building. Passing by a fountain filled with billowing fog, you encounter one of the few aggressive characters seen so far. Although threatening, he will pose for pictures; be careful not to impose too much on his patience, for he will turn on you.
Back inside there are more empty rooms, although one displays the silhouette of a howling (were)wolf. Soon you enter a bricked basement with hanging bodies and partial skeletons, haunted by a hatchet-wielding character presumably responsible for the carnage.
After a couple more rooms with little but lighting and a mannequin to spook things up, there is an opportunity to engage with a woman conducting a tarot card reading. Your future is unlikely to be bright.
Then are more rooms and hallways haunted only by mannequins. To be fair, one of them is legitimately creepy. Encased under glass, the character’s costume seems to suggest she escape from the party scene earlier in the tour.
The next few passageways are haunted by a few ghosts, but they are hard to see and harder to photograph in the dim light. We did manage to capture a glimpse of one angry soul staring at us through a window. Things are starting to pick up.
A transparent phantom materializes and floats in a shadowy area where humans are forbidden to enter; watch from a distance in fear. In a room filled with enough caskets and coffins to house a squad of vampires, a remarkable animatronic mannequin writhes and shrieks, providing a legitmate shiver.
In the dimly light attic, a stranger appears to warn hotel guests that they are about to enter a Monster Menagerie. He is not lying. The collection of figures includes a werewolf, a mummy, and a horned demon. Also ahead, the stranger says, is the mysterious yeti. Passing through an ice-bound corridor, you see montrous footprints and a silhouette and the end of a corridor, but the actual abominable snowman remains elusive (which is not to say you will never meet).
There is still more to the Monster Menagerie. Moving through the exhibition rooms, you see floating ghosts outside the windows, wailing and screeching. Inside, there is more than one Medusa-like creature, one with a fishlike tail in addition to snakes for hair. Also amazing is an aquatic humanoid, looking like a distant cousin to the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
You have now reached the apex of Unhinged Hotel. Step onto the balcony for a breath of fresh air and glance at the scenery below, then proceed back inside for your return trip to the ground floor. Along the way, you will see a globe seemingly filled with tormented souls of the damned.
Next you move through a corridor wrapped in spiderwebs. Then in a darkened room you encounter a strange apparition. Hold still and wait for flashes of lightening to reveal the being. If you are lucky, it will pass, leaving you unmolested.
In what resembles a private library, you will find a ghostly character hunched over a desk. As his voice whispers, his words appear on an open book, like supernatural dictation. He speaks of having escaped from the Unhinged Hotel, but his continued presence here contradicts his delusion. He, too, is trapped – never to check out.
Now it is time for you to leave before becoming trapped as well. Hurry past the shades where flashes of lightening reveal a silhouette of Nosferatu, then to the corridor leading to the exit, and flee to safety outdoors….
Safety, unfortunately, remains elusive. As you leave, a ghoulish undertaker bids you farewell but then follows you outside into a cemetery, warning you not to fall into any of the open graves. Treading carefully through the fog and out of the cemetery, you will encounter other characters, including the Abominable Snowman, until you find your way back to the main courtyard, where you can recuperate from your long trek through the Unhinged Hotel.
Winchester Mystery House Halloween 2024: Unhinged Hotel
Rating Scale
0 – Awful
1 – Poor
2 – Mediocre
2.5 – Fair
3 – Good
4 – Great
5 – Excellent
Halloween fans who book a stay at Unhinged Hotel will enjoy many frights within its haunted hallways, but management seems to have cut back on expenses, scrimping on seasonal renovations and leaving the lovely venue understaffed and the staff overworked. Their efforts deserve recognition doing the best they could with limited resources, so our Hollywood Gothique Hotel Adviser rating is 2.5-rating of “Fair.” If you live in San Jose and have never visited Winchester Mystery House for Halloween, you might want to check in. But if you have stayed there before, we do not advise a return visit.
Unhinged Hotel continues at the Winchester Mystery House on select nights through November 2. Tickets start at $75, with higher prices on peak nights. The address is 525 S. Winchester Boulevard, San Jose, CA 95128. Learn more here: winchestermysteryhouse.com/unhinged..
Unhinged Hotel: Complete Photo Gallery
Note: This is a larger photo gallery than we usually post, including almost every photograph we took on the tour. Hopefully, this fairly conveys the entirety of the experience. Specifically, some images of the cast are poorly lit or out of focus, but in the context of our comments about the number of actors in the tour, we did not want to under-represent them.