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All Saints Lunatic Asylum: Halfway to Halloween (Review)

All Saints Lunatic Asylum’s Halfway to Halloween on Friday and Saturday served more as a teaser than a preview of their upcoming Halloween event. The haunted house attraction has been revamped to be more Covid-safe – some of those narrow corridors have been widened, and the air circulation has been increased – but in order to avoid giving away too much before the big event arrives in October, Halfway to Halloween was a lights-out version that concealed more than it revealed in terms of adjustments to the presentation.

Guests had to navigate their way through the labyrinth by the light of a single, dim glowstick, which provided just enough illumination to avoid bumping into walls, only occasionally revealing the forms of unknown things lurking in darkness. As often as not, the monsters were glimpsed briefly if at all, sneaking up from behind or banging on walls, occasionally whispering through the loose-fitting beams of wood that mark the corridors.

Compared to All Saints’ other shows, Halfway to Halloween was perhaps the most different: Easter, Halloween, and Christmas are distinguished mostly by an overlay of seasonal decor; here, the scare strategy was fundamentally different. The result was creepier in some ways but slightly more generic, with an emphasis on jump-scares instead of character interaction. Though some of the familiar ghouls were present, they remained hidden in darkness, waiting to startle their victims with sudden screams rather than engaging them in demented dialogue as each room.

The lights-out approach of Hallway to Halloween dimmed some of the unique personality that makes All Saints stand out from other haunted houses; nevertheless, it was great to finally experience a full-blown walk-through attraction after so many similar events were closed last year to to the pandemic. We can’t wait to see Jason in action come Friday the 13th this August.

Halfway to Halloween Rating
3

Bottom Line

All Saints Lunatic Asylum’s Halfway to Halloween offered a lights-out presentation that blanketed its monsters in darkness, creating a creepier jump-scare experience with less of the demented interactivity of their other shows.

All Saints Lunatic Asylum will next open on August 13 for Friday the 13th: The Boogeyman. The address is 22521 Shawnee Road, Apple Valley, CA 92308, Get more information at official website: allsaintsasylum.com.

Halfway to Halloween Photographs

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Steve Biodrowski, Administrator

A graduate of USC film school, Steve Biodrowski has worked as a film critic, journalist, and editor at Movieline, Premiere, Le Cinephage, The Dark Side., Cinefantastique magazine, Fandom.com, and Cinescape Online. He is currently Managing Editor of Cinefantastique Online and owner-operator of Hollywood Gothique.