REVIEW: fear farm

OCTOBER 17, 2022

review: fear farm

Tucked behind the San Gabriel Mountains is the small town of Phelan. For almost two decades this has been the location of an incredible haunt named Fear Farm. Beginning initially as a small home haunt that eventually expanded to larger spaces around town, Fear Farm has now come full circle - returning to the home of creator Rix Boker’s mom’s front yard. Typically a move like this could create new limitations, like having to reduce the size of sets and amount of attractions. However, this isn’t the case as Fear Farm’s current location is now an ever expanding DIY theme park.

Taking a long drive up the dirt road in the desert to initially visit Fear Farm around a decade ago, we weren’t sure what to expect. During that trip they only had two attractions: an earlier version of their anchor maze, the Sundown Manor (that was later destroyed by a massive windstorm) and a modest early version of their Hayride. The Hayride was an incredible DIY haunt that drove recklessly throughout Rix’s mom's previous yard. Most memorably, during the hayride chaos the tractor would run over some of Rix’s friends who were buried underneath the ground - shocking everyone on the ride. This experience was obviously something that could only exist in the more isolated areas outside of LA and left a lasting impression that felt very unique and real.

Since then, Fear Farm’s Hayride has become one of the best in the region. This year the tractor, which starts off going immediately at top speed, took us through spooky barn structures, bait shops, circuses, and science labs. The scare actors are incredible as they jump into your cart, do backflips off of it and even hang on and let themselves be dragged through the desert. At one point there is a chain link fence thrown at the cart only to stop in midair - a very cool trick we have never seen done before. The characters are not shy about running up to the cart where at times they have chainsaws that are making contact with the metal side doors - which vibrate as everyone screams. At one point they even threw a dead body from the ceiling into our truck bed - creating a roar of laughs and cheers.

Fear Farm also hosts two walkthrough mazes on site. For this season they have introduced their new maze “Chamber of The Damned”. This is a more detailed version of their pop up at Midsummer Scream 2022. While its massive exterior facade remains the same, the guts of it have expanded into a terrifying trip through a jungle-like themed haunt. A frequent illusion that we see in haunts is the “laser swamp” idea (the use of green lasers at chest level in the whole room combined with a fog machine to simulate being submerged in a swamp). This creates dreaded anticipation as a creature could potentially pop up from anywhere. However, within the Chamber of The Damned, Fear Farm has expanded on this trick in a way we have never seen utilized elsewhere by moving the swamp to being now above you - creating a way for a creature to surprise you from the unassuming ceiling.

The crown jewel of Fear Farm has always been the Sundown Manor Haunted House. This massive, multi-story Victorian facade is stunning and you've probably seen many photos of it. The dark wood with its fire orange windows hints that there is a lot to see once inside. This maze has a great design that incorporates a lot of fantastical ideas, like walking through a refrigerator into a frozen room, a bubbling toilet gag, and another new take on a swamp illusion we have only seen here. You walk into a laser swamp room where everything, including a man sitting in a chair, is at your level. You slowly go down a ramp which creates the illusion that you are sinking deeper into the swamp. The man who was sitting in the chair now stands up, and you realize that he is on stilts as he appears to float chaotically around you.

In addition to these amazing attractions, Fear Farm has built an entire haunted world on their property. Most impressive is the “Grimstone Ghost Town” - a massive walkthrough Western town where dead cowboys roam underneath the pale red and blue lights reflecting from the jail and banks. The dozens of characters are literally all over the place as they walk among the sets of skeletons carrying carcasses or the memorial to one of our favorite scare actors: Stitchface. We even saw Fear Farm's infamous Christmas gingerbread house set up with their Season's Screaming's Gingerbread man running amok to the delight of all of the children there. We couldn’t help but leave Fear Farm in awe of their evolution throughout the years from a modest home haunt to a DIY theme park. They have no doubt cemented their reputation as legends of the haunt community.

VC

October 17, 2022

Hauntsofla.com

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