Haydenville Haunter & Maze of Mayhem: 2021 Reviews

Moreno Valley, CA

Folks, we’re onto our final two weekends of the Halloween season, which means it’s about to get hot and heavy with the home haunts! While we still do have a few more updates from professional haunted attractions (including the remainder of our Knott’s Scary Farm and Magic Mountain Fright Fest in-depth features), we typically spend the second half of October touring Southern California’s extensive selection of high quality amateur haunted mazes and elaborate Halloween yard displays. The passion and creativity displayed across so many great haunts is a joy to witness, and it’s also fun getting to know the different creators of the different haunts!

Today, we’re looking at a pair of home haunts over in the Moreno Valley area of Riverside County. One is a full-fledged walkthrough maze, while the other is an interactive yard display. But both offer their own unique and entertaining showcases of passion for the haunting season. Without further ado, lets get to know these residential spooks, shall we?

Haydenville Haunter presents The Mitchell Campbell House

In terms of our coverage, the Haydenville Haunter is relatively young on our list, having been the target of a visit only once before. I first learned about this home haunt two years ago, after the season had ended, when the Epic Home Haunts Instagram featured his incredible ghost town themed haunted walkthrough on their account. The more photos I saw, the more I regretted missing it, so I rectified the situation by visiting Darren Talmadge and his personally created attraction last year. Entitled The Swamp, this outdoor walk-through attraction featured a marshy macabre march through a misty bog, with various scares hiding in the shadows or waiting to be triggered. I was impressed with Darren’s ability to craft a haunt with a completely different theme on a year to year basis, and I left eager to see what Darren could do with a full fledged regular maze.

Hope you like dolls! Guests encounter this one upon immediately entering.

This year, with the Coronavirus pandemic doing better in Southern California and haunters generally able to return to their default formats as opposed to creating yard displays like the vast majority of residential attraction last year, Darren has been able to construct his first true enclosed haunted maze. Entitled The Mitchell Campbell House, this year’s Haydenville Haunter invites guests to experience a gruesome and lurid “hacker’s house” (but not the computer type) belonging to a depraved, cannibalistic serial killer. The resulting gritty, bloody execution of the maze is a notable deviation from last year’s more scenic and naturalistic setting.

This year’s maze is actually built on the front driveway and into the garage of Darren’s girlfriend’s residence, as opposed to the front yard lawn of The Swamp last year. An eerie facade greets guests approaching the haunt, with a simple porch, a couple of windows, a ramshackle door, and a skeleton sitting on a rocking chair, apparently enjoying the view. A cold, blue illumination casts a pall over the front of this shack, concealing the horrors that lurk within.

The revelation that you may not have been the first guest into this home is a little unsettling here.

Guests entering the first room are treated to an eerie but otherwise remarkably uneventful dining room space, with a creepy doll on a mantle and a simple set table underneath a hanging chandelier. The interior furnishings are nicely dressed, with moody wallpaper, a haunted portrait, and even a little sound system setting the mood and starting the immersion into this home from hell.

As guests move into the kitchen, however, it becomes clear that something is very disturbingly wrong. The audio recordings borrowed from House of 1000 Corpses suddenly make a lot of sense when visitors encounter “a scene of ghoulish slaughter,” with body parts and mutilated half corpses hanging from the ceiling. With blood splattered everywhere and a grill still glowing red, it’s clear that whoever did this is deranged and despicable.

A shift through the bathroom finally starts the action, as sensors trigger a fun, glowing toilet effect and also set off a startle scare. But it’s the two-part finale spanning the hallway and bedroom that prove to be the highlight of the maze. As guests leave the bathroom, they trigger an audio sequence that builds like a dramatic horror soundtrack, mounting tension as lights switch illumination across a series of portraits, leading guests forward to discover the terror beyond. Suddenly, the music crescendos, and the strobes kick in, and the climactic finale plunges the Mitchell Campbell house into sheer chaos and fright.

The moments of drama that lead to the finale scene are terrifically executed.

Although the haunt is very light on scareactors (I would have liked to see more, but Darren astutely pointed out that they would then trip the sensor effects and give away some of the scares), the sensor-induced pacing elements and theatrical effects compensate and choreograph a fantastic scare sequence. This year’s Haydenville Haunter is best enjoyed at a deliberate pace, taking in the details and allow the startles to come to the guest. There’s no sense in rushing through (the overall layout is rather intimate anyway). Just enjoy the carnage and bloodshed and horror.

In year three of being a publicly advertising haunter, Darren Talmadge has shown that he can take on a variety of themes and has revealed a penchant for wonderfully timing fun scare effects to offer a range of startles expected of a haunted Halloween experience. This year’s Haydenville Haunter is a dramatic and different pace of haunt that builds off a slow burn before ratcheting up the adrenaline and anxiety at the last third. The strength and suspense of the finale segment elevates this creative home haunt, and I’m certainly glad I could visit again this year to experience what Darren’s imagination had to offer!

You don’t want to stick around to find out what this is!

Haydenville Haunter is located at 23291 Park Lane Ct, Moreno Valley, CA 92553 and is open tonight and next weekend, Friday through Sunday, from 7:00 - 10:00pm.

Maze of Mayhem

Not too far from Haydenville Haunter is another home haunt that hasn’t quite lived up to its name the past couple of years, but that’s entirely COVID’s fault. Although Maze of Mayhem has featured a walkthrough in past years, it has opted for a yard display both last year and this year because of worries about the impacts of a surging virus and its effect on haunted activities allowed. Remember that while a haunt may open in September or October, key decisions for how to move forward are typically made many months in advance. In this case, at the now-or-never point, Mike, the owner, decided that a display would be a safer choice than a maze, though he hopes to return to the maze next year.

Unlike last year’s relatively dim and gloomy yard haunt, however, this year, Maze of Mayhem has opted to utilize more lighting and hues to paint a more vibrant feel to its main house facade, which has also been expanded and further articulated from last year’s structure. Bookended by a pair of Home Depot giant Halloween figures (the 12 ft tall skeleton from last year and the new 12 ft tall inferno pumpkin skeleton from this year), the house also houses a pair of interactive “peek-in” exhibits that are sure to delight visitors.

To the left is the family-friendly option. Behind the glass viewing window, Jack and Sally and Zero from Nightmare Before Christmas pose in front of a cute fireplace and mantel. On either side, long stretching portraits provide a frame between the couple. Guests who notice buttons at the window sill can push them to activate sound and movement from either character, as Jack and Sally each sing a different song from their movie. With animatronic movements, this dynamic scene is really entertaining and brings a childlike joy to viewers of any age.

In the meantime, guests can meet Jack and Sally. And Zero!

The vibe is different on the right, where the spookier and slightly scarier option awaits. Instead of Disney, this is more gothic scene, featuring a lone woman with long, black hair, suggesting the girl from The Ring or something similar. Surrounded by glowing candles, this scene offers a light startle scare for guests who push the one button on this side.

The haunting figure at the other window may not be someone fans want to meet!

Beyond the two scenes, the house facade itself (still to come as the facade for the haunted house in the future) and a little pumpkin patch on the front yard present a nice composition together, harkening the spirit of Halloween. Add in the cemetery lawn to the left, and the result is a refreshing scene of holiday spooks that the entire family can enjoy!

Guests can also enjoy this cute and cozy pumpkin patch. Except that the closer one inspects, the more abnormal this pumpkin patch seems!

Maze of Mayhem is located at 21605 Alcorn Dr, Moreno Valley, CA 92557 and is open tonight and tomorrow and next Thursday through Sunday evenings, from 7:00 - 10:00pm.

Both of these haunts are within ten minutes driving distance of each other, making them prime candidates to pair up. But the Riverside County area has a multitude of relatively nearby, quality home haunts that are well worth the visit. We’ll be looking at more of them this upcoming week, including our first-ever visit to Corona Haunt—one of the longest home haunt mazes we’ve seen in a while—and favorite yard displays like Pirates of Cindy Court, Pirates of Magnolia, and Gothic Hills Cemetery. We’ll also stop by Reichland Asylum, which unfortunately had unforeseen delays that prevented its opening as a maze but was till running as a yard display like last year.

So many haunts, so little time…!