Santa Ana Haunt presents Shades of Hell: 2021 Review
Santa Ana Haunt, Santa Ana, CA
Last year, the Santa Ana Haunt was the 90th and final haunted attraction that I visited in a surprisingly busy Halloween season—mostly because the vast majority of available attractions were elaborate residential yard displays that did not require the time commitment of a professional haunt or home haunt maze, allowing me to visit more locations. But though last, it was certainly not least, as I came away impressed by the creativity and passion of this fantastic home haunt and thrilled that there was a quality residential haunted maze so close to my own residence.
This year, I returned to Santa Ana Haunt much earlier than last. As my 44th haunt or Halloween attraction of the season, Santa Ana Haunt was right in the thicket of my 2021 haunting spree, and for good reason. I wanted to make sure that I could visit this unique home haunt and help spread the word on its quality and enjoyability before the end of this season, while it could still use the publicity.
The creation of Jesus “Chewie” Garcia, with help from a bountiful crew of family and friends, Santa Ana Haunt’s theme for this year is entitled “Shades of Hell.” To those visited this last year, it may seem like a rehash of the 2020 display, which utilized a more cerebral or psychological interpretation of hell to create a less traditional overt scare-fest. And that’s what I was expecting when I headed over—figuring that this might be similar in size and scope to last year’s maze, but maybe with a few adjustments and perhaps a couple of additions.
A striking church facade greets visitors of Santa Ana Haunt.
But when I rolled up to Chewie’s dad’s residence—the site of Santa Ana Haunt—and saw a towering, built-out church facade that actually looked occupiable, I knew that whatever I thought was in store was sorely underestimating.
This year’s haunt stretches all the way around the senior Garcia’s residence, starting on the left side of the front yard beside the driveway, marching up the left side yard around to the backyard, then offering an escape route down the right side yard out to the driveway and the safety of the sidewalk. Well, safety except for the street monsters prowling around. Along the way, guests venture through a variety of environments, from immersive, creepy rooms to laser-lit passages to scenes filled with strobes to a finale that plunges guests into a featureless void of a labyrinth that turns the maze experience into a game of mental self-warfare.
It all starts with that church. While guest wait, they can take in the little cemetery to the side—a remnant from the final scene of last year’s maze brought back as scenery for this year. Guests enter the church but are instructed to wait in the sanctuary before the curtain just within the entrance while a plague doctor masked guide prepares the following space. Once that is ready, it’s time to begin.
Guests are ushered into a cloister and instructed to face a Ouija Board lit by a few candles and wall sconces. The guide hunts for a question to ask the unknown spirits, but when the guests offer one, supernatural forces seem to suddenly manifest. Fog starts filling the room, and the lighting changes to a sinister red hue. Suddenly, the guide is dragged out by an unseen, while a hideous spectre manifests itself seemingly out of nowhere, and it’s all guests can to do to scramble into the next room to escape whatever demon just invaded their space!
This scene may look familiar to those who stopped by last year, but it’s been reworked into a different scene.
There, guests encounter a withered woman sitting on a recliner, watching a television of static, bathed in a blinding high beam and hunched over a shape and seemingly muttering randomness. Only her words aren’t random at all, but rather a repeated apology. And her sorry’s are directed to a severed head. And the disturbing scene is enough to leave guests distracted for another jump scare.
As guests retreat out of this unnerving scene, their eyes must adjust to the sudden change from a brightly lit living room space to a long passage lit only with red lasers. The effect is a laser swamp (but red, because it’s hell), and the disorientation of having one’s pupil’s adjust to the sudden relative darkness leaves guests prime for whatever lurks in the marshy inferno. Slowly trudging forward through the crimson morass, visitors come upon a grisly scene of slaughter, with mutilated body parts and a massacred torso being watched upon by a hideous, almost Pinhead-looking creature who revels in his consumption of decaying flesh. Once again, the disturbing scene leaves guests vulnerable to startles from unexpected angles, and it appears that further escape requires crawling through a cage and moving to the next stage of hell.
If anyone has pediophobia, then the ensuing circle certainly is misery, because the doll room from last year’s Santa Ana Haunt returns with dozens of figures fastened to the walls. Escape that, and it’s onto a coulrophobia, as psychotic clowns take the stage. Here, there is a bit of interaction, similar to the opening scene of last year’s haunt. But it’s all a ruse to confuse and confound.
The ensuring portion is perhaps the most daring of all—a total blackout section that leaves guests blind and trying to feel their way through a labyrinth, dreading the lurking unknown. At this point, having had their senses assaulted in such varied ways, guests are more apt to psyche themselves out with imagined scares. And that’s the point. What’s a more powerful hell than that of one’s own, overactive mind? Continuing on leads visitors to a tunnel of strobes, where a lone figure moves with unnatural angle, seemingly defying the laws of motion physics under the rapidly blinking bright lights. And just when it’s almost over, one final, climactic thrill sends people scurrying out of the maze with shrieks of terror.
Santa Ana Haunt definitely has its share of hellacious gore.
To say my expectations were exceeded is an understatement. Santa Ana Haunt delivered a truly frightening psychological mind mash that actually netted me one of the rare, isolated scares I’ve actually had this season. That in itself deserves kudos. The way that Chewie has designed a variety of ways to catch guests off guard and encouraged his talent to stalk and time their scares strays from the usual formulas. Even the blackout segment is brilliant in its simplicity and its placement. If it had started the maze, guests would have been non-plussed. But place it near the end, after so much action, and it becomes a horrid exercise of second-guessing what is or is not there. Kudos also go out to the actors, who had an incredible amount of energy and passion even at the end of the night when I arrived, a little after their official closing hours.
The Santa Ana Haunt has quickly established itself as an innovative and inventive haunted attraction that is among Orange County’s most riveting. In its second year, it’s already shown itself to be a high performer. The aesthetic is gritty and rugged, but there are still plenty of photogenic moments. They’re just not quite the polish and sophistication of, say, a Murder House Productions-style haunt. But they’re just as effective in delivering an encompassing story with some great frights. Cheers to Chewie and his team for a most excellent job done!
And the interactive portions of last year’s haunt manifest themselves in different ways this year too!
Santa Ana Haunt is located at 2309 W Cubbon St, Santa Ana, CA 92704 and continues its run next Friday through Sunday, October 29 - 31, from 7:00 until 11:00pm. Chewie and his team have crafted a really fantastic, intimate haunt that combines a multitude of scares in different formats and presentations, and their creativity is well worth checking out before haunt season ends!
Architect. Photographer. Disney nerd. Haunt enthusiast. Travel bugged. Concert fiend. Asian.
