The whole maze took me and my best friend roughly an hour or so to get through, this included an intermission zone in the middle of the maze where food and drink can be purchased. Having never been to one of these before, we naively assumed we would rock up at our allotted time slot and go straight in. Of course, this is the real world, and also happened to be the opening night, so we discovered quite a lengthy queue. While my friend was getting a bit bored, I didn't really mind the forty five minute wait to get to the start, mainly due to some great music playing, such as Rammstein and Rob Zombie. My friend did say it might have been nice if there had been some sort of warning beforehand that there might be a lengthy wait. There was a fast track option for people willing to pay more, but bizarrely you have to queue up in the normal queue before you can get to the fast track area, making it a little bit pointless. Didn't affect us anyway as we had normal tickets, which I believe were about £19 each, and which needed to be booked before hand.
The scare maze this year consisted of seven different themed areas, each one leading on to the next for one complete journey, rather than seven separate areas. The first of these was titled 'Deadwood Forest', which surprisingly enough is based on a woodland setting. This was not the best introduction to the scare maze concept, mainly due to being so darn dark that it was hard to see much. As predicted, a lot of the scares come from the actors suddenly leaning out of holes cut into the walls and screaming at you, while there are also actors wandering about in the actual corridors that make up the experience. Being Friday the 13th, it was neat to see someone dressed up like Jason Voorhees wielding a machete at us, and I thought it was cool that the route took us through a camping tent. The second half of this first area was better, with a bit that takes you through a convent of Satanic nuns.
'Welcome to Downtown HELL.A' was the second area and an obvious homage to The Purge movies. I loved seeing the various actors wearing similar masks to those worn in the films, and utilised an aspect that I came to love. Initially, these masked maniacs are behind a chain-link fence, but the maze route then takes you behind the fence where you are in the same area as the actors. Strangely, despite being a serious of rooms inside a giant marquee type structure, it did feel a little like being in The Purge, my favourite bit here being when my friend was nervous laughing, and one of the masked killers then repeated her laugh back at her in a creepily sarcastic way!
'Welcome to Downtown HELL.A' was the second area and an obvious homage to The Purge movies. I loved seeing the various actors wearing similar masks to those worn in the films, and utilised an aspect that I came to love. Initially, these masked maniacs are behind a chain-link fence, but the maze route then takes you behind the fence where you are in the same area as the actors. Strangely, despite being a serious of rooms inside a giant marquee type structure, it did feel a little like being in The Purge, my favourite bit here being when my friend was nervous laughing, and one of the masked killers then repeated her laugh back at her in a creepily sarcastic way!
The event has a traffic light system, used to try and stagger the various visitors to avoid them being bunched up together, so after leaving the madness of Purge night L.A, we came out to a queuing room. The queue here was quite small, and was accompanied by banjo themed covers of popular songs, for the next area was inspired by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I really enjoyed 'The Grindhouse', taking you on a tour of the home of a family of deranged cannibals. The actors here were a lot more vocal, I recall one stepping out in front of me and saying something along the lines of "Where do you think you're going boy!?". Highlight here was a Leatherface brute, of course armed with a chainsaw. I had figured he was safely behind a fenced off area, but then a minute or so later as I was walking past some haybales he came bounding out at me, one of the few moments that made me jump!
I would describe the fourth area 'The Bunker' as small but cool, this had you going through a Nazi zombie infested bunker, my favourite part was two corridors with lots of zombie arms sticking out the walls, with some of those hands actually being attached to people.
I would describe the fourth area 'The Bunker' as small but cool, this had you going through a Nazi zombie infested bunker, my favourite part was two corridors with lots of zombie arms sticking out the walls, with some of those hands actually being attached to people.
The 'Intermission Zone' was the halfway point, it was here we got some candy floss and a drink, before heading into the second half, which began with 'Devilsgate Cinema'. This whole area was based around movie monsters as the unifying theme, I was more than happy to see a bit based on Halloween, complete with Michael Myers, there was a cool part with a TV screen that a Sadoko type figure begins to crawl out of (obviously, her from The Ring), and a really cool bit that was set out like a small cinema, with all the audience wearing the Scream costume. This was one moment I did jump, when one of the seated figures suddenly leapt up at me with a knife, lovely stuff! My one complaint with this section was there were several rooms themed around A Nightmare on Elm Street, yet there wasn't actually a Freddy Kruger to be seen, making that part feel like a missed trick.
'Bloody Mary's Maze of Mirrors' was the penultimate area and I thought was the most clever one. I had expected maybe an actual mirror maze, but instead it is created by having a lot of repeating areas that kind of gave the impression of walking through the reflections of a mirror. I thought I had a good grasp on what was a mannequin and what was an actress standing in place, but I was still startled when the inanely grinning woman I assumed to not be real suddenly sprang to life in front of me!
The final area, and the largest was 'Klownfest' which was set around the theme of a clown based music festival. I loved the music here, with each of the locations featuring different iconic tunes pumping out, very loud, yet somehow each part felt separate, with the sounds of the other bits not coming through. There were lots of evil clowns wandering around, and it isn't lying to say my best friend pretty much danced from one end of this to the other, due to the great music and the nightclub vibes. My final jump scare of the night was achieved here when I walked through an archway covered in hanging brightly coloured strips of fabric, and nearly walked right into a clown waiting on the other side. This final area leads out into the end, a large area where more food and drink could be brought. We got a burger and some freshly made doughnuts and talked back over the event, both agreeing it was a real good time.
'Bloody Mary's Maze of Mirrors' was the penultimate area and I thought was the most clever one. I had expected maybe an actual mirror maze, but instead it is created by having a lot of repeating areas that kind of gave the impression of walking through the reflections of a mirror. I thought I had a good grasp on what was a mannequin and what was an actress standing in place, but I was still startled when the inanely grinning woman I assumed to not be real suddenly sprang to life in front of me!
The final area, and the largest was 'Klownfest' which was set around the theme of a clown based music festival. I loved the music here, with each of the locations featuring different iconic tunes pumping out, very loud, yet somehow each part felt separate, with the sounds of the other bits not coming through. There were lots of evil clowns wandering around, and it isn't lying to say my best friend pretty much danced from one end of this to the other, due to the great music and the nightclub vibes. My final jump scare of the night was achieved here when I walked through an archway covered in hanging brightly coloured strips of fabric, and nearly walked right into a clown waiting on the other side. This final area leads out into the end, a large area where more food and drink could be brought. We got a burger and some freshly made doughnuts and talked back over the event, both agreeing it was a real good time.
Throughout there was really neat use of light and sound. Being so dimly lit in places, it could be hard to tell what was real and what was fake. Best of all here were the use of lasers, one part had me mistaking for a split second a room bathed with green lasers as actually being full of water, while another part saw me hesitate to walk through an archway, convinced briefly that the red lasers crisscrossing it were actually physical barriers. Then there was the infamous strobe lighting section, an 's' shaped series of corridors that had white walls with blood effects on them. The heavy strobe lighting led to both me and my friend beginning to feel a bit off-balance and dizzy, such a cool thing to experience, that purely use of light could make someone feel like they might possibly fall over!
The event wasn't scary, but I did get jump scared on about four occasions. It wasn't all perfect, sometimes the actors would get their timings wrong and either leap out after we had already passed, or leap out before we had reached them. It is mainly based on the person in the lead getting the majority of the scares, though the person behind would also get some late jump scare attempts at times. No complaint to the actors though, they all seemed into their roles, and also helpfully pointed out the way to go should you get a bit disorientated, as it could get a bit hard to find your way around on occasion. I loved my time with Route 666, definitely worth the price of admission, and is something I am already looking forward to visiting again next year (with each year featuring completely new mazes, rather than repeating itself).
The event runs until October 31st, so I am sure it is still possible to get tickets to it. For more information, head to their website here, well recommended.
The event wasn't scary, but I did get jump scared on about four occasions. It wasn't all perfect, sometimes the actors would get their timings wrong and either leap out after we had already passed, or leap out before we had reached them. It is mainly based on the person in the lead getting the majority of the scares, though the person behind would also get some late jump scare attempts at times. No complaint to the actors though, they all seemed into their roles, and also helpfully pointed out the way to go should you get a bit disorientated, as it could get a bit hard to find your way around on occasion. I loved my time with Route 666, definitely worth the price of admission, and is something I am already looking forward to visiting again next year (with each year featuring completely new mazes, rather than repeating itself).
The event runs until October 31st, so I am sure it is still possible to get tickets to it. For more information, head to their website here, well recommended.
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