Home haunts around Orange County are few and far between this early in the season; most do not open up until the week before or are only open 1 night (Halloween). So when we had the opportunity to check out HauntWorx in Brea this early in the season we jumped on it. Originally we set out to go through the Saw maze in Brea a second time to re-review it; but circumstances led us to this haunt instead Saturday night.

The outside décor is great and a large movie screen above the haunt entrance provides some great entertainment in the way of B-Movie clips for line waiters (there are also monsters wandering around). The setup reminds me of an old backwoods shack and pulls you into the haunt from the get go. Once inside the theme continues in what can be best described as “Inbred Family” similar to what has been used in horror movies such as Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes. Being that this is the first haunt I have ever seen use this theme I must say I think this is one of the most original and unique ideas for a haunt.

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OK, so we tried to go to the saw haunt again to re-review it. Unfortunately by the time we got there (about 7:15 PM) the line was already about an hour or so deep. While we looked at the line and everything else we noticed they were not even open yet. Unfortunately we are busy working on our haunt and we did not have the time to wait that long in line so we decided to check out a home haunt that was down the street before heading off to run our errands. Sometime in the next few days I will get the haunt review up for HauntWorx. As a quick note though this is one I recommend you check out. My full review will be up soon.

As for the Saw haunt it is unfortunate that I am going to have to stick to my original review as this was my last opportunity to go. I will say that from the outside there have been a number of added improvements for the decor and a better attention to detail. So I can only assume what I have herd about the inside being fixed up is true. If you get an opportunity to check it out add your thoughts to the comments section of the review.

OK, so I keep seeing these reviews on the internet about how great this haunt is (I have even gotten some email comments about this haunt). I can’t imagine the people who went through the haunt and gave it stellar reviews saw (no pun intended) the same haunt I did. It must have been my bad luck, timing or something else that I went through at a bad time. As a result I am going to try and revisit this haunt to see if it has improved since opening night. Check back latter this weekend and I will update the review accordingly.

Last year we visited Castle Park for the first time during Halloween and the Mausoleum floored us. The Mausoleum haunt in a way became a gold standard for us when judging other haunts. It had it all – great acting, one-of-a-kind effects, custom animatronics and theatrics.

So this year when we visited the new haunt, Factory of Screams, we were a little let down. The acting was still top notch, the ideas were fresh and original and the decor was great. Yet something was lacking this year. The tents were not up so this was an open air haunt where last year was enclosed which kind of changed the feel, but they have a great way to solve that issue at the back of the haunt. Unfortunately the way they solved this also came with a price. Some of the scares became more conspicuous and less effective. This was due largely to the maze and not the actors ability.

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