Friday night we attended the opening of The Haunted Cellar in Anaheim. Until last weekend I had never herd of this haunt but it looked interesting based on their web site so we decided to check it out (we found out later they were at the Block of Orange last year). This was their opening weekend and as can usually be expected they ran into a few glitches. What was unexpected was that the operators came out every 15 or 20 min and let everyone know that they were working on the glitches and giving us all updates as to the opening of the haunt. The haunt opened a little after 7pm and we were the first through the doors.
Once inside this haunt turned out to be very different from any professional haunt I have ever been through. Rather than the traditional maze the haunt was setup in a story that develops through 4 rooms. While 4 rooms seems kind of short the story was developed in a way that makes the haunt last as long as most. The actors were well prepared but a little shaky. This brings me to the one of the only issues I had with this haunt, it did not feel that the actors were as well prepared as they could be. Timing is everything and their timing just was not there. Given this was opening night that is not totally unusual and I think by next weekend after the cast has had a few runs under their belts this will be a great haunt.
As I mentioned earlier I really did not have many complaints about this haunt. The only other thing I noticed was the decor, but I can’t hold this against them. The actual decor in the haunt was great but what seemed funny to me was that it was an open air haunt in a store front so in a couple of rooms the pipes and ducts kind of stood out above the walls. The reason you can’t hold this against the haunt is that the fire marshals prevent some of this stuff from being covered.
Summary:
Pros:
- It was clear how much blood, sweat and tears went into the haunt
- Story was well put together and thought out
- Voice acting for the narration was well done
Cons:
- Timing of actors was a little off (will probably be better as they get more experience)
Overall we give it our zombie rating of 4 out of 5 zombies.
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Well being the first group to go through, I must point out that we didn’t have all of our actors in place since we needed to work out the glitches with the main characters first. Also, the actors’ timing was not that bad, since I actually know when things were supposed to go off and on. After this first 3 groups, we got things fixed and now we’re running smoothly like a well-oiled machine, with a few new surprises since the first night. This is definitely a haunt you don’t wanna miss!
I agree with the above comment. One thing that was evident about this haunt was that all that was missing was a little fine tuning. So far this year this is my number 1 recommendation.
as a former Cellar Dwellar (Now working at Knott’s Scary Farm) I am glad that you enjoyed it and hopefully I will check it out next week.
Went to The Cellar with my girlfriend, brother & sister-in-law … Loved every minute of it, everyone in my group was screaming their heads off … Would love to go to it again, hopefully its close by again ! Must See …