The folks behind Reign of Terror are back at it again this year and we were lucky to be able to experience their haunted house last week. Located above the Gold’s Gym in Thousand Oaks, CA, the haunted house features a huge amount of real estate and some of the most awesome set design and build quality I have ever seen in a haunt. Tickets are reasonably priced at $15 dollars each and, after purchasing, we were ushered around the backside of the gym and up a rear staircase. Once on the second floor, we found ourselves in an Old West mining town with a variety of sets to see. There were water features, a saloon, a small mining cavern, and a great deal more. The catch to this is that all that was just the queue line!
Once we entered the caverns signalling the start of the actual haunted house portion of the experience, we just kept getting blown away. Reign of Terror has done such a great job of making you feel like you are in the set environments. A haunted house, mortuary, science lab, prison, and a other locales will grace your journey towards the exit – each have a unique look and feel. Walls are an important aspect to any professional haunted house. You can often times judge the level of technical skills a haunt has by how they dress them. Are they simply painted plywood or have they gone the extra mile and textured them? Reign of Terror is all about the technical and their texturing is terrific.
Additionally, while there is a lot of monster talent roaming the maze, a great deal of the scares found within are animatronics-based. Usually, I have a big problem with this as it makes the attraction feel like one of those old-school carnival dark rides. Reign of Terror has done an excellent job at making them feel as organic as possible. There was even one animatronic jump scare that actually made one of our party scream a little (a large feat as we are all grizzled and jaded haunted house-goers from ‘wayback’).
Overall, the Reign of Terror Haunted House needs to be on your to-do list for next October. They are doing an outstanding job and should be commended for their efforts.
Address
197 N Moorpark Rd
Thousand Oaks, CA 91360
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