Interactivity – That’s the word of the day for haunted attractions and The 17th Door Haunted Experience, based at the Tustin Market Place in Tustin, CA has taken it as one of its core concepts. As The 17th Door is a newcomer to the haunted attraction game here in Southern California, and we love checking out haunted houses during the scary season, we rushed to attend a recent media event and experience it, first-hand!
The 17th Door haunted attraction is an immersive experience to say the least. Right when you walk in the door, you already feel as if you’re taken to dilapidated college campus, the theme behind The 17th Door’s inaugural season. The collegiate backdrop holds a story of a troubled student whose nightmares are coming to life and you are thrown right into the mix to experience the terror, first-hand along with her – a trip through her messed up mind, as it were.
The seventeen interactive rooms within the attraction hold multiple hands-on scares from exploring the troubled student’s dorm room, venturing through a dank drug lab, a classroom with a paddle-happy instructor, or even being tossed into a cramped asylum cell – all the while, the monsters outside are laughing and toying with you as you await the inevitable end.
Along with The 17th Door’s amazing visuals and set design, the attraction also contains a lot of veteran monster talent from other Southern California haunted attractions who now call The 17th Door home. This means you won’t be walking away unscathed when it comes to who’s behind the mask, driving the in-your-face scares. These guys are absolute professionals and I have no worries whatsoever that they are delivering powerhouse scares each night. Speaking of masks, multiple scare actors in pig masks are creeping through the halls and rooms as pigs are the main source of fear for our main character’s nightmarish romp. The silicone mask making geniuses at Immortal Masks get a lot of time to show off their amazing handy work through many of the masks and characters in The 17th Door, and their commitment to quality definitely shows through in the monsters at the attraction.
One thing to keep in mind when heading to The 17th Door is that it’s not your typical walk-through haunted house. It is much more interactive than what you may be used to from Knott’s Scary Farm or The Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor and you really have to keep up with what’s going on around you to get the full effect of the attraction. With this being its very first year, The 17th Door is still working out the kinks but they are off to a hell of a start. Visually, their haunted attraction resembles the amazing set design you’d see at a multi-million dollar theme park, not something you would expect to see at a local, freshman haunted house. The attention to the little set design details that the team has crafted is absolutely stunning, not just in their interior arrangement but also in their characters, each having their own specific look.
Beware, there is a chance you may get a little wet while wandering the halls of The 17th Door and if you’re afraid of closed-in spaces, this attraction may not be for you. While it might not be the typical haunted house walk-through you’d come to expect, where your experience is based on the scares the talent alone delivers, the immersive interactivity of The 17th Door is what makes it stand out from other attractions in the area. If you’re up for something wildly original from a team who is very passionate about making an impact on the Halloween season in Southern California, The 17th Door Haunted Experience is not to be missed. Right out of the starting gate, they are running hard and it’s going to be exciting to see how this attraction evolves over the next coming years. The passion for a great haunt experience driving this team is what makes The 17th Door an up and coming powerhouse in the local Halloween market. Best wishes to the entire team as they power through the first Halloween season!
The 17th Door Haunted Experience
2856 El Camino Real
Tustin, CA 92782
[easyreview title=”The 17th Door Haunted Experience Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4″ ]
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