Henry and I rolled out to the Gardenwalk in Anaheim, Ca on Friday night to check out one of the coolest ideas I've seen in a while. The Empty Grave is not your typical Haunted House. In fact, it's more like a creepy, dark, gutted warehouse full of monsters. They had this HUGE open space to work with, and in turn, it makes the guests feel small and exposed.
The very first thing they did was put us in 'the incinerator', which was a pitch black, fully enclosed, claustrophobic box. On top of that, there was a monster inside WITH us! Shaking the room violently, screaming and grunting the entire time! Totally freaky. Once they let us out, we walked in a seemingly random path, hoping we were going the right way. It was dark and foggy, but we could tell it was a big open space. We wandered through the warehouse, getting scared by monsters in hiding, and in plain view.
The lighting in this place was simply amazing. There were strobes pointed in our eyes at certain points, so we had no clue what we were walking into. There were a few maze type structures built, giving us direction and a sense of security, only to push us right back out into the creepy open space.
The monsters in this haunt were great too! These guys and girls went all out, every time. There were even zombies outside scaring in the line and in the mall area, bringing in customers. The Empty Grave is a unique concept, and I can't wait til next year to see what they come up with!
Rash, my favorite monster =).
