#Sleep no more halloween series

Turek says JFI Productions currently focuses about 80% of its efforts on marketing-focused activations and 20% on original shows. “Little or big experiences that can exist outside of this season, that’s what I’m looking at now,” Braver says, saying he and Thirteenth Floor are examining a more mysterious show that can play outside of fall. While it’s partly an acknowledgment that it’s hard to go it alone in the immersive world, where events are often low-capacity (“Creep LA’s” run is sold out), Braver also hopes it’s an entrée into staging events year-round.

This year marks the first time Braver’s company has partnered with Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group, which also stages the Haunted Hayride in Griffith Park, among many other Halloween-focused events around the country. (Although when I said “true love” the all-around sinister laughter the line received implied the haunted house would be helpless in that regard.)

Wandering is also encouraged briefly after we are ushered into town, where we are warned to avoid the house we’ll all inevitably traverse or be asked to divulge our deepest longings, with the promise that the house would fulfill them.

#Sleep no more halloween series

At one point, it presents a stealth scene out of the “Resident Evil” series and visual cues that recall the “Little Nightmares” franchise.įor much of the show, “Creep LA” takes a more relaxed, open-world approach, letting audience members roam and mingle with the cast in an introductory bar scene.

“Reaper’s Remorse” uses a quest-like storyline, giving guests a statue in which to “trick” spirits into having their souls trapped. “Delusion,” which has titled this year’s show “Reaper’s Remorse,” and JFI Productions’ “Creep LA” both offer plenty of opportunities to let one’s mind drift, and more than in years past, are leaning into their gaming influences. It’s still filled with corridors meant to disorient visitors, but the set pieces - monsters subject to experimentation - are story-driven rather than scare-focused. Go this year, for instance, to Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights, and experience a maze such as “The Bride of Frankenstein Lives,” which is essentially a walk-through theatrical installation. When “Delusion” began 10 years ago, a primary influence, says creator Jon Braver, was the free-roaming, site-specific theatrical production “Sleep No More.” In turn, over the past decade, Braver and “Delusion” have influenced many a haunt. “Delusion” opened with a mask but no vaccine requirement, and a spokesman for the show said the company is “reviewing the guidance recently published and we will adhere to all applicable county requirements.” “Creep LA” from the beginning has required guests to show either proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test and also gives guests a branded face mask upon entry. But the likes of “Delusion” and “Creep LA” have long prioritized intimacy over frights. It can be startling in this late-pandemic age when the performers of “Creep LA” whisper their desires in your ear, or when one of the living ghosts of “Delusion” grabs your arm and leads you into a crawl space. One might find an elderly woman who hopes her wayward daughter will eventually come home, a wheeler-dealer of lost trinkets from long-gone souls and a host of residents who keep crawling their way back to a suspicious house that’s driving them all mad.

At the new edition of “Creep LA,” a town has been constructed at the Hollywood bar Three Clubs, transforming the location into a mini-theme-park-like set that houses multiple nooks and tiny buildings. “Delusion” isn’t the only place for immersive thrills. Or enjoy a surprisingly calm chat with a murdered, bookish husband who still longs for the woman who slaughtered him. That, of course, comes from interacting with the show’s cast.įorget the abundance of jump scares that populate the high-thoroughfare horror mazes of Southern California theme parks and instead revel in the entertainment of watching an actor crawl up from a grave covered in dirt. There are even haunted instruments and a talking hourglass.īut for all the theatrical wizardry of the latest iteration of “Delusion,” an interactive horror play that pops up most every Halloween season and is held this year in a historic Pomona mansion, the prevailing emotion is one of delight. There are scares - one courtesy of synchronized puppetry - and there are impressive, in-the-flesh special effects, such as a head and neck that materialize out of a closet and keep growing.