We didn’t get a chance to visit Scarezone last year.  We wanted to, and we really enjoyed their sister haunt in downtown The Haunted Hotel, but we just had too many stops and not enough time last season, so when they invited us down to check out their offering at the Del Mar Fairgrounds we packed up our gear and arrived right in the middle of a very bustling Saturday night.  So let me give you some context, San Diego itself, and very proudly has a different vibe than the rest of Southern California, most of my extended family still lives there, and it’s not hard to see even from the freeway driving down that for the most part the whole county is less about city and more about it’s own kind of mid-west by the ocean style.

So when we pulled up to the Del Mar Fairgrounds, knowing about it’s rich history as the racetrack that Bing Crosby helped build, and having experienced many times the great county fair that arrives each summer, we were ready to see and experience what their take on a haunt park might be, and for the most part we were not disappointed.  In fairness we had tried to get clearance to bring you video highlights some of the attractions so that you could get a little taste for yourself, but we weren’t able to film and in a way it was nice to just enjoy what they had to offer, which in a nutshell is 3 basic haunt attractions:

• The House of Horror
• The Haunted Hayride
• Karnevil

and a more physical challenge based experience called Zombie Boot Camp.

Is it Knott’s Scary Farm or Universal Halloween Horror Nights?  No, but it does have it’s own unique charm and the feeling of a delightful fall festival with some decent frights.

Let’s start with the Hayride.  Now I have to say this was a decent length for a haunt attraction, it was about 20 minutes in length weaving between all the stable rows that are normally occupied by the thoroughbreds waiting to race on the track, and it had a wide variety of monsters ready to attack the hay wagon from multiple sides.  The sets were simplistic, but they were also reasonably close to the vehicle, allowing the cast of characters to jump, lunge, smack the metal sides of the vehicle, and even lean in to the center to “startle” the largely teen clusters that had wrongfully assumed they would be safer huddled there.  They had a Alice in Wonderland to lead us off on a journey down the rabbit hole,  A trailer park of terror, a few different types of zombies, and if you were looking for a group of creepy clowns to tangle with, you will find them there as well.  Open air outdoor scares are challenging, and this experience is no exception, I think we honestly had more fun watching the largely inexperienced high school kids freak themselves out before and during the trip, but if your teens are starting to get into horror movies, and not ready for the standout and truly scary Savage House,  this is a great way to introduce them to the whole haunt scene.

The House of Horror, is one of the longest mazes we have seen and it had some really great diversity as far as scares were concerned, Having been groped multiple times in the vast and extended pitch black portion of this offering, I will caution its not for everyone.  This haunt was more about un-comfort than direct startle scares.  It’s hard to achieve that feeling with your typical conga-line maze, and I did manage to get separated from my group a couple of times so if you want to stay with the people you went in with, I recommend you hold on tight.  My biggest disappointment with this maze was the fact that it seemed to borrow (and in some cases directly lift) elements of recent horror movies, but because they didn’t officially license any of it, they couldn’t really play to any of it.  Again this isn’t going to scare the pants off of you, and it’s not as wildly inventive as the Haunted Hotel downtown, but it does not shortchange you on time or value for the price.

Karnevil was a bit of a disappointment to be honest,  I went with two people in tow that absolutely are terrified of clowns, and the biggest scare in the short 10 minute experience occurred when a very talented and nimble sinister clown was able to sneak behind our group waiting in line to enter.  That said there are some neat effects that I don’t want to spoil writing about.  I feel like this one just could have been a bit longer and offered up more clowns for the screams, but if you are buying the package it’s worth the wait, and if you have clownphobic friends like I do, there are some good laughs to be had.

We weren’t able to experience the Zombie Boot Camp, but based on the smiles and dirty clothes of the teens we saw exiting it, I might give it a whirl the next time I visit.

All in all while hard to judge against the wide variety of deeply immersive haunts that dot our local landscape, The Scream Zone had a fall festival, mid-west, hometown San Diego haunt appeal that makes it the perfect place for a family to scream together, or for teens to experience those first scares with friends.  If you are looking for intense there are probably other places to hit first, but it’s nice to have the variety of choices in screams.