Sinister Pointe's Mist: 2019 Review

Westminster Mall, Westminster, CA

For all that Sinister Pointe has produced over the years, you can never accuse them of getting complacent or sticking with tried-and-true methods. Sinister Pointe was the first to (at least to my knowledge) to offer a Christmas-themed haunt--it's legendary and raunchy "Not So Merry Christmas Haunt" that is still whispered among haunt enthusiasts as a seminal all-time classic. Jeff Schiefelbein and company have also been responsible for the design and creative story-writing for Dark Harbor in its original form, as well as contributed to other haunts all the way up to this year's Los Angeles Haunted Hayride. In the past, Sinister Pointe has also tested innovations such as the first multiple-stage, multiple-path haunt via Fear the Mark several years ago, an entire haunted world in via the three-story Scary Place last year, and even a pop-up horror bar via the Spirit Lounge earlier this year.

For this fall season, Sinister Pointe has gone with an old concept that it actually did years ago: the haunted scavenger hunt. Back in the day, this was broad scaled, with participants needing to drive around to several places through the course of the night, collecting various items before returning to the starting point to claim their success. The concept has been repackaged this year into a more commercially-viable production, and the result is Sinister Pointe's Mist.

(Photo courtesy of Sinister Pointe)

Located in the Westminster Mall, inside an old JC Penney Home Store, next to the Best Buy on the northwest side of the property, Mist is an immersive, free-roaming, scavenger hunt adventure. Although advertised as a 30 minute experience, guests only have 20 minutes to locate 13 artifacts in the foggy veil of an excavation site of an ancient town. All the while, they need to evade the "See'ers," horrid creatures in the dim shroud.

Mist loads 30 guests at a time into the hunt, providing them the backstory of some ancient artifacts that have been unearthed, and 13 more than need locating. Only the other archeologists who have tried have all disappeared. Guests are given a map with 13 icons representing the artifacts, and they need to search the site for those icons and find a tool to mark their maps (basically specially shaped hole punchers). Everyone is welcome to work together, or separate into groups, or go solo. It doesn't really matter. They simply have 20 minutes to complete the task.

Receiving instructions before the hunt.

And it is a challenging mission! In addition to the ambiance being fog-filled and relatively low lit, there isn't a lot of contrast in what lighting is available, which makes reading the map and discerning the symbols somewhat of a struggle. Finding the hole punchers is also tough. Although they are always secured to a built-in set piece via a chain, their exact locations vary. Guests need to find an item in a room corresponding to the desired symbol, but the actual hole puncher is often not close to the icon. Instead, it may be in plain view but on a different wall, or hanging behind an obstruction, and in certain rare cases, underneath something.

It does make sense that the scavenger hunt is difficult. Those who do manage to find all 13 artifacts are being entered in a raffle. At the end of the season, three lucky winners will get one of three prizes, such as a pair of Disneyland Park Hopper tickets, a Nintendo Switch, or a 50” Samsung 4K Smart TV. During media day, Jeff mentioned that only two people had recovered all 13 during limited testing thusfar, and the average number of artifacts found was nine. We, however, fell way below that, tallying only five discoveries.

The scavenger hunt card with the artifacts that need to be collected.

In concept, a haunted scavenger hunt sounds like a fun idea. But in execution, there seemed to be so much focus on making it difficult that the experience ended up being more focused on a mission to find things than a fun haunted experience. For haunt veterans such as ourselves, this wasn't a haunted scavenger hunt as much as it was a scavenger hunt in dim lighting and stage scenery.

(Photo courtesy of Sinister Pointe)

The dreaded "See'ers" who were supposed to provide the scares often could be seen in plain sight, owing to the relatively open space between each of the town locales, and they proved to be obstructionists more than terrorizers most of the time. There also didn't quite seem to be that many of them. It would have been neat to involve some talent with some of the artifact collection, perhaps incorporating tasks that might play on people's apprehensions or open guests' up to scare opportunities in order to claim a symbol.

It was even difficult to get to every scene within the space, because of time spent figuring out what to look for and how the artifacts and symbols corresponded. On the other hand, this might be a useful strategy to motivate repeat visits, in order to fully experience the attraction.

(Photo courtesy of Sinister Pointe)

Ultimately, Sinister Pointe's Mist is a novel idea that seems to lack that extra, memorable oomph that haunt veterans look for. It's a great endeavor, to be sure, and we can never fault or discourage a haunt for expanding boundaries, thinking outside the box, and trying new ideas. We just felt that the game in execution was not quite as enjoyable as we were hoping. Of course, it was also opening weekend, and as with every haunt, adjustments will continue to be made throughout the season.

(Photo courtesy of Sinister Pointe)

Sinister Pointe's Mist runs on select nights (mostly Fridays through Sundays) until Saturday, November 2nd. Tickets can be purchased online or on site at the ticket office inside. Guests should be able to go up a set of stairs to the second floor where the scavenger hunt occurs and may need to be able to crawl or duck through reduced spaces. Those looking for more Sinister Pointe creations this fall should head to the L.A. Haunted Hayride and check out Midnight Mortuary, the maze they helped build for the event.