Opechee Haunt presents TOUR: 2020 Review

Opechee Haunt, Glendale, CA

This review was never supposed to happen. You see, Opechee Haunt was never supposed to do anything for 2020. This was supposed to be Sam Kellman’s first year of college, away at the Savannah College of Art and Design, far from Southern California and thus unable to work on anything at home.

But then the novel Coronavirus happened. And distance learning happened. And stay at home happened. And all of a sudden, Sam had a lot more extra time to plan and idealate than he expected. And as haunters are apt to do, the wheels in his mind started turning. Sam could still be in California this fall. There would be a demand for haunted attractions with many big name pro haunts going dark this year. How could one create a haunted attraction that was safe and socially distant, when most haunts are founded upon the intimacy of the scare?

The opening scene for Opechee Haunt’s TOUR this year.

Enter TOUR, an loosely interactive and definitely immersive haunted experience that allows guests to enjoy a spooky hour around the Glendale neighborhood near Sam’s home in the comfort and convenience of their own car! TOUR books guests into a reservation for a L.A. Murder Tour, run by macabre-minded entrepreneur Darren Ward. As guests can see from his professionally designed website (this cracks me up), L.A. Murder Tours offers guided excursions into the seedier parts of Los Angeles, delving into its darker and more gruesome underbelly.

Currently, they are only offering one tour, an audio-narrated tour rather than one of Darren’s typical in-person guided tours, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Guests purchase reservations in advance and register their phone number and email for subsequent communications. A few days before, they are texted general instructions for what to expect. The evening of the event, they are sent a file packet containing a series of documents, audio files, and photos for reference and use during the evening’s ride.

The story for this particular tour involves Gary Keene, the Bear Boy, a child with troubled and tragic upbringings, and bullied youth, and an inventive but dark imagination that ultimately led him to commit one of the most heinous serial murders ever recorded—all while still at elementary school age. TOUR takes guests around his old haunts in Glendale, past his childhood homes, by the woods in which he used to play, and past the scene of his horrific crime. None of this, however, gives any hint at the shocking (and brilliant—if I may step out of the kayfabe of Opechee’s storyline this year for a moment) twist ending that greets guests on their final stop.

In some parts, guests are invited to exit their vehicles and walk a short distance into a setting that enhances the immersive nature of the story. This is purely optional, but it can supplement a creep factor!

Unlike Opechee’s previous haunts, there aren’t any jump scares or startle scares in TOUR. This is a slow burn, heavily story based, and proceeds like a psychological thriller. Darren Ward’s narration of the turbulent childhood of Gary Keene pulls participants into the sordid tale, making them sympathetic to the child through the use of second person narration. In fact, the experience kind of feels like living an episode of the Lore podcast, only everyone in the car is the subject of the story, reliving the past while being enveloped by the effectively brooding and atmospheric setting of the local Verdugo Woodlands.

What’s also impressive is the built in automation Sam has programmed into the experience. The initial texts on the days prior to the actual experience are clearly with a bot messaging service, but they work well to set the stage for the story. On the evening of, additional text exchanges create the illusion of embarking on a real tour under COVID-19-modified semi-virtual conditions. There’s even a moment in the tour that requires some interaction and a callback (fortunately, one of us had reception in the typically hard-to-connect-in Opechee Way), which ended up being the trigger for a timed real-life show scene on the final stop. All of this ran to surprisingly smooth precision, given that there are multiple tours booked throughout the night, and Sam has to at least be able to monitor some semblance of TOUR participant progress.

And yet, with most of the legwork spent on setting up exchanges and providing the pertinent files and information in advance and simply guiding guests through each step of the tour, this experience succeeds in largely being self-sustaining. The experience is as immersive or detached as guests choose to make it. In a couple of locations, guests are invited to step out of their vehicles for a limited distance just to envelope themselves in the setting. But they can stay in their cars if they’d like. In other locations, due to the residential nature of the stop, guests are instructed to stay in the vehicles.

A spoiler with no context in order to keep vague.

All of this adds up to yet another innovative and creative way of executing an haunted experience. Sam Kellman has done a traditional walk-through haunt, an IP-inspired walk-through haunt, a family-friendly haunted show (two of them, in fact), and even a technology and smart phone based haunted scavenger hunt mixed with a haunted maze. A story-driven haunted driving tour simply adds to the list of the diverse collection of Sam’s talents.

Opechee Haunt’s TOUR continues to run on select Thursday through Saturday evening dates, now through November 7th. Unfortunately, all dates are sold out, so unless there is an extension, there will be no other opportunities to experience it. Nonetheless, I felt compelled to write this review to document my enjoyment of the experience in our group. Who knows how 2021 will end up, or if Opechee will have a haunt then or later. But in an increasingly uncertain world, it’s reassuring to know that Sam Kellman and Opechee Haunt will always have creative ways to entertain the haunt enthused!

The TOUR ends with the scene going dark. Will Opechee go dark next year? We thought so last year, but never say never with Sam’s talents!

Oh, and one other thing… the neighborhood around Sam’s Opechee Haunt / home residence is rife with several Halloween yard displays, so even after (or before) participating, it’s nice to drive around just to check out the fall ambiance. After our drive, we actually came across this yard display located on 1400 Andenes Drive (Opechee Way turns into Andenes on its way back east and downhill). It wasn’t ready yet (and was also after the typical 10:00pm ending time that most yard haunts have their lights on), but it did look interesting and should be ready and will be running this and next Friday and Saturday (Oct. 23-24 and 30-31) from 7:30 - 9:45pm. At least that’s what a sign on the street said.

This was also the first time I’ve actually seen a Home Depot 12 ft tall skeleton outside of a Home Depot store, so that’s pretty cool!

This yard display is located at 1400 Andenes Drive, Glendale, CA.

Halloween is all around this year, on online lists and off them. There are plenty of places decked out of Halloween, and similar to how many cruise around neighborhoods during Christmas time to see winter holiday lights, it’s kind of fun Halloween fans to peruse their local areas or known hotbed neighborhoods just to check out their own local spooks! Just remember to maintain safe health practices, social distance, wear a mask, and have fun!