Realm of Shadow presents Temple of the Fallen God: 2019 Review
Realm of Shadow, Bellflower, CA
Greetings and happy #ShriekySunday to you, folks! We’ve been quarantining due to COVID-19 for the past two and a half weeks, but now we’re back to bring an actual update! Okay, so we’re all still stuck at home for the most part, and there’s definitely no theme park news to go over right now, since everything is closed, so we’re diving back to our 2019 Halloween Season coverage to try to wrap things up earlier than we did last year!
Today, we’re taking a look at the last home haunt we visited on Halloween night last year: Temple of the Fallen God, presented by Realm of Shadow. You may remember RoS as one of the Hall of Shadows mini-mazes during last year’s Midsummer Scream. They actually produced a preview of their full fall maze during the convention, giving guests a sneak peak at a mysterious and cursed jungle world that was part Indiana Jones and part insane terror! Well, as one of the later open home haunts on October 31st, I had to give them a visit, and the resulting experience was one of the pleasantly startling surprises of the season!
The basic storyline of this maze infuses the exploration of an ancient, archeological ruin in the jungle with a bit of supernatural terror. But it’s the way the maze builds and heightens the drama that provides a delightful progression of storytelling. Initially, the ambiance doesn’t even seem quite so impressive, as guests make their way along the driveway to the back end of the property and through a relatively dark and non-descript hallway toward what is essentially the backyard. A sudden jump scare in the dark seems to be the only hint of spooks at first, but this is simply a red herring—a misleading prologue into a much more expansive and immersive environment to come.
Stepping into the second scene, guests are greeted with a mystical, expansive jungle environment. An ominous soundtrack pervades the air. We are at the foot of some ancient temple, and signs of an old civilization abound. A skeletal dragon comes to life—triggered by passing motion—while a chest of apparent treasure sits innocently at a shack to the left. All of a sudden, an archeologist bursts out from a hidden location—demanding to know of the group’s intentions. Guests who indulge and take a bit of treasure (chocolate candy) with them are doomed. But there’s no way to move but forward, and so the path progresses.
A fantastic jungle swamp scene emerges next, using the laser field effect that was so overwhelmingly popular during the 2018 haunt season. A mossy creature lurks beneath the bog, popping up at unsuspecting guests. It’s a fantastically executed version of a scene that pro haunts like Dark Harbor have done, and it transitions the story beautifully.
Once guests enter the Temple of the Fallen God properly, however, the excitement and action really ramp up. The interiors are sumptuously lit, with a labyrinth of snaking vines and aged stone and skeletal victims and mixed relics scattered about. Around each corner, a surprise jump scare springs out from hidden compartments and openings. The layout cleverly wraps to enable multiple repeat scares by the same talent, and their enthusiasm is unrelenting.
The startles are non-stop as guest move from passage to passage within the temple. Parts where the outside world seep in are meticulously executed with convincing detail. The look of the stone and the texture of the chambers is commendably elaborate, especially for a home haunt—that is, if anyone has time to savor the details while fleeing from the angry souls that inhabit this cursed place.
There’s even a really fun scene where an Indiana Jones-looking actor who appears to be tied up as a prisoner / pending sacrificial victim actually comes loose from the fake arms and lunges toward guests. It’s a delightfully deceptive piece of theming that I’ve never seen done in a haunt before, and it speaks to the creativity of the designers!
The climax of the maze comes when guests come into what appears to be a dead end room with skeletons and treasures. A foreboding voice booms throughout the cavern: “GET THEM.” From a hidden door, a pair of ghoulish undead demons burst forth from behind, snarling and roaring with furor. It’s an amazing and theatrical surprise that highlights the mounting suspense of the entire maze, and just as it appears that everyone is doomed, another hidden doorway opens, revealing escape!
Form there, guests make their way through one finale room full of colorfully glowing tiki god masks—with one last misdirectional startle scare to send of visitors before they escape back to the real world, safe from the fiends that inhabit the Temple of the Fallen God!
I left Realm of Shadow thoroughly impressed by the creativity, storytelling, production values, and enthusiasm of creator Ron Love and his entire Realm of Shadow team. They took the fun of the Indiana Jones adventure genre and infused it with scary but relatively family-friendly startle level frights, all overlaid by excellent theming and theatrics that created what I consider to be a top notch home haunt on par with many professionals! There were quite a good amount of jump scares, but never any gore or graphic scenes. Throughout the experience, there was still an underlying level of campiness to the entire tone of the maze. It was scary, but an enjoyable scary!
Backing all of this up is a great cause promoted by the operators of Realm of Shadow. Ron Love and his team actually work within Christian ministry to provide women’s help services as part of their charitable work. Now, the Christian tie-in might give some pause, but rest assured, this haunt was no hellhouse disguising Christian propaganda behind the haunted house motif. Had I not been informed about the religious affiliation of the group, I would have never known it, going through this maze. Instead, the team behind Realm of Shadow prefers to let their actions do the talking, using donations to aid in their community service, rather than evangelize call attention to their religion. And I find this wonderfully refreshing. So well done to the RoS team for both the good they do on the haunt stage and the good they do behind it!
Realm of Shadow is located 9526 Walnut St, Bellflower, CA 90706 and was open on Saturday and Sunday, October 26 and 27, and Halloween night last year. We definitely hope they’ll be back this year (Coronavirus complications permitting)!
Architect. Photographer. Disney nerd. Haunt enthusiast. Travel bugged. Concert fiend. Asian.
