The Haunted Hotel’s Disturbance in Mission Valley: 2021 Review

Mission Valley Center, San Diego, CA

We're back with another report from a haunt down south, emanating from the Mission Valley Center in San Diego, north of Downtown. That's where, two years ago, the Haunted Hotel set up shop after losing their longtime and beloved location in the Gaslamp District. Previously, the Haunted Hotel had been San Diego's longest running haunted attraction, having operated from its prime, Downtown area location since 1993. So when it was forced to move, the ownership group (which also operates the Haunted Trail) decided on a major rebrand.

The result was Disturbance, a three-maze haunted attraction located in the parking lot of hte Mission Valley Center, outside of Target. Located less than 15 minutes north of the Haunted Trail, Disturbance was a significant departure, because it had to create its spooky ambiance all from scratch, on literally a blank slate, without relying on the advantages of a built-in architectural environment that already had its own history.

Although it was obviously not the same as the old Haunted Hotel, and some guests bemoaned the change, Disturbance did well enough that it would have returned the following year, except, well, you know what happened.

Meet Peggy the Clown. Peggy is here for good times. Make sure you play along.

Fortunately, with the general nature of large gatherings under a much more permissive atmosphere this year, the Haunted Hotel's Disturbance is back this year and upgraded with more amenities and facilities to fill out what was a pretty barren central "street zone" area that functioned simply as the space between the mazes--and the space where the free-roaming "street" monsters happened to be prowling.

There’s a bar at this year’s Disturbance. Helps with the nerves.

Guests entering the premises this year will find the same "dapper" ticket booth from a couple of years ago, but the general atmosphere has been greatly improved. Crazed clowns still lurk around, searching for coulrophobic guests to torment and alternating between wacky and twisted. The most prominent was "Peggy" the clown, who had a face drawn on his rotund belly and a party blower coming out of his belly button. His playful demeanor hid a darker underside that he would occasionally unleash on an unsuspecting guest.

Besides that, this year's Disturbance features more photo ops than the previous iteration and an actual bar for guests to order up some liquid courage. There's also some general sideshow entertainment, featuring jugglers and twirlers providing some visual variety for guests taking a break between mazes (or perhaps catching their breath after bolting out of one).

Of course, there are photo ops to enjoy also.

Also present at Disturbance this year is an installation from Axe Throw San Diego (also owned by the Haunted Hotel / Haunted Trail group). One might debate the wisdom of giving sharp weapons to haunt guests, but it does provide a unique activity that I'm pretty sure no other haunted attraction features. With somewhat colorful skull targets bathed in blacklight, this upcharge also functioned as a bit of cross-branding between the Haunted Hotel's properties.

And if getting scared results in the need to take out some aggression, try axe throwing for an upcharge!

Although most guests will probably come for the mazes only and leave upon completing them, it's nice to have the option to engage additional activities. The other attractions offer a greater sense of atmosphere for Disturbance, which is further added by actual facades for each of the three mazes. This helps improve upon the environment in the haunt's first year, when it was very evident that guests were simply walking into three mazes plopped on a plot of empty land, with little effort made to disguise the blank walls and plainly visible flats.

3D Freak-Fest

Disturbance features the same three mazes as their 2019 line-up. And that's fine, because as I keep saying, haunts get a pass this year for being restrained and conservative with how much they're willing to invest in new attractions, given the uncertain nature of the COVID environment during the time that organizers would have been planning several months ago.

The locations of the various mazes are a little re-arranged from two years ago, and the first maze immediately to the left of the entrance is the clown-themed 3D Freak-Fest. With the exception of the giant clown face facade that I don't think was present when I visited in 2019, the layout and general idea of the maze remain the same. Guests enter a colorful and almost psychedelic carnival world full of mischievous clowns that lead them astray--literally!

A colorful 3D maze, 3D Freak-Fest is pretty much self-explanatory.

The first portion of the maze uses a relatively linear format and switches back between cages with maniacal clowns creeping around. This moves into the next area, which is more free flowing and somewhat labyrinthian. Here, circuitous paths can take guests in circles as they search for an actual exit, and the clowns themselves do their best to further that goal along. After, how scary would being lost among clowns forever be? For some, quite terrifying.

The sets consist of black flats with neon spraypainted clown murals and trippy patterns. It’s paired with 3D glasses that are offered for guests (although I happened to miss them on my visit; that’s my own oversight) that make the experience extra trippy and disorienting. Ultimately, guests find the exit out of the free-flowing space, through one final room full of vibrant chords stretched every which way, and escape out before the clowns can claim them forever.

Although it's on the short side, 3D Freak-Fest is a high energy and fun maze that highlights the absurd frivolity of the clowns, and though it was my lowest ranked maze of the evening at Disturbance, it was still pretty enjoyable, especially when people watching.

Kill-Billy Chaos

Directly adjacent to and once again sort of wrapping around 3D Freak-Fest is Kill-Billy Chaos. This backwoods-set maze is entered near the exit of its clown maze neighbor, and the tone of Kill-Billy Chaos is a sharp contrast to the zany and demented fun of 3D Freak-Fest.

Where the former is colorful, bright, and unnervingly cheerful, Kill-Billy Chaos is gritty, bloody, and decidedly twisted, with a slew of gory props and sets that showcase how homicidally twisted the inhabitants within can be. The scareactors in the maze are all energetic and intense, proving themselves to be hostile and depraved, kicking the maze experience into high adrenaline from the get-go. The maze takes guests through a boggy shack that immediately reveals the horrors of the human hunting inhabitants before moving outdoors into the marshlands. A foray into a laboratory of violence and a body bag-filled chainlink area seems to pivot the theme a little, but then it's back into another house of horrors atmosphere, finishing off with a chainsaw-wielding fiend who chases guests out of the maze--and sometimes straight out of the Disturbance property!

Don’t get caught in the chopping block at Kill-Billy Chaos!

Kill-Billy Chaos shines off the fervor of its scareactors, who are relentless and fierce. This maze isn't photogenic in the modern slick and polished manner. Instead, its rough and imbrued sets harken back to a more traditional style of haunt that focuses on the scare first and setting second.

The Haunted Hotel

Finally, we have the Haunted Hotel, designed and styled after the venue's namesake. Although this maze tries to capture the essence and gravitas of the former Gaslamp District attraction, the inherent nature of building a maze in a parking lot means that it cannot ever attain the same, moody weight as the original. But that doesn't mean this maze is poor. To the contrary, the Haunted Hotel is the best maze of the bunch, coming off like an excellent tribute maze to the old permanent location and carrying the spirit of the original attraction.

A notable and immediate difference this year is the hotel facade, which is actually three dimensional and indicative of a building facade. Guests who enter are treated to a preshow warning spiel that is nearly identical to the CGI video played at the start of the Haunted Trail's eXperiment Maze, which explains the maze rules and policies. Then, it's into the hotel "elevator" to check in for the stay.

The elevator serves to pace and pulse groups through the maze and includes a fun startle scare as well. Once guests exit, they get to wander through the various spaces of the Haunted Hotel from the baggage room to the kitchen to the lobby to the restrooms. There's even a honeymoon suite that guests can swing by, thought it seems like murder is in the air more than love is!

Oh great, even the bathrooms are haunted.

Similar to Kill-Billy Chaos, the Haunted Hotel is dark and dingy and visually rough around the edges. The sets aren't meant to be Instagrammable. Instead, they serve to convey the mood and setting as the story progresses, and also delineate the territory of the scareactors, who are even more intense and severe than Kill-Billy Chaos.

There are jump scares galore, some from scareactors popping out of hiding places and others from monsters in plain sight. Here too, the energy is extremely high, and buoyed by a comfortably busy night, the monsters are able to keep the pace of the maze at a welcome uncomfortable gait, avoiding lulls or many unstaffed rooms and keeping guests' hearts pumping all the way through.

The lost souls seek to claim guests and keep them here forever.

The finale of the Haunted Hotel is also something to behold, since it features another chainsaw fiend who will often chase guests out onto the main street zone area. By using the chainsaws sparingly, Disturbance avoids oversaturating them in a way that a place like Halloween Horror Nights might do, maintaining their effectiveness.

Ultimately, Disturbance is a great haunt for those looking for old-school thrills and talent that is passionate and constant. When I visited last Saturday night, the site was a comfortable amount of busy—not overly packed so as to make things feel too crowded, but with enough people and activity to allow constant motion through the mazes and keep the monsters active and on their toes. That in turn fed the scareactors more energy to provide terrorizing returns back to the guests.

The Haunted Hotels’s Disturbance isn’t the prettiest haunted attraction out there, but it is a well-executed one that is strong where a haunt counts—the scares. Partnered with the Haunted Trail down in Balboa Park, Disturbance allows for a great one-two San Diego combo. And logistically, it is possibly one of the most convenient and hassle-free haunts to visit and park at.

The Haunted Hotel’s Disturbance at Mission Valley runs select nights through the end of the month. Tickets start at $25 per person, and there are timed ticket and VIP line options also. Like the Haunted Trail, purchasing online is recommended for convenience. Service feels apply both online and in person (for credit card payers). Guests visiting Disturbance can walk straight in and just line-up at their desired maze. Tickets are scanned at the maze, not the entrance.

I appreciated the ways that Disturbance improved this year over two years ago, especially with the challenges of COVID. I look forward to seeing new enhancements in the future, especially if they can help create more place-making to make Disturbance hold a more immersive ambiance. But at the very least, I know that the talent working this haunted attraction are enthusiastic and ardent, and that factor certainly makes this haunt.

Correction:
This article has been updated to note that 3D glasses are offered at the 3D Freak-Fest maze.