Fear in 3D - The Experiment: 2021 Review

The Shoppes at Chino Hills, Chino Hills, CA

One of the really great parts of venturing forth into the Southern California Halloween atmosphere is discovering a really fantastic haunted attraction that we haven't explored before. It's a broken record, but Southern California is spoiled with the excess riches of quality haunted attractions throughout the LA and OC (and SD) metropolitan areas, and that means each year, there's always something new and spooktacular to uncover.

The doctor will see you at Fear in 3D: The Experiment.

This year, the recipient of the biggest haunt surprise award might very well go to a haunted house that I hadn't even heard of until a little more than a month ago, from a source I normally wouldn't really trawl for haunt recommendations: Facebook. But one day, I was scrolling through my timeline, when I came upon a sponsored ad for an attraction called Fear in 3D: The Experiment. Boasting itself as the "SoCal's Scariest 3D Haunted Attraction," this maze didn't necessarily stand out on the basis of its tagline--after all, there aren't really that many 3D haunted mazes around these parts, so "scariest" of a low sample size doesn't really mean much. But the aesthetics were certainly intriguing.

Navigating to the website revealed a vibrant and colorful display of what I can best describe as neon clown graffiti art, and the small gallery of maze photos definitely piqued my interest. Thought I couldn't quite tell what the theme of the maze was--other than something about an experiment and maybe some medical oddities or horrors--this definitely looked like a haunt worth checking out. So last Sunday, on my way to the Dark Harvest media night, I stopped by with a few spooky friends to see what Fear in 3D was all about.

This lab is just the beginning of the oddities and horrors.

The maze is located at the Shoppes in Chino Hills shopping plaza. The storefront facade fronts the retail district's Main Street, just west of the H&M store at the heart of the outdoor mall, though this year, this is actually the exit. Bountiful signage directs guests to the backside of the retail properties, facing the southwest corner of the mall, where this year's entrance resides. There is also free parking on this side, as parking along the two main access roads requires meter payment.

The laser swamp is really, really well done here.

As it turns out, Fear in 3D: The Experiment is actually a multi-theme haunted house, with guests going through a variety of environments including a disturbing asylum, a zany and gruesome circus, a moody and spooky wilderness, a gleaming laser swamp, a brooding spider lair, and a laboratory gone wrong. These scenes are by and large linked by blacklit 3D chromadepth painting done by Stuartizm Designs, which specializes in airbrushed haunted house and dark ride paintings and scenic set work. Guests receive a pair of 3D glasses before entering, and aside from the initial hospital-like space that starts off a little dingy, kind of bloody, and somewhat unnerving, the rest of the maze is a vibrant explosion of luminous horror artistry.

The sets throughout the maze are vivid and vivacious.

3D mazes can be hit or miss sometimes. Some attractions use them as a crutch, providing visual interest without much significant depth. Not Fear in 3D. The backdrops are merely complements to a richly themed environment with plenty of props and furnishings that really carve out spatial texture. Each room is sumptuously decorated with plenty of detail, from the laboratory that guests enter after navigating the medical bay to the cemetery woods to the carnival ambiance that runs through the final third of the maze. Add in all that saturated color, and the visual stimulus is almost overwhelming. Behind the 3D glasses, the ultra-depth of the walkthrough certainly causes a bit of a disorienting feeling while creeping through each space.

Fear in 3D is a smashing good haunted maze that offers the total package in terms of haunt experiences!

This is perfect for the talented and enthusiastic crew of monsters who display excellent timing and scare instincts (and/or a great penchant for applying good scare coaching). The monsters utilize the perceptive confusion guests have as they trudge through the maze, trying to make sense of all the 3D effects, and strike quickly and surprisingly from different angles. There is a great variety of scare tactics, from basis boo box pop-out scares to statue scares to camouflage startles. The scareactors throughout the maze display a fantastic range of emotions--all feeding into the disconcerting vibe of the maze. Each takes full advantage of their environment to keep the hits coming, and there is rarely a dull moment throughout the somewhat lengthy walkthrough.

The clowns are here to entertain… and mutilate.

All of this creates rich haunted environments that execute their frights wonderfully. Among the highlights of the Fear in 3D maze are the best and most uniquely executed laser swamp--with uneven ground adding a physical sense of unbalance in addition to the chromadepth disorientation--that I've ever seen, plus the maniacal clown area that includes a werewolf literally slashing sparks with a steel bar against a holding cage. There's also a spinning tunnel that seems quite effective in inducing vertigo, and a surprisingly abrupt "dark zone" that interrupts the prismatic menagerie and takes advantage of the sudden dimness to deliver more scares that feel like phantom startles.

There’s a spinning tunnel here. Because of course there is!

What makes all of this even more amazing is that Fear in 3D is only a second-year haunt, having picked the perfect, pandemic time to debut last year, and is spearheaded by a company whose specialty lies on the opposite holiday spectrum, Christmas! The folks behind Fear in 3D run The Christmas Light Guy Company and are responsible for large scale holiday lighting and decoration installations all across Southern California--including perhaps most notably the Citadel Outlets in Commerce (yep, those are the people who put up that oversized, glittering Christmas present bow at that mall). And when we visited, it seemed like they hadn't really connected to the general haunt community. This explains why I never heard about this maze last year through my usual channels, like Midsummer Scream or Parks and Cons or even fellow haunt bloggers. But that's the beauty of haunts--all it takes is passion, some admittedly advantageous financing, and good Halloween instincts, and even a "newcomer" can produce an absolutely spectacular experience.

If Fear in 3D wasn't really interfaced with the haunt community, that will hopefully change after this season. Word has quickly spread, and this attraction has been receiving praise from visitors of all types, fellow haunters and haunt media included. This is the type of haunt community love and support that I love, because while every haunter does it for the love and passion, it's fulfilling to reward quality installations with acclaim and success. When I say that Fear in 3D might be the breakout haunt hit of the year, I am not exaggerating. And as a bonus, this haunt makes a great double-header with Dark Harvest, which is located less than 10 minutes away down the 71 freeway.

Fear in 3D will spark terror in guests who visit!

Fear in 3D: The Experiment runs Thursdays through Sundays for the rest of the month, from 5:00pm to 11:00pm each evening. The earlier opening hour (which isn't hurt by daylight because the maze is all indoors) provides an advantage to haunt enthusiasts looking to maximize their trips, since guests can do this maze before the normal 7pm opening of the vast majority of other haunted attractions. Tickets start at as low as $15 for adults and $8 for kids--an absolute steal for a maze of this caliber.

Even though Fear in 3D is located out in Chino Hills, farther from the LA/OC core, it is definitely worth visiting. With other haunts like Delusion, Dark Harvest, and Castle Dark in the general vicinity (within half an hour) plus a slew of quality Inland Empire home haunts in the area opening later this month, it makes for a convenient grouping for haunt searchers. Just definitely make sure to include this excellent maze on the itinerary!