Realm of Shadow presents Hamre Manor: 2021 Review
Trinity Christian School and Lutheran Church, Norwalk, CA
This update was supposed to go up yesterday afternoon, but I just ran out of time. So as we come to November, it becomes the first of a solid number of now-retro updates of the 2021 Southern California haunting season that we’ll be posting until… we’re through with all of them. We’ll, uh, try to sprinkle in some non-Halloween updates in between also. But no guarantees!
Anyway, as we move along our home haunt coverage to close out the end-of-October haunting sprees, we come to a haunt that technically did not run at a residence this year but otherwise functioned very much like an “amateur” haunted house. “Amateur,” of course, is in quotes because the home haunts that we visit are typically of stellar quality, with some competing with the caliber of professional and big-name haunts.
Strange beings or creatures traverse the vine-taken ruins of Hamre Manor.
In this case, our visit at the end of Friday night was to Realm of Shadow, a previously-Bellflower-based attraction that we discovered at Midsummer Scream in 2019 and then visited in full later that fall. The full-blown Temple of the Fallen God thoroughly impressed us with its lengthy layout, elaborate theming, fun theatrical elements, great scareactors, and rich storytelling, and it immediately put itself on our list of “haunts to definitely visit again next time.”
Of course, next time ended up being the decade that was 2020, and though Realm of Shadows had big plans with their sequel maze, to be entitled Hamre Manor, the pandemic, challenges with dealing with changing restrictions, and eventually the L.A. County mandate that prohibited haunted houses period put a lid to that endeavor. So creative director Ron Love and his RoS team would have to wait.
Good things come to the patient, though, and this year, Realm of Shadow was able to open Hamre Manor. Not only that, but through Ron’s connections with Trinity Christian School (his wife is the principal), they were able to gain the most valuable haunt commodity of all: land. As great as a home haunt can be for haunters, residential plots are still typically constrained by the size of their yards and garages and the connections around their homes. But at Trinity Christian School, Ron and his team were provided with the blank slate of the asphalt hard courts and parking lot on which to lay out this year’s haunt.
Incredibly creepy portraits by artist Celena Crawford line the halls of Hamre Manor, hinting at the horrific possessions that may have occurred in this house.
Hamre Manor was a sequel of sorts to 2019’s Temple of the Fallen God. There’s actually a very rich backstory that’s a little too lengthy to paraphrase, but the gist is that Dr. Nathan Hamre had returned to his ancestral home after procuring the Head of Diabolki artifact and giving it a new home within the residence, perhaps to attract or prod the Lord of Shadow into manifesting himself at the location where his power was centralized during the time of Dr. Hamre’s ancestors. In any case, take a potentially cursed indigenous relic and place it in the confines of a supernaturally stained home, and naturally bad things will start to happen.
The maze, then, was essentially a jaunt through a haunted house where events of the most unnervingly disturbing context take place. Guests traversed from various rooms of the manor—a dining room, endless hallways, a bedroom, and more. As they delved deeper into the Manor, they encountered creatures that are more and more horrendous, until finally meeting the Lord of Shadow himself, who literally towered over them in an impressive highlight of the maze.
Hamre Manor features innovative uses of now-commonplace haunt effects, such as this laser swamp lighting rig placed vertically to edge light a hideous monster within the house.
Compared to Temple of the Fallen God, this year’s Realm of Shadow did not seem quite as rich in theming and ambiance, since the setting was less exotic than a cursed jungle ruin, with all of the intimate, organic vegetation and crumbling architecture and naturalistic settings. However, the Realm of Shadow team made up for this through its exceptionally creative and dynamic use of lighting as well as the incorporation of scares from atypical angles and locations, thrilling guests with frights from unexpected directions.
Because Hamre Manor was meant to be a dilapidated estate, the lighting could not be warm and bright and clear. Instead, technical director Nathan Hamre (namesake for the main character of the Realm of Shadow lore and also a pastor at the Christian fellowship that Ron is a part of) use laser lighting in different ways to achieve striking scenes without washing out the moody ambiance of each of the spaces. One of the coolest examples involved turning the laser swamp fixture vertically to illuminate a scareactor from all sides, creating a laser “wall” of sorts that blurred the perception of the monster’s reach. Laser strobes and pulsating lights also created beautifully backlit scenes that astounded the eyes, distracting guests for startle scares.
There were also scenes that oozed with creep factor. A corridor with arms and hands reaching from the walls and ceilings was especially noteworthy, creating an uncomfortable and claustrophobic feel. There were also hallways containing haunting portrait sketches by artist Celena Crawford, which seemed to depict the descent of a woman into madness, possession, and disfiguration. Elements from Temple of the Fallen God also returned, providing nods for guests who had visited Realm of Shadow before, like the idol / artifact and the dragon-like winged beast that functioned as a monstrous spirit in the house.
The scares were also innovative and surprising. Though there were certainly traditional techniques used, like regular jump scares, statue scares, and drop portraits, Realm of Shadow also sought to expand the frights vertically by placing a scareactor on a catwalk above guest and creating cacophony from above. The Lord of Shadow towering above the walls and reaching down also created a thrilling and popular scare that sent guests running toward the exit. In some cases, double team scares were even employed, with one monster hitting the first jump scare and leaving guests vulnerable to a quick second pop. These scare tactics are part of Realm of Shadow’s goals, using unique ways to frighten guests in order to avoid reliance on blood and gore.
The Lord of Shadow towers above guests near the climactic finale of the maze.
All of this speaks to the passion and enthusiasm and creative drive of Ron Love, who has been crafting haunted attractions for about twenty five years and has headed Realm of Shadow’s haunting endeavors for its five season existence. Ron’s regular work is with the Christian ministry to support the marginalized and vulnerable populations and provide charitable work to those in need, and he takes all the positive aspects of his faith into Realm of Shadow, using the haunt simply as an avenue to bring joy to the community and imbue the warmth of the Halloween season.
As we mentioned in our review two years ago, Realm of Shadow is not a hellhouse. There is no proselytizing anywhere in the maze or outside of it, and most people will likely pass through without any idea of a church connection (well, based on past locations and ignoring the neighboring church of this year’s site). Instead, Ron seeks to channel the light of his faith through action, not words, and provide people with a fun experience. And to that, we appreciate what he’s brought with this inventive haunt.
And another hideous and terrifying fiend lurches out of an unseen compartment as guests try to flee their terror!
Realm of Shadow was located at 11507 Studebaker Rd, Norwalk, CA 90650 this year, in the rear parking lot of the Trinity Christian School and Church property. Entering the parking lot off of Studebaker and driving to straight to the back before turning right, guests could find the actual maze in the blacktop play area of the school. The haunt ran Fridays through Saturdays the last two weekends of the month, October 22-24 and 29-31. Admission was free, so even though this was not a haunt at a home, it very much operated like a home haunt!
Architect. Photographer. Disney nerd. Haunt enthusiast. Travel bugged. Concert fiend. Asian.
