Fear Farm: 2022 Review

Fear Farm, Phelan, CA

For the past few years, I've had my eye on a haunted attraction up in the High Desert, not too far from Victorville, called Fear Farm. Not to be confused with its identically named and more broadly known 13th Floor Entertainment attraction located in Phoenix, Fear Farm in Phelan, California is a multi-attraction haunt that started as a home haunt, turned pro a few years ago, but remains at its residential location.

The first time I had even heard of Fear Farm, what really caught my eye was this incredible ghost town that the haunt had constructed right on its residential property. Like something straight out of Knott's Scary Farm... or Prescott, Arizona, this dusty lane showcased a detail and skill that was among the most impressive I had ever seen for a residential haunt and one that could certainly compete with the professionals too.

More recently, Fear Farm has been aggressive with self promotion by participating in numerous Midsummer Scream events like this past summer's convention, Seasons Screamings last Christmas-time, and the Awaken the Spirits "pop-up" convention last summer. In addition to their great scenic work and incredibly entertaining mini-haunt mazes, they've also featured an energetic, raucous, excellently functioning cast of monsters bursting with glee in how they approach their scares and guest interactions. And after seeing their astounding haunted maze at Midsummer Scream a few months ago, it became imperative that Fear Farm needed to be a stop this Halloween season.

It’s a strange place with strange creatures out and about.

The drive up to Fear Farm is going to be a long one no matter where one is coming from, and it's best done in an off-road vehicle with four-wheel drive--or at least a high profile vehicle like a truck or SUV! That's because though the route to Phelan off the I-15, through Highway 138, and onto Sheep Creek Road is paved for most of the way, once visitors hit the actual residential roads, the pavement gives way to sandy dirt, with countless bumps and dips and depressions and mounds. Land is cheap and bountiful out here, and houses are spread apart across large plots of land. Though development has spurred even here in recent years, Phelan remains a sort of rough and tumble, unincorporated census-designated place.

By the time guests arrive at Fear Farm, it's clear that this desert landscape is well out of the familiar confines of the city or even the suburbs. The isolated-feeling setting of Fear Farm enhances the exuberantly creepy atmosphere that guests encounter upon arrival, with a large overhead sign fronting a Cypress tree-lined lane that runs straight to an ominous-looking house at the end of the path. Orange and purple Halloween string lights adorn the path, contrasting the green hue of the Fear Farm sign and a pair of 12 foot tall skeletons serving as sentinels to the entrance. This may be a residential haunt, but it might as well be another world--one where devious fiends and wicked wranglers wring a tight, sinister grip on this domain.

The unmistakeable entrance to Fear Farm.

This year, Fear Farm features two walkthrough haunted mazes and one ride-through haunted hayride. In addition, its general scare zone area features a variety of spooky facades of various themes, from a Gothic crypt and dusty Western graveyard to the humorously out of place gingerbread house featured at Seasons Screamings to Grimstone, the incredible ghost town that first caught my eye a few years ago. Various street monsters roam the grounds--a malevolent menagerie of carnivorous creatures and cantankerous cowboys that are sometimes nefarious, sometimes silly, and always in terrific character and engaging with guests.

Fear Farm’s street talent are pretty fantastic.

Not all the character themes go together, but it doesn’t matter. They’re all super entertaining!

The theming and ambiance of this mixed theme and generally desert rustic environment is truly marvelous to behold, with a detail that one expects from heavy hitters like SoCal's big name haunts, not something seemingly in the middle of nowhere. But that's part of the surprise, fun, and unexpected charm of Fear Farm. It's this roughened but still luminous gem, and it's a fantastic haunted destination for those who make it there. This much is evident even before exploring the actual attractions.

The scenic sets are also impressive at Fear Farm.

This dusty graveyard fronts part of the route of the Haunted Hayride.

Sundown Manor

Fear Farm's original maze features a typical haunted house theme, which means it has a mix of themes rolled into one walkthrough. The ominous and foreboding manor facade, with its malignantly glowing red windows and dark, menacing feel, is like a miniature model brought to full scale life. This is the look of a haunted house from scary stories and horror shows, and it's absolutely ravishing in its Gothic way.

The start of the maze immediately showcases Fear Farm's innovative design approach, with an application of the laser swamp effect that presented a genuine spatial surprise that left us wowwing in appreciation just seconds into the house. From there, Sundown Manor takes guests outside around an electrified junkyard, through a disgusting bathroom, through an unsettling dining room and kitchen, into a doll-filled bedroom, and out into a quietly eerie garden. Through it all, a healthy fill of scareactors provide a mix of startle scares and creep-out glares, mixing the action to keep guests on their toes.

There is a lot of creativity on display through Sundown Manor, from ducking into a refrigerator to find a frozen icescape of detached body parts to motion triggered distraction elements a skeleton buried under a glass floor with a "Help Me" sign placed on its ribs. The already remote setting of Fear Farm also enhances Sundown Manor's ambiance, giving it a bit of a Texas Chainsaw connotation with murderous inhabitants lurking throughout this cursed abode.

There’s no telling what horrific creatures guests will run into.

Chamber of the Damned

Brand new for 2022, this is the unnamed mini-haunt that Fear Farm brought to Midsummer Scream's Hall of Shadows this past July, complete with the most jaw-droppingly towering facade we've ever seen at the Hall of Shadows. With a sort of Gothic jungle ruins theme, this maze is a fitting partner to Sundown Manor. The length of the maze is notably shorter, and the full version has just a few more rooms beyond the sequence that Midsummer Scream guests could explore, but the experience is still a fun and exciting one. Plus, there's plenty of room to expand the maze in future years!

Guests start off navigating through a dark and winding cavern with frightening arachnids and shadowy, lurking figures. The tight quarters lead down a passage that opens up into a vegetated clearing, offering some relief from the claustrophobia. A laser swamp effect is utilized here too, but it is projected overhead, providing the perfect screen for the same fantastic overhead scare that impressed us at Midsummer Scream.

We love scares that mix up the angles and direction of scare.

Strobes fill the next space, which takes guests through a grotto and some ferocious plant monsters, before turning into a catacomb with rotting corpses and a creature that won't stay dead. Past that, excavated coffins and gnarled tree roots take guests back to an outdoor setting. The finale pushes through a really tight airbag tunnel that leaves guests open to one more jump scare before they exit, giddy at having escaped the cursed souls from within this disturbing chamber!

The Haunted Hayride

Last but not least at Fear Farm is the Haunted Hayride. Normally, we are not too high on moving vehicle haunted attractions, because their very nature limits the amount of surprise scares that can occur, and the balance between jump scares and safety often results in a tamed down experience or missed moments that pass by too quickly. This has been our general experience on themed attractions like the Timber Mountain Log Ride and Calico Mine Ride overlays at Knott's Scary Farm to a variety of haunted hayrides around Southern California.

Well, the Haunted Hayride at Fear Farm is no ordinary hayride! This wild and breakneck haunted wagon ride absolutely hauls through its course, speeding through a variety of bumpy scenes at a pace that left us confused, unsteady, and laughing at the absurdity of it all. There are threatening pig creatures, cannibalistic backwood hillbillies, some alien cadavers and possibly mutated scientists, wild and reckless clowns, and at one point, a body is thrown into our wagon? The first half of the hayride often passes by its scenes so quickly that it is tough to tell what was actually happening. And while this would normally be a point of criticism, there are still enough chasedown scares to keep this experience ridiculously fun and outrageous.

The back half of the ride is a little more sane. A stop at the clown section includes a fun false-collapse scare that has guests shielding themselves to prevent a near miss collision with a falling fence. A pause on the return leg on this out-and-back course features a hanging corpse strung up upside down on chains that suddenly comes alive and flips over to reveal himself as one of the murderous meatpackers. The final stretch to the loading area is just a bit slower on account of its tighter turns. After everything is complete, disembarking guests might wonder what exactly just happened. Another trip through could clear things up, if guest are willing to brave the wait again.

A moment of pause allows for a cool near miss scare.

The reason the Haunted Hayride is so literally speeding is because there is only one tractor and wagon. The ride is essentially a one-train operation, which means lines can often build quickly. To mitigate that, the Hayride runs through its course much more quickly than other hayrides, rocketing through to maintain some semblance of efficient capacity. It's a combination that results in possibly the most exciting hayride we've ever experienced, and it also epitomizes the Wild West feel of Fear Farm, where seemingly anything goes! That said, the Haunted Hayride's line builds up the quickest, so guests may elect to hit up this attraction first.

Fear Farm features an extraordinary environment and excellent scare talent that know how to interact with guests of all inclinations. While most of the time, the monsters were focused on scaring, we also observed them behaving more innocuously and frivolously with younger guests who were more apprehensive about approaching these fearsome creatures. For interactions with adults, the mix of startles and sarcasm and wise-cracking also echoed the environment of Knott's Scary Farm from a different era a decade or two ago, when talent was given looser liberties to engage guests.

The friendly citizens of Fear Farm invite you to visit.

Overall, Fear Farm is a throwback to the more rough and tumble days of haunts, before the more modern and controlled push for theatrics and synchronization to integrate a more immersive and focused storytelling experience. That doesn't make Fear Farm antiquated, though. On the contrary, their high level of detail, innovative embrace of modern maze elements, and creative combination into their gritty but vivid and horrifying attractions results in a dastardly marvelous hybrid haunt--one that enthusiasts really need to visit to truly appreciate.

Suffice to say that our high and curious hopes for Fear Farm were definitely satisfied. Rix Boker and his crew have created a wonderful haunted surprise. Though Phelan is definitely off the beaten path and is not a convenient stop for most Southern Californians, Fear Farm is worth paying a visit. Guests in the High Desert area can also find a few other nearby haunted attractions in the area, such as All Saints Lunatic Asylum and Victoria Manor Haunted House. We haven't been to either, but they are recurring names we have seen operating year after year for many seasons.

Yes, there is an actual house behind all this amazing haunt goodness!

Fear Farm is located at 6275 Sundown Dr, Phelan, CA 92371 and runs Fridays through Sundays plus Halloween night for the rest of this month. Admission is only $15 for unlimited access to all attractions and can be purchased in advance online or on site. For everything that Fear Farm offers, this is an absolute steal of a value. Parking is on the dirt road of Sundown Drive. The venue is open from 7:00 - 10:00pm. Go check it out!