Reign of Terror: 2022 Review

Janss Marketplace, Thousand Oaks, CA

Happy Monday, folks! Today, we’re kicking off the week with a review (or, more accurately, a trip report, since this was not a formal media visit; that’s also why the photos in this update aren’t typical DSLR quality and are instead taken from my phone) of Reign of Terror, that sprawling, incredibly detailed, almost overwhelming professional haunt that boasts the best and most intricate theming and ambiance of any haunted house out there. For a decade professionally and many more before that, Bruce Stanton’s Reign of Terror has been thrilling guests with its mix of live talent and triggered animatronic scares, gorgeously immaculate sets, and multiple, combined-in-one-course themes.

The first time we reviewed Reign of Terror, back in 2016, the haunt was “merely” featured 8 themed attractions, 95 rooms, and 21,000 square feet of haunted attraction space, with a walkthrough time of 15-20 minutes. This year, that count is up to 10 themed attractions, 135 rooms, and 28,000 square feet of space, with a walkthrough time of 20-30 minutes! After the a lot of upheaval and changes across the past couple of seasons, 2022 is relatively quiet year for updates, with no new change of scenery or substantial expansion. But in typical Reign of Terror fashion, there are always tweaks and rearrangements and smaller scale additions, so this year’s Reign of Terror is still a different experience than last year’s!

Our trip to Reign of Terror was two Fridays ago, after stopping by the relatively nearby Nights of the Jack attraction. Reign of Terror couldn’t be any more different than NotJ, of course, but for any Halloween fan who likes and is in a position to visit / bring guests to both a family friendly Halloween event and a much more mature audiences haunt, these two are very convenient pairings, since they’re located about 20 minutes away from each other. With me on this evening was good haunt and theme park and real life friend, Gregg, of Park Journey, who old-time Westcoaster forum members may remember as “Sir Clinksalot.”

Arriving at 10:00pm, we found a line that stretched around the plaza area in front of the haunt but seemed relatively modest. After purchasing our tickets at the ticket booth, we placed ourselves in the queue and enjoyed people and monster watching and taking in the general ambiance. Similar to last year, a 12 foot tall Home Depot giant skeleton, the Reign of Terror hearse, and a few roaming street monsters were present for entertainment. Guests who purchased the front of line Immediate Access pass could skip the outdoor wait and immediately enter the indoor and highly themed queue. If we were in a hurry, we would have opted for the express option, but this would be our only other haunt of the night, so we waited approximately 45 minutes (30-35 of that outside) to save a little extra money.

While the exterior wait is fun for its scare opportunities, the interior dazzles with its highly themed sets and props and figures, offering a sneak preview at the quality that is to come. Having been revamped during its move downstairs last year, the indoor line remains unchanged this year. And after winding our way through it, through an ominous atmosphere occasionally punctuated by bursts of lightning, it was time to enter the maze.

Our tour started with the Containment theme, with the queue transition into the maze itself separating us into three cell blocks to help with the pulsing of groups in isolated clusters through the course. This is one of Reign of Terror’s strengths, and unlike the haunted conga lines that exist at places like Halloween Horror Nights and Knott’s Scary Farm, Reign of Terror generally lends itself to a more intimate scare experience, with small groups feeling like they are on their on. And unlike our trip last year, where we actually did experience a continuous, slow-moving, bunched up line for a majority of the haunt, this year, Reign of Terror was back to normal form and feeling creepy and secluded like normal!

As our experience progressed, we made our way through the ten themed attractions—Containment, Infected, Quarantine, Funhouse, Inbred, Miner’s Revenge, Unhallowed Ground, The Asylum, Casa Blood, and the Haunted House. The changes and rearrangements were felt immediate within the first few rooms, with some fun scares and great new sets making their appearance early. It also seemed like our favorite themes revolving around the bloody carnage inside a cursed home theme were packed more to the back, paired with an increase of live talent and more unrelenting trigger scares to build the tension and increase toward a terrifying climax.

As usual, Reign of Terror made use of a great combination of trigger and animated figure scare and live scareactors, mixing them up to keep things interesting and add variety. The first half of the maze seemed a little emptier than optimum, but it was balanced by placing more monsters on the back half to make it more memorable and stick with guests as they exited the maze.

We also appreciated the scares that came from unexpected directions and angles, such as static-looking set pieces or overhead. Since guests typically scan their gaze at eye level, startles that come from above, below, or behind guests are more effective. In addition, some of the often-violently thrashing animatronic scares felt like they came viscerally close to guests along the walking path, occasionally prompting a duck or swerve of the body to avoid contact. I suppose when they said the monsters won’t touch you, it didn’t necessarily apply to the motorized ones!

Of course, the theming remained incredibly immaculate and impossibly detailed, to a level that only Knott’s and Universal achieve. Even then, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Reign of Terror was even more detailed, with furnishings and theming elements layered on and creating a thoroughly convincing environment for each theme.

Ultimately, taking our time and facing only two periods of back-ups where the maze had guests queue up in intermediate pacing reset zones, we were able to complete Reign of Terror in about 23 minutes. A faster, more terrified pace might run through in 20. A slower, more anxious and petrified pace complete with occasional stalling might net 25. There is no haunted house in Southern California that will give guests such an extended, high quality, terrifying, and seemingly never-ending experience.

Suffice to say that we loved our time at Reign of Terror and would recommend it to any haunt fan looking for arguably the best haunt in Southern California. In a year filled with a host of very excellent independent haunts, with many of them freshly or pretty recently turned pro, the veteran old-timer haunted house shows that it’s still a master of its domain and well worth making the long drive out to the border of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties.

Reign of Terror is located at 225 N. Moorpark Rd, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360, across from the parking structure at the northwest side of the Janss Marketplace. The event runs select nights through Saturday, November 5th. Tickets are $30 to $35 for regular timed tickets admission and $55 ot $60 for immediate access and can be purchased online (with fees) or on site at the ticket booth (cash only). Parking at the Janss Marketplace is free.