The 17th Door: 2022 Review & Spook Show 17 World Premiere
The 17th Door, Fullerton, CA
Last Wednesday was a Westcoaster first—a world television premiere, as Manic Mind Productions hosted the official launch of their new documentary reality series, Spook Show 17, which chronicles the behind-the-scenes of the concepts, production, and operation of Southern California's most extreme haunted house, The 17th Door.
Whispers the Clown poses in front of Leanna Vamp and her Fiend.
Longtime readers of Westcoaster will know that we have been covering this innovative and polarizing haunt since its inception back in 2015. We followed along the tragic saga of Paula Barclay, a young girl trying to put her traumatic and dark past behind her as she enrolls into Gluttire University, only to have her demons follow her to college and then onto Perpetuum Penitentiary after she is sentenced for the killing of her baby conceived out of rape. The haunt manifested real-life issues like substance abuse, self-harm, body image struggles, domestic violence, bullying, and sexual assault as concepts explored through an unorthodox theatrical tragedy and used them to manifest visual and visceral scares and even guide set and character designs. But it was the waiver-requiring extreme nature of the haunt—the personal contact, use of electric shocks, incorporation of live and dead animals, and other tactics exceeding those of traditional haunted attractions—that gained it both notoriety and acclaim.
Betsy the Cockroach was a recurring feature on the red carpet of the Spook Show 17 premiere.
Over the years, The 17th Door has gained a divided audience. Guests either love it or hate it, and seems to rarely be an in-between. But with time and with a certain narrative promoted through word of mouth and media coverage, The 17th Door has gained a reputation as a gross-out or torture haunt, which twists and oversimplifies the nature of owners Robbie and Heather Luther's enterprise.
Thus, a few years ago, after initially being pitched by a local TV news reporter about the idea of having a reality show filmed at the site, Robbie decided to shun convention and create a whole documentary production himself, despite having very limited film-making and editing experience. This would be on par with his trend, though. Before The 17th Door exploded onto the scene seven years ago, the Luthers had never done any sort of haunt before, outside of regular home Halloween decorating. But as he is apt to do, Robbie dived headfirst and poured his entire passion into this project, enlisting an in-house crew to learn and operate the logistics of documenting the planning, execution, and run of the haunted house so that they could tell the story—but their way, in their own authentic, unfiltered, sardonic style that has come to exemplify the Wild West nature of their haunted attraction itself.
(Poster courtesy of The 17th Door.)
Even their self-released promotional description is wry and sarcastic:
To soothe his insecurity, an egotistical innovator decides to make his own reality TV show about how he and his business-savvy wife lead a misfit crew to build the craziest, most elaborate haunted house in the galaxy: The 17th Door.
A complete departure from what you know about reality TV, Spook Show 17 is completely authentic, obnoxiously irreverent, and flat-out hilarious. Follow this team’s journey through 14 episodes of design, build, casting, and operating, where you will see behind the scenes what it takes to truly scare the shit out of people.
Plenty of VIPs were on hand for the Spook Show 17 premiere.
Spook Show 17 is the culmination of these efforts--which guests have probably noticed over the past few years if they've visited The 17th Door at any time. There have been camera crews catching guest reactions in line and exiting the maze, hidden cameras in each of the rooms to record intimate screams and shocks and fear, as well as video documenting what happens backstage, outside of the public view. It's narrated in a loose and gunslinging style, with wise-cracking jokes, adult humor, explicit language, and all the uninhibited freedom of a team that has never really cared what the status quo thinks. The result is plenty of humorous anecdotes, even in the animated breakdowns of how some of their most complex and technical stunts and rooms are engineered and built, and that universal appeal of laughing at other people’s pain (just look at what old shows like America’s Funniest Home Videos were grounded upon).
This means that even for haunt enthusiasts who don't care for The 17th Door itself, Spook Show 17 is an entertaining and fascinatingly informative way of looking into how one of SoCal's prominent haunts operates. The fourteen episodes, available for purchase on streaming platforms like iTunes, YouTube, Google Play, and coming soon to Amazon streaming (but not Amazon Prime, unfortunately) are full of suspenseful moments, funny stories, jocular technical breakdowns, and some of the infamous parts of The 17th Door's maze components.
On the surface, the tone of the show and the remarks and quips that arise may suggest a cocky and lampooning and even sociopathic attitude toward the very product that The 17th Door creates, especially when the 17th Door crew is subjected to tests of the often physically painful or dangerous mock-ups of their complex rooms. But Spook Show 17 is also a tribute to all the hard work and effort and passion of everyone involved, from the writers to the production and theatrical crew to the construction workers to the actors, make-up artists, wardrobe, and business operations folks. Spook Show 17 may poke fun at the drama of the haunt industry (from which even an nonconformist attraction like The 17th Door is not immune), but underneath the crass and sass, it does highlight an underlying appreciation for the grueling and challenging job that each member performs.
They got a taste of the scares earlier.
This brings us back to last Wednesday, and the world premiere event. The guest list included celebrities and influencers which, in full disclosure, we non-cool people at Westcoaster mostly did not recognize. But it was very entertaining to see the talent interacting with these special guests, scaring them and giving them a taste of what was to come, since they would be going through this year's maze after the screening of the first episode of Spook Show 17. The red carpet strollers seemed to react most squeamishly to the prisoner who brought along his pet cockroach, Betsy, and placed her on one of the celebs or influencers during a photo op—usually without their awareness. Their reactions upon realizing not only that something living was on them but what it exactly was made for some priceless moments.
The reactions to Betsy were often predictably surprised.
And recoiling.
And shifting out of reality.
A cocktail hour followed, during which guests were provided with bite-sized snacks and full bar drinks and some dessert sweets too. Then, divided into two, alternating groups, they were ushered into a nice theater space carved out of the backstage area to enjoy episode 1 of Spook Show 17.
Cocktail hour at the Spook Show 17 premiere.
Food and refreshments were served. Only one of the items had bugs in it.
Then it was into this really nice theater space that The 17th Door crew converted from part of their backstage space.
Once that was complete, it was time for the special invitees to experience this year's 17th Door haunted house itself! I was able to join in on the experience, which was unforgettable as usual.
This is the part where I will reiterate that The 17th Door is not a haunted house for everyone. Guests need to sign a waiver before they enter, and they're also recorded on video reciting their affirmation that they read, signed, and understand the waiver and potential risks that they may encounter in the maze. The 17th Door is an "extreme" haunt, which means actors may come in physical contact with guests, and guests may face situations that do risk injury. It's the type of haunt that is catered toward haunt fans who are no longer satisfied with sanitized traditional haunts that feature predictable scares and typical startles. This is for fright enthusiasts who need more adrenaline and a blurring of the lines between fictitious haunt house thrills and actual peril.
That also means it draws some scorn from those who feel that a haunted house that emphasizes potentially injurious physical scares isn't a "real" haunted house like the traditional types that incorporate story and immersion but ultimately segregate actual danger. Fortunately, The 17th Door makes all of its risks blatantly and abundantly clear, with a candor that can only be misinterpreted if a guest simply chooses not to believe everything laid out in writing in front of them. And we’ve always strived to set very transparent expectations for this very particular haunted attraction.
There is a lot that happens at The 17th Door that some might consider inappropriate! But it’s all forewarned.
This year's 17th Door maze returns guests to Perpetuum Penitentiary, to where Paula was remanded starting the 2017 season. However, the storyline has cut Paula out entirely, instead having the guests star in the general narrative of trying to escape from the prison. The past few years have seen Paula endure emotional, physical, and sexual abuse from prison officials, then gain a measure of vindictive revenge by turning the tables on the warden before closing with Paula's release and promise of returning back to Gluttire University. The next chapter would have transpired in 2020, but the pandemic understandably removed the certainty of all planned endeavors. Thus, the 17th Door has minimized the story focus—which most guests may not fully process anyway.
Instead, The 17th Door has focused more on the unique and envelope-pushing, technologically-laden room stunts. Similar to last year, there have been several rooms that have been reconfigured, offering new experiences for about a third of the maze (though not in order). But the grandest and most memory-searing rooms do return, including the Tumbler room, Cockroach room, Circle Shocks, Truck Smash, Firing Squad, Gas Chamber, and last year's extremely watery finale. Guests who aren't able to take the intense trigger moments can mercy out of an act, the room, or the maze entirely.
On this night only, we were allowed to take pictures inside the maze. Here’s the infamous Tumbler Room.
And the even more infamous Cockroach Room!
The Firing Squat is not fun… until it becomes fun!
The new rooms—five in total—don't quite hit the chemical high that some of the aforementioned classics have ingrained, but they do engage a variety of different types of scares, from classic pop-out startles to exposure to livestock (well, deadstock) to fake outs to triggered scares. This makes the entire experience a reflection of The 17th Door's whole catalog of scares throughout its history. The maze has gone through cycles of emphasizing gross out scares to embracing more electrical shock moments to utilizing water to a near excessive degree in order to bring forth the most visceral reactions. 2022's version of the maze takes the balanced stock portfolio approach and picks one or two of each type across its 17 rooms.
Mad Dog is back in the penitentiary!!
In this room, guests can see other groups getting their frights.
We don't quite know if next year will continue the groove that The 17th Door has settled into the past few years or bring about a completely new setting or even a return to Paula's story. Personally, I would love to see closure to Paula Barclay and at least one year’s return to more of the lavishly and visually rich environments of Gluttire University, as opposed to the sparse and dingy Perpetuum Penitentiary interiors of the past five years. But there's no denying that the prison theme, the characters, and the expanded universe that The 17th Door has created with the Vixi Labs VR Experience and The Field Trip separate site excursion have proven to be quite popular and successful with 17th Door fans and attract new guests looking to see what all the media commotion has been all about.
The 17th Door continues to carve its own path in the haunt world.
Ultimately, The 17th Door continues to innovate and evolve, conjuring new, twisted ideas to torment guests into different levels of fear. Having successfully thrived for the better part of a decade, The 17th Door has carved itself a role as one of Southern California's haunt stalwarts (as much as I imagine Robbie Luther would hate to be associated with anything implying convention). The haunt, and the incredibly entertaining Spook Show 17 documentary behind it, showcase a unique and warped brilliance. And we look forward to seeing what comes next for the Luthers and company!
Architect. Photographer. Disney nerd. Haunt enthusiast. Travel bugged. Concert fiend. Asian.
