Twisted Dreams Haunt presents The Land Closest To Hell: 2022 Review
Twisted Dreams Haunt
The rapid stretch of home haunts at the end of every Halloween season means we’re cranking out multiple updates a day during the end of October. This trend continues today with Twisted Dreams Haunt, an old-school home haunt in Buena Park created by Lief Swenson that we’ve visted a couple of times and really enjoyed for its gory, intense, throwback feel—one that reminds us of what Knott’s Berry Farm was like in the 80’s and 90s, before today’s more sophisticated, sleek, and story-driven style.
The previous two times we’ve visited, Twisted Dreams has featured the “Grand Sierra Railroad,” a story about a murderous conductor who headed a violent cult that murdered and dismembered those who crossed it, transporting the body parts across the country via a shipping railroad to hide its gruesome deeds. This made for a very bloody and graphic haunt in the style of places like Perdition Home Haunt and The Fleshyard. This year, the title is “The Land Closest to Hell,” which I guess some people might use to describe Buena Park (keeeeding!!), but the carnage hasn’t gone away.
Welcome to Twisted Dreams Haunt, a domain of butchery and mutilation.
Guests who approach this residential haunted house will find a large poster banner in front of the garage and a limited graveyard display on the front yard that functions more as scenery for the waiting area than anything elaborate. The course starts on the right side yard, winds through the entire backyard area, returns on the left side yard, then finishes through the garage. What’s pretty amazing is how lengthy this home haunt is, with a route that takes a good four to five minutes to navigate. That’s longer than the houses at Halloween Horror Nights and on par with Knott’s Scary Farm mazes! And other than the beginning approach, just about every inch of that layout is themed and built out.
Creator Lief Swenson has built out quite a massacre of a horror show.
This year, Twisted Dreams brings guests face to face with a series of iconic-looking characters that seem to represent a cornocupia of demonic and savage characters that could very well emerge from hell. Our favorites included a cowboy looking to lend a hand whose face was also a hand, a Gimli-looking fiend clutching a bloody skull like Hamlet soliloquizing, a horrid pig monster wielding an exceptionally long chainsaw, and a ranting priest who glared and pointed at us like Chris Griffin’s crazy monkey nemesis on Family Guy. All of the scareactors in the maze were phenomenal with their in-your-face jump scares, menacing appearances, and manic energy. What’s more, there seemed to be an endless horde of monsters—nearly a dozen in total—filling the maze with screams and frights.
This year’s The Land Closest to Hell brings guests with a variety of disturbing characters.
This guy’s face is a hand. And he the has a hand. And wants to lend a hand. Basically, this monster is very handsy, but not in the inappropriate way. Unless you mean dismembering.
The theming of Twisted Dreams is very grisly and explicitly violent. Torn apart bodies, mutilated body parts, visible organs, impaled heads, and rotting bones are a constant presence. The flats and sets are partially finished and have an appearance like they’ve been left up for years to weather, and the resulting deteriorating-looking ambiance adds to the discomfitting vibe of the maze. Add in the ominous lighting and a soundtrack that seems to be an audio equivalent of dread, and the result is an intimately terrifying maze experience that we keep enjoying year after year!
Enter The Land Closest to Hell if you dare!
Twisted Dreams Haunt is located on 5815 Panama Dr, Buena Park, CA 90620 and is open tonight and next weekend, October 28 - 31, from 7:00 - 11:00pm each night. Admission is free, and street parking should not be that difficult. Guests will be asked to sign a liability waiver, but this is not an extreme haunt, and the monsters will not intentionally touch visitors. When we visited around the 9:00 hour, the talent was taking an extended break, so expect a 15-30 minute downtime mid-evening for those trying to time an arrival.
Architect. Photographer. Disney nerd. Haunt enthusiast. Travel bugged. Concert fiend. Asian.
