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Visiting The Los Angeles Haunted Hayride 2021

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Halloween tends to be the time of year that really brings a community together. Whether it be through trick or treating, costumes, or haunts, everyone loves to put on a show for the town. Whether it be in the neighborhood or a big city wide event. I have a lot of fond memories of these kind of local events, so it was particularly fun to check out The Los Angeles Haunted Hayride!

The event has been a Hollywood Halloween mainstay for decades and continues growing strong even to the present. The layout retains much of its small town scare roots, having an almost carnival styled format to it. The main area is a scarezone entitled ‘Midnight Falls’ which is also the basis for the story and aesthetic of the haunt. Midnight Falls is a town that loves Halloween so much, it’s scary… with all sorts of ghoulish residents and madmen on the loose during this time of year. There are a number of scare actors and photo ops to be found in this central hub, each being the gruesome citizens of Midnight Falls as they enjoy the revelry and try to scare any people nearby. As well as a stage featuring a fun and ghoulish rockabilly show.

The main draw and attraction of course being the Haunted Hayride itself. As the name implies, you are placed on a the back of a tractor with ample hay cushioning and driven across a haunted trail in the foothills of Griffith Park. So, if you’re actually allergic to hay or may suffer hay fever, I recommend preparing beforehand. The ride itself goes through several different themed sections. From a vampire nightclub, to a haunting animatronic pizza party palace, to a monster infested lake, and even a UFO with go-go dancing aliens and more! Using a combination of scare actors, animatronic, and fx traps, it conjures up some fun frights. Be prepared for ghouls to try and jump at you while you’re seated on the tractor among other surprises. Some of the timing felt a little off on certain sections and the ride felt pretty safe and open at several points, but overall it was pretty inventive.

After that,t here are three Midnight Falls themed haunts to journey through. There’s ‘Trick Or Treat’ which as the name implies has you walking through an accursed neighborhood where the homeowners are more terrifying than the trick or treaters! Including a pretty entertaining feature where you can press the doorbell at various points in the maze and summon a scare actor, effect, or animatronic to create more frights. This did create a bit of a backlog in the line at certain sections however.

Next, there’s ‘Midnight Mortuary’ where you’re sent into Midnight Fall’s premiere mortuary and graveyard, encountering all manner of undead citizens and zombified scare actors.  Lastly, and my personal favorite was ‘Dead End Diner’ where you enter Midnight fall’s local greasy spoon only to discover you’re on the menu! And while there’s the usual backwoods cannibals, expect to encounter a number of werewolves and scarecrows in this menacing maze. And emphasis on maze! Scare actors will try and misdirect you and there are a number of dead ends and twisting trails to throw you off, so choose your path wisely…

 

While The Los Angeles Haunted Hayride isn’t the biggest budgeted haunt in the land, it has a lot of charm and bloody, ripped out heart to make it worth giving a ride. Featuring three entertaining mazes and one of the most famous haunted hayrides around, it’s an experience worth trying and reliving that small town terror.

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Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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Part Concert, Part Horror Movie M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ Trailer Released

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In true Shyamalan form, he sets his film Trap inside a social situation where we aren’t sure what is going on. Hopefully, there is a twist at the end. Furthermore, we hope it’s better than the one in his divisive 2021 movie Old.

The trailer seemingly gives away a lot, but, as in the past, you can’t rely on his trailers because they are often red herrings and you are being gaslit to think a certain way. For instance, his movie Knock at the Cabin was completely different than what the trailer implied and if you hadn’t read the book on which the film is based it was still like going in blind.

The plot for Trap is being dubbed an “experience” and we aren’t quite sure what that means. If we were to guess based on the trailer, it’s a concert movie wrapped around a horror mystery. There are original songs performed by Saleka, who plays Lady Raven, a kind of Taylor Swift/Lady Gaga hybrid. They have even set up a Lady Raven website to further the illusion.

Here is the fresh trailer:

According to the synopsis, a father takes his daughter to one of Lady Raven’s jam-packed concerts, “where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event.”

Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Trap stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills and Allison Pill. The film is produced by Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock and M. Night Shyamalan. The executive producer is Steven Schneider.

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Woman Brings Corpse Into Bank To Sign Loan Papers

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Warning: This is a disturbing story.

You have to be pretty desperate for money to do what this Brazilian woman did at the bank to get a loan. She wheeled in a fresh corpse to endorse the contract and she seemingly thought the bank employees wouldn’t notice. They did.

This weird and disturbing story comes via ScreenGeek an entertainment digital publication. They write that a woman identified as Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes pushed a man she identified as her uncle into the bank pleading with him to sign loan papers for $3,400. 

If you’re squeamish or easily triggered, be aware that the video captured of the situation is disturbing. 

Latin America’s largest commercial network, TV Globo, reported on the crime, and according to ScreenGeek this is what Nunes says in Portuguese during the attempted transaction. 

“Uncle, are you paying attention? You must sign [the loan contract]. If you don’t sign, there’s no way, as I cannot sign on your behalf!”

She then adds: “Sign so you can spare me further headaches; I can’t bear it any longer.” 

At first we thought this might be a hoax, but according to Brazilian police, the uncle, 68-year-old Paulo Roberto Braga had passed away earlier that day.

 “She attempted to feign his signature for the loan. He entered the bank already deceased,” Police Chief Fábio Luiz said in an interview with TV Globo. “Our priority is to continue investigating to identify other family members and gather more information regarding this loan.”

If convicted Nunes could be facing jail time on charges of fraud, embezzlement, and desecration of a corpse.

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