Out of the three haunts I’ve experienced this Halloween season so far, “Delusion: His Crimson Queen“ is unequivocally the best. Unlike the typical haunted maze filled with zombies, clowns and other monsters in grotesque make-up, “Delusion” is a fifty-five minute haunted play that treats the audience like a character.
This year’s performance is subtitled His Crimson Queen, directed by Jon Braver and taking place in 1933. You play the children of Selene & Berke Sullivan. After receiving a letter beckoning you to a villa inhabited by a few unique families to uncover your mother’s dark past. Much like CreepLA (review), you’ll have the best experience if you open your mind to the plot and have fun acting along with the cast, which you’re encouraged to do. But more on that later.
The show is being held in an admittedly spooky-looking mansion in the West Adams district of downtown LA. It’s a great location for any haunt, towering and elegant but a victim to its age with chips in the stone work and boarded up windows.
There are some annoyances that come with the territory, however. It’s right in the middle of a residential neighborhood that’s often used for filming and the neighbors have a very low tolerance for loud noises and lots of cars parking near their houses. Naturally, because of this parking is a mess. You’re not allowed to park on Harvard Blvd. or Hobart Blvd. but valet parking is available for $7. If possible, you should take an Uber or a Lyft to avoid the headache.
Things are wonderful once you get inside the premises though. There’s a nice outdoor lounge set up around a warm fire-pit and a little spirits bar nestled into the shed below. Groups are fairly large, so chances are you’ll probably be placed with a few people you don’t know. This wasn’t an issue at all since everyone was excited for the and happy to chat about new horror movies and celebrating the Halloween season.
Like most haunts, you’re told that it isn’t for everyone. That running crawling and physical contact with the cast will happen and if that’s not your thing you should step away. As nervous as that disclaimer tends to make me, it’s actually the best part of the entire show.
In one room towards the middle of the play, you’ll have to work together to solve a puzzle. It involves crawling through a hole in the wall into the attic, stargazing and pulling back the sheets on a bed you’re convinced someone is hiding in. There aren’t any jump scares to take you out of the moment, and I had a blast once I let my guard down.
My biggest tip is that when you’re asked to interact with the cast in any way, jump at the opportunity. I won’t spoil what I got to do by raising my hand, but I will say that it improved an already great haunt immensely.
The actors and the characters they play are so genuine and so obviously as excited as you are to be there, that it’s impossible not to have a smile on your face throughout the whole experience. It gave me the warm nostalgic feelings of lighting pumpkin candles and watching Halloween while carving Jack-o-Lanterns rather than the seat-gripping terror of Don’t Breathe. It’s well-acted, well-written and well-directed with a meticulous attention to detail, but not a single person involved is afraid to have fun.
One room I loved in particular is right at the beginning. The Frankenstein’s Monster-like caretaker is sitting in leather recliner in the middle of a dimly-lit living room watching am old horror film. He’s very zombie-esuqe… until you touch him. You’re given special power over the residents of the house and throughout the play you use them in some pretty cool ways. I won’t spoil what happens, but there’s some awesome special-effects work at play and I enjoyed every second of it.
Despite skipping 2015, “Delusion” is still extremely popular in it’s fifth year open. Unfortunately, all showings ($60 per ticket) are currently sold out. I received a tip that they’re working on getting the permits to add more shows, so as long as they keep the neighbors happy (something they’re working very hard to do, maybe even to a fault) I wouldn’t write off the possibility of snagging a ticket. They’ve done giveaways through their newsletter and Facebook page in the past, and if all else fails there’s always Craigslist.
It might sound like a lot of work to put in just to see a haunted play, but I can wholeheartedly say that it’s worth the effort. I’m confident that “Delusion: His Crimson Queen” is the most fun you’ll have at a haunt this Halloween season.