What: Sherwood Scare

Location: 8856 Encino Avenue, Northridge

With the exception of the fact that pumpkins and pumpkin spice everything made an appearance with the turn of the calendar page to October, it hasn’t felt much like Halloween this year. I can’t pinpoint if it’s the general atmosphere, how chaotic life has been lately, or the very peculiar weather over the last few weeks, but I can’t say I’ve been very festive this season. In fact, for the first time in years, I didn’t even carve a pumpkin!

I have been making it a point to incorporate a horror flick here and there to try to shake things up, but when it comes to a good scare to really get in that Halloween state of mind, I knew I needed something new and something within budget,

Enter the power of a Google search.

Then enter Sherwood Scare.

An impressive promo trailer on their website (below), along with a reasonable fee, and 5 star rating on Yelp…and I was on-board!

Deemed one of the best D.I.Y. mazes in town, I couldn’t get over the mere $3 donation benefiting the Big Worm’s Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Not only was it an affordable excursion to get into the Halloween spirit, it was also for a good cause! Win. Win.

The plan was to head out the weekend before last, but I couldn’t make it. Knowing that the maze is only on for two weekends before Halloween, this past Saturday night the decision to hit the heart of the valley to locate that missing festivity and find a good scare was all I could think about. I knew I found it the moment I turned onto the eerily darkened residential street, filled with expansive homes, and a light fog in the air that lent to all good things spooky.

Muffled screams from inside the maze filled the atmosphere as I waited in a short line outside. I got to chatting with the guy working the front door and learned that Sherwood Scare, themed differently every year, is designed and produced by movie industry professionals who create sets. They develop and build the intricate and highly produced maze over what is essentially their basketball court in the backyard of their massive private home – a feat that took over 2 months of planning and construction alone.

2013’s theme, “Camp Sherwood,” welcomes guests into a room where they are introduced to Head Counselor, Skip, before engaging in an orientation video designed to entice visitors of Camp Sherwood’s awesome outdoor adventures…until the once happy-go-lucky campers somehow went missing, returning that fateful night not quite so happy-go-lucky. Thus begins the next 10 minutes of pure terror.

I can vouch that The Sherwood Scare is as awesome as you read about. One almost forgets that you’re simply in someone’s backyard, supporting a good cause. The actors were dressed head-to-toe in horror and stayed in character, successfully creeping me out the entire time. The production value of the scenery was detailed and far superior to what I’d even expected from a $3 admission.

Understandably, photography is not allowed – though you’d be too damned scared just getting through the 2,000 square foot maze to dare attempt to document any aspect of it anyway.

All I can say is, “Bravo! What fun!”

This maze easily rivals and outperforms even the high-end haunts I’ve been to over the years. I can assure you, my lacking Halloween spirit was revitalized by the time I left. I was happily spooked.

The last night to indulge in the dark side at Camp Sherwood is on Halloween Night, this Thursday, October 31st from 7pm-Midnight.