Below is our exclusive interview with Todd & Scott who are the creative directors of Evil Twin Studios – Ward 13. 

Thanks Todd and Scott for taking the time out of their very busy schedules. 

Q1: How did you get into the "scaring people" business? 
We were both home haunters, setting up mazes and scares in our driveways to spook the trick-or-treaters. After a few years, we outgrew our houses and our wives suggested we team up and go somewhere else… anywhere else.

Q2: To us, your job seems like it would be the best thing ever. What advice would you have for our readers who would like to do something like this on their own either professionally or as a hobby? 
Haunting as a hobby is fantastic. You can go as big or as small as you want and 99% of the people who see it will appreciate the effort. If you decide to go pro, however, there are a LOT more factors to consider. #1) Finding a place. Very few buildings are willing to rent to you for a month. #2) Funding. It takes a lot of money to put together an experience that people will pay for. #3) Safety. You need to be concerned about this in a home haunt too, of course, but when you go pro you’ll have a lot more people coming through and you need to protect them. #4) Crew. Getting volunteers is a job in and of itself. #5) Publicity. Once you’ve built it, you’ve got to let people know. But when it all works out, it’s a blast.

Q3: Onto this year’s event, why did you decide to move locations for 2015?
The South Pasadena Unified School District was kind enough to let us use their location for our 2015 haunt. Since the proceeds of our haunt benefit the South Pasadena Educational Foundation, they allowed us to use the space for free! A new location has been challenging, but at the same time forced us to come up with new innovative scares that our fans have come to expect! 

Q4: Without spoiling anything, what can you tell us about the story for this year’s event? 
Many of your readers are familiar with the Raymond Hill Mortuary, but they probably haven’t heard of its sister facility, the Raymond Hill Sanitarium for the criminally insane. As we are well aware, the Raymond Hill facilities are not operated in a professional manner. It is rumored that there is a secret, undocumented section of the asylum called WARD 13, where experimental procedures take place and patient safety is not a concern. The operators of Raymond Hill deny WARD 13’s existence, but people living in the area have reported hearing strange noises and screaming at night that aren’t coming from the main building. It seems that WARD 13 may be in a separate building out back, but no one has been able to confirm its existence.  

Q5: What element or effect are you most proud of for this year’s event? 
Oh, that would be giving it away. We’d better keep that as a surprise.

Q6: What makes your event different or unique compared to similar events in the area? 
Fans of our haunt have said that two things really separate us from other haunts. #1) There’s no conga line. In the big, pro haunts the crowd goes through in a steady stream so even inside the haunt, you’re still standing in line. We send in groups of 6 to 8 with at least two minutes between groups so you get your own private experience. Guests also love our actors. They are all volunteers so the only reason they are there is because they love it. They get really into it. I also think folks appreciate that we are telling a unique story each year.  And of course, our reasonable prices for a truly haunted experience!

Q7: Southern California has become a kind of "hot bed" for Halloween events. It seems more and more events are popping up every year. Are you afraid of over saturation in the market or are you satisfied that the market is there to continue for years to come? 
We love that Halloween is really exploding. We wish we had more time to get out and see what other people at doing, professionally and at the home haunt level, but we’re so busy in September and October that we don’t get the chance.

Q8: How do you go about selecting the "talent" for the event?  Any specific tips you have for people looking to audition? 
Enthusiasm is key. You have to love haunting to put up with the long hours, uncomfortable make-up, and discomfort of crouching behind a bush and leaping out over and over again. Acting ability or improv experience is great for key roles, but there’s a place for just about everyone who is willing to commit.

Q9: We've noticed you are one of very few events to not offer any kind of VIP or Front of the Line access these days. Is this a conscious decision or is it something you may present in future years? 
We actually do offer a front of line pass, sold at the door for an additional $10 (with haunt ticket, total entry price $25). It’s a nice little perk for those dying to get in.

Q10: Last question, and we'd be remiss if we didn't mention that the entire event is for charity (The South Pasadena Educational Foundation). How did you get involved with the SPEF?  
We are both residents of South Pasadena with kids in the school system, so we were already giving to SPEF as individuals and it seemed natural to sponsor them with our haunt. SPEF does so much to provide the students with classes and services above and beyond what the schools can do alone and it deserves all of our support. And if we can scare the pants off of people doing it, even better! 

Thanks again to Todd and Scott. Find all of the information you need about Ward 13 below

Evil Twin Studios 2015 haunted attraction will make nightmares come true at a new location in South Pasadena. 
This Halloween season, sanity comes to die at WARD 13.

Since its earliest days, rumors about the Raymond Hill Sanitarium have circulated. Rumors of neglect. Rumors of abuse. And most disturbing of all, rumors of an undocumented area where finding a cure was secondary to exploratory experimentation. This was the one thing patients feared more than death...

WARD 13 

1020 El Centro St.
South Pasadena, CA 91030 
(Entrance on Fairview Ave, see map below)

Operation hours 7:00-11:00 PM      

Friday, October 9 
Saturday, October 10
Friday, October 16 
Saturday, October 17       
Friday, October 23           
Saturday, October 24
Friday, October 30      
Saturday, October 31

TICKETS
​ONLINE: $15.00
AT THE DOOR: $17.00

PURCHASE TICKETS NOW

Online ticket sales end at 6 PM on haunt nights. Tickets will be sold at the door on haunt nights until 11 PM or until we sell out. 

For at the door sales, we accept cash and all major credit cards. 

Front of line passes are available at the ticket booth on haunt nights for an additional $10/ticket. 

Proceeds from Evil Twin Studios' WARD 13 benefit the South Pasadena Educational Foundation (SPEF). 

For more information and tickets, visit www.eviltwinstudios.com

Evil Twin Studios WARD 13
​Criminally insane. Pathologically dangerous. Mentally twisted. And those are just the doctors.

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The grand entrance to Boo at the Zoo

Are you a good witch or a bad witch? 

Awesome photo opportunities

See, wouldn't you rather see this picture than Gregg or Matt sticking their head through the picture holes? 

Awesome scary music

Oooh, feeding of the Komodo Dragons ... awesome!! 

Fun hay maze ... no jumping over the walls. 

Awesome Pumpkin Carving!! 

The Let it Go Pumpkin ... 

Oh yeah, in case you forgot, this is at a zoo!! 

Lulu says thank you LA Zoo for entertaining me. I can't wait to come back and see my favorite aminals!!! =)

Thanks again to the LA Zoo for having us out for their awesome Boo at the Zoo event. The event runs every Saturday and Sunday trough the end of October. You can check out their website for hours, feeding schedules, tickets and more. 

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Before we get started, a bit of an apology to you the readers and to the Queen Mary. See, we had a plethora of amazing video that we shot at the event. Because how could we not? Due to my haste in getting the "Scaryoke" video up before our event last Friday I didn't re-name the videos, and in clearing HD space for even more  videos, everything else got deleted. 

But the pictures from Matt and Scott will more than make up for. (click on any of the pictures below for a larger version ... we are aware that there is an issue clicking on some of the pictures below, we are working on it)

Our event started off in the late daylight hours last Thursday, the event was easily 20 degrees cooler than it was for last years event which was nice. Upon arrival we all made our way to the RIP Lounge. And if you know theme park bloggers, you know this wasn't a huge surprise. =)

After a few minutes relaxing, having a snack and a drink and getting caught up on all of our Halloween adventures, it was time to head out into the event. But not before stalking Rick from TPA while he was doing his live Periscope. =)

The RIP Lounge is a great place to get a bird's-eye view of the event

Our first stop was the all new Lullaby, which is in the previous location of Submerged. 

Being on the ship these mazes don't really need a whole lot of props and sets because, let's face it, the ship is scary enough as it is. And this one is really great and really creepy. 

​Maze Rating: 10/10

Next up was the returning maze B340. 

The cool thing about Queen Mary is that even though most of the mazes were returning they made small changes to each to make them even better. The theme of this one is still kind of weird, and some of the scenes don't make a whole lot of sense to me, but again, at the end of the day, it's a fun, scary, creepy maze with great sets and amazing actors. 

Maze Rating: 7.5/10

Our last maze on the ship was another returning maze, Soulmate. 

And once again, the improvements to this maze from last year to this year were amazing. This year it features a bit of a pre-show to further explain the story and Graceful Gail and her, well, puppets for lack of a better word are more than eager to terrify you on the rear ... of the ship. =)

​Maze rating: 9/10

Ok, before we move on to the off-ship mazes I want to take a moment to talk about the one thing that really sets Dark Harbor apart. And that's their talented actors. I hate to use the word "monsters" here because, sure, while they are there to scare you, these are actors that immerse you in the overall theme of Dark Harbor. 

Over the years these actors have been given the blessing and have the ability to create their own characters, their own personality and they do it ever so well. From the Captain, to the Ringmaster to Scary Mary, Graceful Gail and all of the, yes, Monsters in the mazes, they've really done an amazing job setting this event up and giving everybody a good scare and a good laugh. 

And of course, the amazing Ringmaster doing her "Scaryoke". 

So let's move on to the off ship mazes, we'll start with another returning maze, Deadrise. 

Many people ignore this maze because I think it's been here the longest. Our advice, don't. Again they've made some changes to the maze this year, mixed it up a bit and the talent in this maze, probably the most cohesive group of any maze at any event we've been to so far. 

You can really tell the crew of the Deadrise have been working together for years, they know what they are doing and they know how to get a fright even from the most expert of guests. It takes a lot to give me a startle scare, these guys did it more than once. 

Maze Rating: 9/10

Next up is Voodoo Village. 

The first time we went through this maze at last years event it was amazing, I enjoyed it so much and gave it a pretty high rating. Two nights later we went through again with a group of rowdy intoxicated people and I didn't care for it, but I decided to give it a pass due to the jerks ahead of us. 

This time I really did enjoy the maze, but overall I do think it's the weakest of the mazes at the event. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, but when you compare it to the other mazes here, it just doesn't hold up. 

That said, this is still a rather new maze, the sets are beautiful and I'm thinking by this weekend they will be hitting their stride in this maze and kicking it up a few notches. 

Maze Rating: 7/10

Last and most definitely not least is Circus. 

What can we say about Circus that won't give too much away? It was, quite simply, the most fun I've had in a maze in a long time, maybe ever. 

Just like the scare zones and the characters, the actors in here are amazing and they actually have the ability to get you lost in the maze. 

This maze features one of the most amazing elements in a maze ever, a freaking ball pit. Obviously something like this wouldn't work in just any maze, but in Circus, it absolutely works and it's amazing and funny and fun and awesome. Did we say awesome? 

This maze is seriously worth the admission to Dark Harbor by itself. It's fun, freaky, scary and HIGHLY repeatable. 

Maze Rating: 11/10 (it's that good)

Dark Harbor also features the amazing Slider Alley, Voodoo Village Scare Zone and a really fun and awesome Sideshow. It's a $5 upcharge but it's well worth it if only to get away from the crowds, enjoy some time at the bar and watch the shows they put on at the stage. 

We simply can't recommend Dark Harbor enough. Whether you like to get scared, like to laugh, have a great drink, ride Michael Jackson's Neverland Swings or just watch amazing actors do their thing, Dark Harbor has it all. 

Also, be sure to check out the Anubis Paintball Adventure, it's unique, fun and you get to shoot people with paintballs without getting shot back. What's better than that? =)

​Go, have fun, tell us what you thought. =)

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We'll start off with some Red Carpet pictures. 

Below is our highlight video and pictures from the event. 

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As I mentioned above, the price changes came down on Sunday morning while everybody was slumbering after a long weekend of Haunts and recovering from our event at Six Flags Magic Mountain last Friday. Such slumbering that when I originally put together the article regarding the price increase I thought the $1049 Annual Pass was actually good for both Disneyland AND Walt Disney World (and if that was the case, we wouldn't be having this conversation today). 

​But no, those passes are in the $1400 range if you want both WDW and Disneyland. 

Since February the no-blackout Disneyland pass now called the Signature Plus has gone from $699 to $1049. Now, nobody is denying that this is a huge increase. A ludicrous increase. An insane amount of increase. A plethora of extra dollars flying out of your wallet every year, or realistically, every month. 

The next level down is the Signature Pass which is $849, which again is a HUGE increase from where it was in February. But the only blockout days on this pass are around the holidays, so I'm guessing for the most part, people will be going with this particular pass, which will hopefully mean that more families going for that 1-day trip for the Holidays can have a nice time at a park that doesn't have to shut down for capacity every few hours. 

Now, the "Disney Spin" on this is that these increases are necessary to decrease crowds at peak times of the year, and to hopefully cut down the number of Annual Passholders which has gone from around 100,000 in 2002 to well over 1,000,000 now. 

And at first glance it would appear this would work, but there's still that pesky little thing over there called the payment plan. And while that option is still available I think most people will still renew. 

Which now brings us to the semi-controversy I may have created on twitter due to that 140 character thing and the lack of reading comprehension by some people. 

See, I have no problem with people being Annual Passholders. We were Passholders from 1998 to 2012 and had an amazing 14 year run going to the park a couple of times per month. Well, really, 13 years. 

That least year, 2012 going to Disneyland became more of a "chore" to get our money's worth, and really, that's not the reason you want to go to Disneyland. 

Our kids who had the Deluxe pass in 2012 used it exactly once. So for us, the value wasn't there and we gladly let our passes go when they expired in January of 2013 (also the reason you don't see a whole lot of Disneyland updates on this site). 

So here's the problem. If you look at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Message Boards, comments put on articles about the increase, the OVERWHELMING response from the vocal minority (because let's face it, there aren't 1,000,000 bitching on Twitter about this) is that Disney is greedy, that they haven't done anything to justify this and why are they closing down half the park (they aren't) just after raising these prices. 

And those arguments would be alright if there wasn't one little problem. Most of those people complaining are still going to renew their passes. And of course Disney knows this. 

So here's the tweet I sent out that got everybody mad at me: 

@Park_Journey
​If you don't like the AP increases, remember, Disneyland isn't the mall or Promenade, stop treating it that way. Go hang out somewhere else.

There were some responses that weren't so kind, I won't repost them, but you can find them. I even got a response from a rather prominent, nah, notorious, no, that's not what I'm looking for ... ahhh, high visibility Disney Blogger who has been adamantly against this increase.

The whole point of the tweet was this (as most people pretty much ignored the preface of the tweet and concentrated on the 2nd half) ... 

If you enjoy going to Disneyland every 2 weeks, every week, every day then by all means, it's there, it's amazing, have a great time. More power to you. 

But ... if something that is supposed to bring you joy and happiness causes you to lash out on the internet twice a year (at minimum) then why do you continue to do that thing? 

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein

As I said above, Disney was in 2012 becoming a chore. Making sure we got our $$ worth. We didn't that year. Since then we've been back once in November of 2014. That 1 1/2 year gap of not going to Disneyland was the longest I've been away from the park since I was a kid. It was undoubtedly the longest gap my two children in their late teens have ever had. And you know what, the magic was back. Sure it was insanely busy but we didn't mind waiting in a line or two to ride what we wanted to ride. 

I wasn't running all over the park getting Fastpasses. We took our time. Spent the whole day together. Rode what we REALLY wanted to ride and just enjoyed time at Disneyland. It was amazing. 

We are hoping to go back in late Nov/early Dec again this year and are expecting it to be crazy busy, but we will have a great time. 

For those of us who only go to the park once or twice a year, or once every few years, the prospect of having a park that isn't filled to capacity on a random Tuesday in October (yesterday had a crowd rating of 88% according to MouseWait) is good news. 

If you want to go between Xmas and NYE, maybe you'll actually be able to get into the gate after 8:00am. 

And for those of you who are angry but still going to renew, I have some bad news for you. Star Wars Land is probably 4-5 years off at this point (although Iger is throwing $$ at Star Wars so it won't take as long as Avatar). This isn't the end of the increases. This isn't the end of the changes. The prices will continue to go up. If I had to guess, the payment plan will eventually go away. 

For a real solid indicator of where Disney may go with the future of Annual Passes we should all be paying attention to what Universal Studios Hollywood comes up with when they announce their Annual Pass/Season Pass structure for next year. When that's going to come is anybody's guess. But Potter is going to be huge in Southern California. Star Was Land will arguably be even bigger.

​Remember when DCA opened and they tried to limit the number of Annual Passholders because they thought it was going to be so busy? Well think along those lines, but instead of DCA something that people will actually come see. 

As we did in February, let's look at a breakdown of Disneyland Passes vs every other park in Southern California. And as we did then, we'll use comparable passes with no blackout days and free parking. 

* These Prices are current as of Oct 7, 2015

So if my math is correct, you can get Annual Passes to 5 major Southern California Theme Parks, most of which include admission to their attached waterparks, two which include admission to all other parks in their respective chain (Six Flags/Cedar Fair) and all of that will cost you less than the Disney Signature pass at a grand total of $768.99. 

And obviously you can pick and choose based on your location/family members. Many may not live close enough to Legoland to justify that expense, or have children in that age range. There's another $189 in savings. 

Maybe you don't like coasters at Magic Mountain, there's another $76.99. 

The point is, this gives you options to go out, maybe take a year off from Disney and see what else is out there. And at the end of the day, it's not going to cost you a whole lot of money. 

And remember, we've compared only the top tier passes to each of these parks. There are lower cost options for each of them (other than Six Flags) that could easily fit your budget even more. 

It will be interesting to come back and compare these numbers once Universal announces their Season Pass structure to see if it's still an added value or not. And of course, this isn't even taking into account another Disney increase that may come in February as it did earlier this year. 

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We promise we won’t call CPS) We decided to watch this event from the “Demon District” which is essentially the (bleeding)heart of Fright Fest and where you should be once your grandfather clock strikes 6pm. Following the Awakening is “Dead Man’s Party” which is a choreographed dance and singing show themed to what else? Zombies and the undead and awesome (we are huge fans of theming to awesome). 

But here is the kicker. It’s literally a “DISNEY” level show. Yes, you read that correctly, Six Flags can go “full on” Disney with theming, costumes, choreography, level of talent, pyrotechnics, and sales of “things that glow”… It is not to be missed.​​

Blood Shed
​Lets start with our second favorite haunt trail at Great Adventure EVAR. Blood Shed (see what they did there? )… So I had to google this, because the trail is completely different then what it’s supposed to be about. I’m told via the great folks at Six Flags Public Relations that theme is supposed to be a crazy plastic surgeon that does terrible things to his clients (What if Bill Cosby was a plastic surgeon?) that some how ends up creating “pig men” (it’s like a choose your own adventure story on meth I guess) …

But the way we experienced it was a corn filled maze like “crop circle” with much better theming and more scares. As I spend way too much time visiting haunted houses, I fall deeper in love with trails laid out like Blood Shed. Using the corn and a secondary path system for the “ghouls”, you are provided with “pop up” scares out of nowhere. Which to me is amazing (and way better than Kardashian pop up shops which to me is terrible).

Forgotten Carnival
​So, HI AGAIN WORLD CLASS LEADING THEME PARKS.. Hey Universal. Whats up?

What if I told you that my local, regional park could knock it out of the park with a maze that was as good or better than anything you’ve ever done.

To me, this haunt was a game changer. From the starting layout (the person that tells you the rules and distributes glasses) to literally every scene. I know some people dislike “3d” glasses because they disrupt your equilibrium and they clearly aren't 3D and you can also see things in 3D because you are a person and you (most likely) have two eyes.. But this one is great.. Each scene and set up work perfectly together.

​The use of “3d” UV paint is perfect. The scares ares are so strong, that we had 100 percent of the ladies (that have done stuff like this before) actually scared.. A LOT. To me, this is the best thing that Six Flags has done at any park for fright fest. I can’t say it enough.

​Game changer. Five Stars- Unless clowns like stars, then 0 stars. Also. Clowns.

The Rest. (in peace)

​The Manor- Arguably the most themed and one of the oldest mazes at Six Flags. Lots of money was spent to build this one and it works and we love the theming

3 stars

The Asylum- Must have caught this one on an off night - (to be fair there was a group of 12 year old girls in front of us that were holding hands so the ghouls must have been spent)

​Good concept but 2.5 stars

Wasteland- I want to like this trail.. The leading “mutant general” that engages the line is awesome. He’s been doing this for the past three years and I literally should fill out a comment card to “acknowledge an employee who embodies six flags fun”. the rest of the trail had me wishing the river raft ride was open. Getting that wet = actually scary to me .

​2.5 stars

Total Darkness- Totally Lame - This is the maze that needs to go . Pretty sure it was staffed by three people and if your major fear is walking into the person in front of you than this is your maze.

​0 Stars

Scare Zones always rock at Great Adventure. From the Butcher scare zone in Wild West Town to the engaging of fright virgins at the fountain, We absolutely love those areas. Hat tip to Great Adventure for allowing ghouls to roam free.

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