Castle Dark 2024

Castle Dark is a Halloween-themed event held at Castle Park, an amusement park located in Riverside, California. It typically runs during the Halloween season, transforming the park into a haunted attraction. Castle Dark features multiple haunted mazes, scare zones, and live entertainment. Actors dressed as monsters, ghosts, and other creepy characters roam the park, creating a spooky atmosphere for visitors. Castle Park itself is a family-friendly amusement park known for its rides, arcade games, and mini-golf, but during Castle Dark, it takes on a much scarier vibe aimed at teens and adults who enjoy haunted attractions.

Castle Dark 2024 is all new, with 3 new mazes, 1 VR maze add-on, 2 scare zones, and 3 shows select nights through October. They invited us to their opening night to see what they have cooked up for their 16th haunting year, jump to the TLDR to see what we thought, or keep reading for the full run down…

Castle Dark is pure Halloween FUN. Let’s just rip the bandaid right off - this is not an event for those looking for haunts with excellent set design or avid thrill seekers looking to compare this with other theme park haunts in SoCal. It is a smaller operation and therefore the haunted attraction is also a smaller scale in both design and in footprint. Were the mazes scary? Sometimes! There are some creative scare actors housed in these mazes that are utilizing corner scares and other unique scare tactics for the classic jump scare. The 3 mazes this year are all new, which didn’t mean much to me since I haven’t attended before but is worth noting. I really did enjoy the clown themed maze, I thought it had interesting rooms and is a classic story that we all pretty much know so doesn’t need a lot of lore built in. The Seance maze is like a bog witchy vibe which was a very cool concept and had some really fun elements! I won’t spoil too much, but if given the opportunity to carry the candle - say yes! This decreases your visibility and increases the fear factor. The one that just completely fell short for me was the Labyrinth maze because nothing was explained to us when we went in and we only encountered 2 actors because we exited from the wrong place. There were maybe like 20 exit signs very clearly labeled (great for safety!) with no staff to tell you not go out that way, so we were confused. I would also recommend waiting to do this maze when it is very dark outside as there is no roof and I think the intensity factor would be greatly increased in more darkness than when we went through. This year there is a VR maze as well for an additional price, as media we were invited to try it out but I am not really a big VR girly I allowed my boo to let me know how it was. He said it was fine, probably not worth the additional price but definitely a unique and fun experience that he hopes they build on for better graphics to really immerse you fully.

I think Castle Dark is a great option for families who have kids who want to start cutting their teeth on spooky events. I also imagine if I lived in the area and was a teen, I would be absolutely living at this event all season long. Additionally, and here was the real special surprise for me, the park is actually very creepy. I had never been to Castle Park before and the unhinged vibes are incredible. I love that the Big Top main tent area is filled with ornate circus theming and old circus posters. There is some really unique clown tile in the bathrooms, and very fun looking animatronic-like circus band creatures on one wall. They have a literal castle with an arcade housed inside, and a massive indoor merry-go-round that just oozes creepy but wholesome but maybe haunted. I love a theme park that feels like our collective childhoods and this really hits the mark. I love the idea of going to a haunted attraction and there is actually a layer of real creepiness, not just manufactured for Halloween. I would also recommend this for friend groups who have friends who want to participate in spooky season but don’t love to be really scared - this would be great for just hanging out, drinking, vibing, riding the carnival rides, and catching the show offerings on an affordable price tag. Something to note, the park does not hold a liquor license so there will be beer/wine drink options only. They have all the classic carnival food offerings, and they also have a Boca burger and some side options that are vegan upon request. I would highly recommend checking out this Mexican vegan food truck if you are up in the area though, I’ve been twice recently and both times were delicious.

The rope drop itself shouldn’t be missed! They turn all the rides on with no one on them to really drive home the abandoned theme park feeling and then all of the scare actors come straight down a path towards the crowd to unleash them. Classic, creepy, and fun! The scare zones are pretty spread out so you have actors from each kind of roaming as they see fit and there isn’t a ton of themed decor to situate you within the scare zones. I still felt like the actors themselves were really fun and had good costuming/makeup and brought excellent energy. The slider show was a great time with all the actors from the scare zones, certainly not to be missed! The other 2 shows are fun, Countess Elura is a show is poking some fun at the larger theme park haunts and provides a Castle Dark version of Elvira which was VERY fun and also sets the tone for the Halloween dance party they do in the Big Top every night. Definitely don’t miss that for 10/10 Halloween vibes.

Overall I would highly recommend this to anyone at least once because variety is the spice of life, or for anyone in the Inland Empire or nearby areas looking for something spooky to do that can be family friendly or friend-who-doesn’t-really-like-haunts friendly! There are so many classic carnival rides open all night, great entertainment, and I believe their huge mini golf is also accessible during the event as well. Let us know in the comments if you’ve ever visited Castle Dark!

TLDR

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TLDR 〰️

Boo’s Review:
Overall Haunted Attraction Rating: 2
Atmosphere Rating: 3.5
Vegan Food Rating: 1
Costume & Makeup Rating: 3
Scare Actor/Cast Rating: 3
Set Design & Special Effects Rating: 2
Scare/Intensity Factor Rating: 1.5
Value for Money Rating: 2.5

Individual Attraction Name: Funhouse of the Demented
Individual Attraction Overall Rating: 3
Character & Story Cohesion Rating: 3
Set Design & Special Effects Rating: 1.5
Scare/Intensity Factor Rating: 2.5

Individual Attraction Name: Seance
Individual Attraction Overall Rating: 3
Character & Story Cohesion Rating: 3
Set Design & Special Effects Rating: 2
Scare/Intensity Factor Rating: 3

Individual Attraction Name: Labyrinth
Individual Attraction Overall Rating: 0
Character & Story Cohesion Rating: 1.5
Set Design & Special Effects Rating: 1
Scare/Intensity Factor Rating: 1.5

Individual Attraction Name: Sinister Inn VR
Individual Attraction Overall Rating: 2.5
Character & Story Cohesion Rating: 3.5
Set Design & Special Effects Rating: 2.5
Scare/Intensity Factor Rating: 2

Killer K8’s Review:
Overall Haunted Attraction Rating: 2.5
Atmosphere Rating: 3
Vegan Food Rating: 1.5
Costume & Makeup Rating: 2.5
Scare Actor/Cast Rating: 3.5
Set Design & Special Effects Rating: 2
Scare/Intensity Factor Rating: 1.5
Value for Money Rating: 3

Individual Attraction Name: Funhouse of the Demented
Individual Attraction Overall Rating: 3
Character & Story Cohesion Rating: 3
Set Design & Special Effects Rating: 2
Scare/Intensity Factor Rating: 2.5

Individual Attraction Name: Seance
Individual Attraction Overall Rating: 2.5
Character & Story Cohesion Rating: 3
Set Design & Special Effects Rating: 2
Scare/Intensity Factor Rating: 1

Individual Attraction Name: Labyrinth
Individual Attraction Overall Rating: .5
Character & Story Cohesion Rating: 2
Set Design & Special Effects Rating: .5
Scare/Intensity Factor Rating: 1

** Scores based out of a possible perfect 5