The Bay’s Least Scary Haunted House

It’s that time of year when all of the Halloween attractions in the bay are in full swing. From intricate corn mazes to haunted houses and paranormal circuses, there are spooky adventures all around us. I’ll admit it’s somewhat subjective to make this claim without having *yet* experienced each of the amazing frightening Halloween events The Bay has to offer, but it appears I may have stumbled upon the least terrifying haunted house around: Fear Overload Scream Park in Newark. It wasn’t all bad though… let me explain…

(And, just to say it… this is all just my opinion… best thing for you to do is see if it’s your kind of scary)

I didn’t see this guy but apparently he’s part of it? Image from The Fear Overload Instagram

I’m pretty skittish and that’s probably no surprise. Prior to just the other day, the house experience I had dates back to 1999, during my college days in Missouri when I was convinced into becoming a guide for what I can only describe as the most terrifying haunted house ever, set in an abandoned state hospital. At that time, my fear was so overwhelming that I could barely navigate the building without sweaty palms and trembling hands. So, this year, I don’t know why I thought I was somehow ready for another haunted experience but I figured I’d see if I was a little less jumpy 25 years after that last one. 

A while back I went into Google to learn different haunted houses in The Bay ( I should have just looked at our calendar but wanted to expand my search beyond the dope events I know we have listed)… Anyway, in a list of over 25 haunted houses within 100 miles of SF, I stumbled upon Fear Overload Scream Park in Newark randomly and thought it would be a fun thing to take my cousin to while she was visiting from Portland. The description was pretty promising from their website: “Welcome to Fear Overload Scream Park – Your Gateway to Heart-Stopping Horror in the Bay Area! Embark on an Unforgettable Journey into Darkness at Our Premier Haunted House Attraction. From the eerie streets of San Francisco to the chilling depths of San Jose, we bring you an unparalleled haunted experience that will leave you breathless and craving for more.” Sadly, I wouldn’t say this was exactly heart-stopping… nor could be described as aerie.

I did find myself enjoying how hard the actors worked to try and make me feel uncomfortable – image from the Fear Overload Instagram

5 Reasons You DO Want to Go to Fear Overload:

Let’s start with the good stuff first because I sound like some Bob’s Burgers “Moody Foodie” when I dive straight into why this attraction is not as scary as I’d expect it to be. Despite these aspects that left me wanting more fear and fright, there are five reasons you might still consider a visit to Fear Overload Scream Park.

1: Pretty Family-friendly. While I was looking for a more jumpy experience, it’s actually pretty great for kiddos who wouldn’t be so keen on an overly scary haunted experience. That being said, their site does say that children under 12 are not allowed. So keep that in mind.

2: The Kitsch Factor There’s a particular kitsch factor for an attraction like this which makes it worth going to just for the sheer fun of it. Is it so bad that it’s good? Maybe?

3: Other Attractions Like Glow Stick Fright Nights. On some evenings they have special events like where they give you a glow stick vs a flashlight. Maaaaybe just maybe those glow sticks will help provide better visibility, enhancing the overall experience.

4: Talented Actors! There were a few actors that were pretty great. They did their best to scare me and I think if it weren’t for some of the other reasons I state below their jump scares would have really gotten me. The actor’s commitment to making you feel uncomfortable was potentially my favorite part of the experience. 

5: Hilarious memories made. Even if I didn’t get the exact experience I had expected based on the great videos of scary looks on the Fear Overload website, I did find myself laughing a lot during and after. I’d say that makes it worth going, honestly.

Here are five reasons why Fear Overload Scream Park proved to be rather mild in terms of its fright factor:

I will not give away too much about the experience for those who love these types of attractions and won’t mind the reasons below. For me, this particular haunted experience was not very scary. Even if something isn’t scary to me, it doesn’t mean you won’t love the kitsch factor.

1: Couldn’t see shit. They gave us a small flashlight with very little light. I think this was meant to make the attraction scarier but honestly it just made it harder to see the actors or any of the details around us.

2: I missed out on the story: There are two themes you walk through, House of Phobia and Happy Days Asylum but I missed out on the storyline between the two parts of the experience. Pretty closely tied to the first reason but its own reason none the less… I missed out on the whole scary story because I couldn’t see the decorations. There are two haunted walk-throughs for this experience. You basically step through from one directly into the other with no real explanation as to what’s different between the two of them.

It was SOOOOOoo Dark in there, I couldn’t see the cool scary stuff like this – image from the Fear Overload Instagram

3: Extremely Unorganized: I think one of the things that made my last experience (at the Missouri insane asylum) so scary was the anticipation. That build up before you enter into a space is important. Arriving at the location, the signage wasn’t easy to find from the street and we had to do some guessing as far as where the entrance was. It’s next to 24-Hour Fitness so maybe that was our first sign it would be

4: Easy To Get Lost Inside: I think the funniest thing that happened is how often we got lost and nearly went backstage more than once. I’ll blame the fact that the only thing we could easily see was the emergency Exit signs and the bright glow of “behind the curtain”. While we were walking through the experience, there were black curtains in some rooms which the actors would be able to access “behind the scenes”. At one point, we found ourselves nearly stepping through one of these black curtains, and a random arm suddenly emerged, pointing us towards the correct door.

5: Small Rooms: This haunted attraction was a pretty standard walk through experience where you would go from room to room and walk from door to door in a sort of maze setup. Our groups were too close together so when we would go into a room than we would see the party right ahead of us or we’d end up being clustered with the group that came in behind us. This close proximity made it challenging for the actors to deliver effective jump scares.

Admittedly, my recent venture into the realm of haunted houses was driven by a curiosity tinged with skittishness. What I ended up with is a fun story to tell people afterward. It’s a mild but ultimately fun experience. Is it terrible? Naw, it’s a-OK and needs a bit of tweaking to make it scarier if Imma keep it real. I am sure that over the next few weeks the staff will have the small issues fixed and by the end of the month it’ll be super rad.

I dunno… do you think I should review another haunted experience and keep trying to find the best one? There’s also this Dead Time Dreams Haunted House in San Jose? Or maybe I should just give up on haunted houses this year?

Attraction Details:

Cost: General Admission starts at $19 per person. Pricing varies depending on the day and whether you want faster entry which can cost you up to $32.99 per ticket.

Location:
FEAR OVERLOAD SCREAM PARK
2086 Newpark Mall, Newark, CA

Dates: Open now through November 5th

Tickets: https://fearoverload.com/

FOR A FULL LIST OF THE HALLOWEEN ISH WE ARE GOING TO CLICK HERE

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