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Asylum is without a doubt, the single most oppressive and heavy Halloween attraction ever presented to Scary Farm guests.  From its foreboding exterior to its darkened halls and blood-splattered rooms, Asylum is pound-for-pound, the most intense maze to ever grace Buena Park.  That speaks volumes about its design team, its builders and painters and most certainly, the crew that breathes terrible life into it each and every October.

While Asylum does have some humor thrown in for good measure, even the most seasoned Haunt vets find it difficult to find much levity in such a morbid, soulless place.  The maze is Hell on Earth; a claustrophobic trip through a dementia-riddled nightmare.

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The only negative when it comes to the Asylum is its location.  When this maze first made its debut in 2003, it appeared on the Stage Coach Lawn, across from the Little Chapel by the Lake.  Its menacing facade was the most elaborate anyone had ever seen at the Scary Farm.  Mangler Asylum was an instant success - and one of the most highly-anticipated Haunt mazes of all time.  Due to the construction of Silver Bullet, the maze was re-located to its current backstage location, near GhostRider and the Knott's Berry Farm Administrative buildings.  To say that its new location ruined the effect of its powerful facade is an understatement.  There was something magically sinister about walking through Knott's, only to come upon this decrepit old building on the Stage Coach Lawn; it was real.  Now, guests are cattle-queued in a long line and forced on busy nights to go through another maze (Feary Tales) first before going through Asylum.  It's a damn shame that its come to this - but that's how it is and regardless, Asylum has continued each year to rise above the rest and put a seriously sick twist on Halloween Haunt.

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The crew that makes up the inhabitants of Asylum range from disfigured residents to diabolical morticians and sexy nurses.  The level of scare that this group delivers consistently each season is truly inspiring and awesome.  Even though some of the masks look funny - contorted and gross in some cases, even - there is nothing funny about someone curled up in a ball in a corner just inches from your feet, or something watching you pass as he/she/it rests upside-down in a wheelchair.  The entire Asylum experience is unnerving, to say the least.  The talent brings it hard each and every night and they succeed where others fall short - they become real.  The Asylum becomes real.  And it has become a genuine spectacle.

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We couldn't discuss Asylum's talent without giving it up for the very naughty, very sexy nurses.  This group of violent vixens go down (ahem) in history with other notable Haunt goddesses - the Vampire Brides, the Dream Weavers, the Blue Hair Girls, Prom Queens, Club Chupacabra dancers and the Grudge Girls, to name some of the groups.  From the debut of Asylum, this handful (and boy, are they a handful) of women have taunted and tormented countless visitors as they pass through Mangler's halls.  Major props to the girls for doing it up and becoming a major cornerstone of Asylum's success.

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The soundtrack to Asylum has been better some years than others, with its debut year still being its best.  This maze has a complex mixture of sound effects and subtle musical queues that blend together to give this living nightmare quite the audio backbone.  In our opinion, a fantastic soundtrack is one that doesn't come across as a soundtrack, but rather, becomes entwined in the experience as a whole.  The Asylum accomplishes that - and we give big props to the audio producers and mixers for getting it right.

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The design of Asylum is as dark and as macabre as it gets.  In fact, for some people, it's too much - people being electrocuted, babies and animals being experimented on, bloody operating rooms and chilled morgues.  It's bad enough to imagine yourself visiting an insane asylum during the day when things are the way they are supposed to be.  Turn out the lights, wreck the joint and let the crazies loose, and you have one horrible experience to maneuver through!  It's amazing - and while we personally love it, there are many Scary Farm visitors that have great difficulty getting through this maze.  On any given night, watch the exit of this maze - people come out screaming, crying and in absolute shock.  The effect that the Asylum has on people is tremendous.  Whether you love it or are genuinely terrified by it, everyone visits Asylum while at Haunt.

But why?  Because Asulym is the forbidden fruit - the modern-day freak show where it's okay to look at the mentally disturbed and become part of their warped reality.  Asylum is the fatal car wreck that you have to look at as you pass by on the freeway.  It's too terrible not to look.  And thus, the attraction of Asylum.  It's dark, oppressive, obscene and absolutely chilling.  Those, friends, are the ingredients for a Haunt Classic.

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Asylum has legs - regardless of its sub-par location and the fact that it sort of plays second billing to Feary Tales.  Easily, this maze has two or three great years left as long as the mood doesn't change and the talent crews continue to bring it each season.  Some minor changes here and there by the design team would always be welcome to keep us off-guard.  The Asylum however, is brilliant and should continue to be that way for the foreseeable future.

The legacy of the Mangler Asylum of Buena Park continues!

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