Spooky season has officially begun, and that means that Terror Vault is back at the old San Francisco Mint, now in its sixth year. This epic Halloween haunt has quickly become a Bay Area tradition, elevating the typical “walk-through haunted house” experience into something much, much more.
Basically, it’s a full-fledged immersive theatrical production where the audience becomes as much a part of the story as the actors themselves.
As a suburban teenager, I used to love going to haunted houses every Halloween season, thrilling at the jump scares I knew were coming, just around the corner, and reveling in all the “spooky scary” tropes. But those ramshackle, temporary pop-ups often had an amateur carnival vibe to them, usually set-up in dead department stores of nearly-dead malls.
So the first time I went to Terror Vault back in 2018, the very first year, it came as a surprise. It wasn’t just a maze of painted plywood and black curtains where actors dressed up as monsters and zombies jumped out to frighten you. It expertly used the space as part of a storyline. It was something much closer to “immersive,” before that term got co-opted and watered-down by Instagram trap tourist attractions.
“We created a narrative about The Mint once being used as a secret prison in the past,” said Joshua Grannell, co-founder of Terror Vault. Better known as his drag persona Peaches Christ — arguably the Bay Area’s best-known drag queen — Grannell has been producing horror-themed events in San Francisco since 1998.
“When you went through the show, you’d meet different prisoners in their various worlds,” Grannell told me in an interview for this story. “And we swapped out all those scenarios between the first two years. My personal favorite was the Whitaker family, who were a redneck family of cannibals.”
Grannell and co-founder David Flower decided to change things up during the 2020 pandemic break and debuted The Immortal Reckoning in 2021. The new story fulfilled them so much that they’ve been introducing fresh content every year since, and the latest production is their most elaborate yet.
Entitled Fatal Abduction, the storyline is more typically science-fiction than the usual Halloween fare, featuring aliens secretly living on Earth, time travel, and a high stakes set-up where Earth’s future is threatened. After last year’s show about cults and the horrors of organized religion, they wanted to go in a different direction.
“But in many ways, our shows are all about the same stuff,” Grannell added. “On its surface, it appears to be about an alien takeover of Earth. There are good aliens and bad aliens. But the whole thing is a not-so-subtle metaphor for how polarized humans are right now. That, mixed with climate change and the loss of bodily autonomy, are the fears that drove us to create Fatal Abduction.”
The production takes its cues from several sci-fi movies and TV shows from the past few decades, including The X-Files, Alien, V, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, among others, but it does so with just the right level of camp and charm, as well as creepy jump-scares.
If you’ve been to previous Terror Vault productions, you’ll be happy to know they’ve changed up the walk-through maze and “re-skinned” several of the rooms, so you have no idea what’s coming. Of course, they’ve kept a few mainstay Terror Vault tropes, such as an obligatory BDSM scene, and always one random naked guy. The show’s inherent queerness in very much intact. Did I mention it’s 18+?
Despite its thrills and chills, I was struck by how “un-Halloween” it is, with its lack of typical spooky season clichés like ghosts and vampires. The sci-fi premise could play any time of year. But I also loved how fresh it felt.
“Yes, the main show isn’t very Halloweeny at all really,” said Grannell. “We want to transport you to another world to scare you and thrill you, so it’s less important to feature traditional Halloween tropes each year if they don’t fit.”
However, there are still plenty of Halloween vibes in the rest of the attraction, including the Fang Bang vampire bar, with its Halloween-themed cocktails, and the Creepshop gift shop, both of which are open to the public with no ticket required.
If you’re looking for more interactivity and want the actors to draw you even more into the story, then the VIP ticket is well worth the extra $45. It also gives access to alien abductee survivor Justin Cooter’s Roadhouse Bar, which is decorated with tons of creepy collectables. There, you can sip a complimentary Cooter Shooter shot, and see special performances on the stage. And while photos aren’t allowed inside Fatal Abduction, if you’re looking for “Instagram traps,” the VIP ticket also grants access to several rooms filled with alien-themed art installations and photo backdrops.
Terror Vault was just granted the Board of Directors Award at the 2024 Haunted Attraction Association Awards (who knew that was even a thing?) so there’s a reason it’s become such a San Francisco Halloween institution. Fatal Abduction is definitely their highest level of production yet.
// Terror Vault runs through Sunday November 3 at the old San Francisco Mint, 88 5th Street, San Francisco. Tickets range from $60-$85 and are available at: TerrorVault.com
Adriana Roberts is a DJ and performer with her Bootie Mashup parties, as well as a writer and trans influencer.
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