It’s a great time to be a fan of Halloween haunts. From the annual big-budget events to the new alternative fright experiences, there are many ways to live out one’s nightmares. Finding an attraction that’s big on both scares and production values, however, is like scoring a King Size Snickers bar in the ole jack-o-lantern.

The Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor haunt in Long Beach, CA is just that: a super-sized treat guaranteed to satisfy. The attraction features six frightful mazes (maybe the longest around in all of Los Angeles?) including its newest called The Circus, a big top splatterfest where victims are clowned by ghoulish jokers inside a claustrophobic house of mirrors, before being subjected to the goriest show on earth.

Dark Harbor is also home to a circus sideshow this year. Spectators stepping into the four shipyard containers to view the freaks are left alone in the pitch black that is lair to the Shadow Spirit; the thick mist that hides the White Spirit; the realms ruled by disfigured oddities Headless Hannah and The Human Crab; and at the mercy of Sparky, a toasted corpse out to burn onlookers with his sidesplitting zingers.

Dark Harbor’s creepiest mazes are those that sprawl out on board the Queen Mary: Submerged, Hellfire, and Deadrise. Roaming the historic ocean liner’s narrow corridors, engine rooms, and hulls makes for a unique and creepy experience that everyone should live through at least once. Just standing inside the ship captures the imagination… captures and beats the shit out of it with an oar.

Should anyone’s heart come dangerously close to stopping, Dark Harbor provides a handful of rides to get the adrenaline pumping, including a high speed zip line above event grounds—which my wife, Mrs. Muertos, rode while I held her purse on terra firma… What? The keys to my very manly hemi-powered pickup with the shotgun rack on top were inside.

Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor is now open and runs through Nov. 2. Tickets and complete event details can be found here. The event is a lot of fun and trumps last year’s Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. Just saying.

The world premiere of Jordan Barker’s home invasion thriller Torment will be held tonight at Screamfest LA, the longest running horror film festival in the US, taking place now through Oct. 17 in North Hollywood. The film stars Katherine Isabelle (American Mary) and  Robin Dunne (“Sanctuary”).

For tickets and detailed info, click here.

Written by new scribe Michael Foster, Torment follows a family of three as they discover that they are not alone during what was supposed to be a quiet family getaway in the countryside. Co-stars include Peter DaCunha (The Barrens) and Stephen McHattie (Haunter).

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Universal Pictures has released a new trailer for 47 Ronin, a fantasy actioner that follows a group of samurai as they set out to avenge the death of their master by a brutal warlord, while fighting off “a savage world of mythic beasts, shape-shifting witchcraft and wondrous terrors.”

47 Ronin is directed by someone named Carl Rinsch and stars Keanu Reeves and Pacific Rim’s Rinko Kikuchi.(from the looks of it as a dragon). The film opens on Christmas Day.

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