'ScareScape' Murrieta's Newest Haunted Maze Focuses On Facing Fears

TEMECULA, CA — Three Southwest Riverside County haunted house producers are attempting to rekindle the community's love of local haunted houses with the debut of Murrieta's "ScareScape." The new haunted attraction will run Thursdays through Sundays from Sept. 29 through Oct. 29 at 28701 Los Alamos Heights Road.

On a Wednesday afternoon, the sounds of saws and hammering echoed down from the hilltop to the Los Alamos Sports Park below as the build and design crew prepared for opening day.

The Creative Minds Productions team—Alexandra "Lexy" Berru, Emily Seruga, and Sean Riegler— are the minds behind the four-maze haunt. Each maze will force guests to confront some of humankind's most persistent phobias.

Patch talked with Berru about the team's philosophy and plans to keep the haunt actors and visitors safe as they build what is promoted as the scariest haunted house to hit the valley since 2019.

"ScareScape has officially been in the works since January 2023, but honesty, it's been something that Emily, Sean, and I have been individually dreaming about creating for many years," Berru said.

The four mazes each have a theme based on some of the most common phobias: coulrophobia (the fear of clowns), phasmophobia (fear of ghosts and the supernatural), nyctophobia (fear of the dark), and entomophobia (fear of insects). Three are open for the general admission crowd, and one is a VIP exclusive. Pay extra to scare yourself senseless.

All three Creative Minds Productions team members learned how to design and produce haunts from longtime haunt professionals across Southern California. Berru and Seruga worked at Queen Mary's Dark Harbor, the Temecula Terror, and the Temecula Vail Lake KOA Halloween Haunt. Riegler has worked as a haunt actor at Field of Screams, Temecula Terror, and has acted and built out other area haunts since 2012.

Berru hopes their 2023 haunted attraction will be "a nightmare space for guests to encounter their primal fears." But this kind of nightmare will not have lingering trauma as have area haunts of years past, she said.

The local southwest Riverside County haunt industry became tainted after the conviction of a former Field of Screams haunt actor turned serial sex abuser, Morgan Fowler. After being convicted of abusing volunteers and minors involved with the haunts — some as young as 14—he was sentenced to spend over 200 years in a California mental institution. Another former haunt producer, half of the Bloodshed Brothers haunted house production team that produced Field of Screams and organized the Temecula Terror haunt, Zachary Ball, must register as a sex offender after being convicted of sex offenses with a minor. Both Fowler and Ball left a swath of distrust in the local haunt community and for residents who sent their children to volunteer or wander through those haunts.

According to Berru, her team and many in the southwest Riverside County haunt community have worked either at Field of Screams, Temecula Terror or with the Bloodshed Brothers.

Her company is attempting to separate itself from the abuses and help reboot the local haunted house industry in the area.

Reigler was at Field of Screams as a haunt actor from his early teenage years, according to previous Patch reports. According to Berru, he never knew or had any connection with Fowler. He did work closely with the Bloodshed Brothers at the 2021 Temecula Terror, as did Berru and Seruga.

Temecula Terror saw great success in 2021, but it became tainted by the convictions. The haunt, located at Galway Downs in Temecula, did not return in 2022.

"Learning of Zachary Ball's conviction was an utter shock to me as my experience working with him was positive and nothing short of professional.

"The accusations and convictions of the past year have done us all a service in amplifying the need to always put staff and guest safety at the top of the priority list in every situation at every event."

All employees are background checked, and there is sexual assault prevention and harassment training for all who work there, she added. Plus, there will be a full security detail at the site, according to Berru.

"I think the accusations and convictions of the past year have affected haunted houses in our area in a positive way," she said. "They have reminded haunted attraction producers, managers, and staff of our ethical and legal obligation to create and maintain a safe space for every human that engages with our event."

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