Saturday night we checked out the Gyro’s 3D Fear Factory Haunted House event at the end of Pier 17 in San Francisco. Tickets are a rather high $17.95 per person, cash only. That gets you two mazes. For the first one you wear those odd 3D glasses (the polarising kind, not the dual colour ones). That has the effect of making lots of the decorations jump off the walls and floor – this was well done. The second maze does not have the 3D effects which made it less impressive.

While walking around both mazes, costumed actors jump out at you, hammer on the walls above your head, or drop upside-down from the roof. This seemed to be moderately effective for some, and had no effect on others. If you’re not easily scared by these things, take somebody who is so you can enjoy watching them jump if nothing else! There did not seem to be many other special effects (I was expecting some animatronic spiders, for example, rather than just static models).

If you want my recommendation, I’d suggest passing on this one for the price. If it was under somewhere in the $5 to $10 range it might be worth it, but at almost twice the price of a movie I’d say it was definitely over priced.