Haunted Hollywood and Horror Movies

What were you doing last Tuesday night?

I was traipsing around Hollywood with my partner-in-crime, Melissa Burton, chasing ghosts and goblins on a scavenger hunt to promote the Blue-Ray/DVD release of “The House at the End of the Street” (HATES). And boy, was it fun!

When I was a kid, I was a huge scary/horror movie fan. Seriously, I couldn’t get enough of “Friday the 13th”, “The Amityville Horror”, “Halloween”, and “The Shining”. The scarier, the better. I don’t know when it all changed for me - sometime in my 20′s I guess. I became a lot less enthused with the idea of paying to get scared out of my whits. The fact is, I just don’t do those kinds of movies anymore.

However…

I was invited to take part in a Haunted Hollywood scavenger hunt and I really do adore scavenger hunts. I couldn’t pass it up.

We met on a street corner in Hollywood at night. Now, for those of you who have never been to Hollywood at night… it’s not exactly the safest place. It’s wild and crazy and the street we were on was where Jimmy Kimmel films his late night talk show. Lucky for us, Gwen Stefani and No Doubt were giving a mini concert right in front of us. AWESOME!

That was a huge surprise, but we had a chance to rock out a little and then we gathered round to get our instructions for the hunt. We were in teams of two and had 90 minutes to find 20 answers to clues that were given to us. We were up and down Hollywood Blvd., checking out some spooky and haunted sites, as well as finding star names on the sidewalks and doing a little detective work about some old Hollywood landmarks. It was challenging and exhausting and some of the clues we just threw up our hands at. It was HARD.

After the scavenger hunt, we were all invited to Geisha, a fabulous sushi restaurant in Hollywood, for an after-hunt party. Besides the incredible drinks and delicious sushi (oh my God was it good), we had a surprise appearance from the Director of “The House at the End of the Street”, Mark Tonderai. Now, since I’m not a scary/horror movie fan, I didn’t see the movie in the theater. But, after listening to Mark talk about the film (and seeing a behind-the-scenes video of the filming of the movie) I really wanted to see it.

Despite the fact that Melissa and I thought we had totally bombed on the scavenger hunt… WE WON!!!!!!!!!

Me, Melissa Burton, Mark Tonderai, Melissa Reyes

Seriously, we WON!!!!!!!!!

What did we win?

We each won a brand new Kindle Fire HD. To say we were over-the-moon excited would be a huge understatement. We never expected to win anything, and to win a Kindle was amazing.

I want to give a huge shout-out to everyone involved with the entire evening. We really had so much fun that I’m thinking Tuesday night out might be the way to go from now on.

Crystal from Think Jam: Thanks for the invite!

Geisha House Restaurant: Seriously amazing food!

Mark Tonderai: Thanks for the autographs and being so incredibly nice and talented.

Fox Home Entertainment: For allowing us to participate in this amazing event.

So… how was the movie, you might ask?

Surprisingly, I really liked it. I’m not one for a lot of blood and gore, and this didn’t have any of it. Yay! What it did have is a suspenseful storyline that took it’s time building up to the climax. I hate movies that just dig in and are predictable. There was a big twist that I didn’t see coming until the end and then, knowing the twist, it got all kinds of creepy on me. I have to say, this is a great “starter” horror movie if you aren’t sure you want to see something too scary. It gave me just the right amount of heart-palpatations. I could feel my heart pumping, but I didn’t want to run and hide.

Watch it for yourself and let me know what you think. It’s out on Blue-Ray and DVD NOW.

I was invited to participate in the scavenger hunt and Blue-Ray/DVD launch party by Think Jam. I was not compensated in any other way. The Kindle Fire HD was given as a prize upon winning the scavenger hunt.