9/7/2026
Team Pacific Ghost Highway
It was ninety degrees outside and well after midnight in Eastvale, California, when my wife
Alyssa and I decided we needed a little rest from the relentless chaos of Nightmare Rising’s
Camp Coffin Creek event.
By this point, we’d already been battling zombies in a dilapidated tenement, wildly firing our
semiautomatic weapons into the darkness in the vain hope of landing the headshots demanded
by our commander. We’d done a few things we weren’t proud of, including sacrificing our fellow
campers to the ravenous hordes of the undead and leaving new friends behind as we
desperately sought to avoid an army of slashers who pursued us through a field behind a war-torn town. We were already splattered with blood and other fluids and caked with a layer of dirt.
So yes, we thought we’d earned a break. We entered our “cabin,” which up until the night of the
event had been a defunct general store, and sat on the dusty floor, our heads resting on an
ancient and soiled Ottoman. There were no bunks to use, and indeed no lights, so this was the
best we could do. We wondered if we could lay out our sleeping bags across the floor, dirty as it
was, and nap for a while before the next activity.
We were discussing the particulars of this idea when Alyssa suddenly hissed, “Be quiet.
Someone’s here.”
We froze, not saying a word, still prone on the cabin floor. As we did, the cabin
door slowly creaked open, and, after a tense beat, a creature, clad in ragged flannel, soaked in
black bile, and carrying a gleaming hunting knife, crept inside.
“I see you,” it said, before beginning to search the cabin for others, creeping over to the shadows in the corner opposite us.
I suppose if we were going to make an escape, that would have been our moment. But we didn’t move, and soon enough the monster was back.
“I see you,” it said again, before reaching downward and plunging its hunting knife into my
shoulder. Then it shuffled off, sparing Alyssa, and not bothering to shut the door behind it as it
left.
The joke was on the monster. I was already a perforated corpse by then, having been stabbed
enough times throughout the night to make Michael Myers feel bad for me, not to mention
infected by a fast-acting zombie plague and executed by soldiers hoping to arrest the spread of
the contagion.
We were about halfway through the event at that point.
What is Camp Coffin Creek?
If, after reading the paragraphs above, you’re still not entirely certain what Camp Coffin Creek
is, you’re not alone. It was explained to us several times and, by the time we walked through the
gates of Eastvale’s SC Paintball Village to the thundering sound of the Time Warp, we still
weren’t entirely sure what we were in for.
It’s tempting to put this confusion entirely down to the uniqueness of the event. It is absolutely
different from any other haunt experience we’ve ever had. However, it’s also partly due to the
dearth of information about Camp Coffin Creek online. It took some doing to find anything, partly
because searching for “Coffin Creek” still yields results pertaining to the now-defunct original
Coffin Creek haunt, after which this event is named in honor of its late founder. It’s Nightmare
Rising you want to search for, and a Nightmare Rising review that you will need to seek out if
you’re looking for this team’s future events.
We arrived at SC Paintball Village at just about sunset, aware of the broad strokes and that
we’d be spending the night but still a little unsure of the details, other than that this was some
type of slasher-themed summer camp, and that we’d be fighting to survive all night (the hours
were from 7 pm to 7 am). We had also been told there were over 50 actors, many of whom were
killers that could strike at any time.
The founder and owner, Matt Gagnier, a seasoned haunter with a mischievous twinkle in his
eye, met us outside the gates and explained his vision:
“It’s fuckin’ brutal!” he told us with a chuckle. “I worked in theme parks for 25 years. This is all
the shit the theme parks would never do!”
Meeting Elmer
We walked through the gates and were led to our cabin, which was considered the R.I.P.
upgrade from the tents that were the main lodgings on the grounds. As mentioned, however, the
cabin hadn’t been swept and had no bunks, so we were left wondering if we wouldn’t prefer the
tents.
As we got set up, the lead counselor warned us about “Elmer,” telling us that he was a
dangerous menace that stalked the grounds. No sooner had we left our bags in the cabin and
began to explore than we met this infamous character, a greasy and bedraggled hillbilly waving
a shotgun around.
Matt had explained to us that, because Camp Coffin Creek takes place at the end of August,
before the haunt season begins in earnest, he was able to pull some of the great haunt
performers who would otherwise be busy.
“We have legends from Universal Studios and Knott’s Scary Farm!” he told us.
Elmer was indeed a legend, and he did his job of setting the tone for the whole night excellently.
Periodically, we would encounter him, and he never missed a beat improvising his raspy gags
and physical horror-comedy.
Since this was an overnight event, he and his fellow scare actors had to remain in character for
hours, throughout the ninety-degree Chino night, no small feat for a job as physically demanding
as theirs.
The rest of the performers we encountered throughout the night – there were dozens – never
quite matched Elmer’s performance quality, and some of them were decidedly low energy, but
overall the performances made for an impressive feat of endurance haunting.
Zombie Survival Experience: Fight or Flight
The original activity that got us interested in attending this event was the Zombie Survival
Experience. Comprising two separate experiences, Fight and Flight, these were the first
activities that kicked off Camp Coffin Creek starting at about 9 p.m. They were also the
closest the camp had to a traditional haunt: in the Fight experience, we were shown an
introductory video explaining that the undead had taken over, and that it would be our job to
stop them with a headshot. However, the plague they carried could be spread with a simple
touch, and we desperately needed to avoid being touched by a zombie. We were then handed
gel blaster guns and sent to meet our squad commander, who led us through one of the
paintball mazes, where zombies appeared periodically, seeking to eat our brains.
We were disappointed by the Fight portion of the Zombie Survival games. At the outset, our
commander had told us “if I run, you run!” but then proceeded to gently saunter throughout the
maze, without the sense of urgency that one would expect when encountering the undead. The
area had no decor to speak of, or if it did, we couldn’t tell because it was simply pitch dark, a
detail worsened by the safety goggles we wore to protect our vision from the stinging gel
blasters, which meant we couldn’t tell who was a zombie and who wasn’t. An added layer of
authenticity, perhaps, but also unfortunate since the creators had made such an effort with their
monster costumes, which we now were unable to see. There were also people shooting at us:
Who were they? Do zombies shoot? Or were they civilians who were confused as to who we
were? Was that supposed to happen? The consequence for failure in this activity was also more
annoying than entertaining: these factors made this game the low point of the night for us.
Far better was the Flight portion of the Zombie Survival Experience, a zombified version of
Capture the Flag, which saw us attempting to avoid the undead in a much more well-lit and
impressive paintball arena. While the decor here was also quite minimal, the environment made
up for it: it resembled a war-torn prison, with tunnels and holes in the walls for us to attempt to
move through as we sought to avoid the zombies. We wore belts with belts representing our
“lives,” and we each had three: we had also been told that we might be able to sacrifice one life
to the creatures to escape, so I ended up picking up a lot of discarded flags and handing them
out like candy to the monsters. One does what one must.
The zombie makeup was beautiful, too: gruesome and slimy; many of the zombies wore contact
lenses that made their eyes appear deathly white. This portion of the event was a blast,
although not perfect: as in the films of George Romero, the true horror comes from our fellow
man, and the panicked barreling of our fellow maze-goers knocked down a pallet that was being
used as a wall, creating a tripping hazard that Alyssa nearly twisted her ankle on. There was also
confusion about how to get out of the maze. There were several lights that changed from red to
green: when red, they denoted a dead end, but when they turned green, it indicated that the
location was now a viable exit. We were told we could only go when we saw a green light, but a
staff member tried to chide us when we went through one. The light was green, so either the
rule was unclear or she wasn’t effectively tracking the lights. Either way, there were some
organizational issues; even so, we had a great time in this maze and would highly recommend
it.
Terror in the Woods
As midnight approached, the slashers stalking our summer camp began their nefarious
activities: we were told to hike through SC Village’s vast paintball arena, past the eerie, decayed
structures to the wilderness that bordered everything. There, we were greeted by the crackling
sound of zap wands and the cackle of deadly monsters: Elmer himself made an appearance,
and we were told we’d need to walk a trail where we would encounter many killers: our goal was
to stay alive.
I was killed within two minutes. When a few monsters approached me, I didn’t flinch, but bravery
turned out to be a bad idea here. I have done enough haunts now that my initial reaction is to
talk to the monsters and riff with them rather than avoid them. What I should have done was
attempt to stay as far away as possible: instead, I allowed them to approach me, and before I
knew it, a knife (actually a Bingo marker) was plunged into my carotid artery.
Alyssa fared better, as her training as a former track star kicked in and she began to try every
trick in the book to survive. Some monsters barked orders, which she swiftly ignored: her goal
was only to escape. Darting and ducking in every direction like a determined rabbit, she was
also not above brazenly lying to the monsters, telling them she’d already been killed. A
memorable exchange came when a killer cried out, “Wait, you’re not dead!” moments after she
had walked right by him.
This portion of the event was our favorite: a high-octane survival challenge, which eschewed the
trappings of traditional haunted houses such as decor and animatronics in favor of a relentless
pursuit by dozens of deadly monsters. This was the highlight for us.
Summer Camp Games
By now, it was after midnight, and the Abduction Squad was roving the campsite in full force,
capturing campers and carrying them off, presumably to meet a fate worse than death (we heard rumors of a “torture room” filled with zap wands and vinegar water, but no one bothered
to kidnap us so we never saw it firsthand).
Other slashers stalked the premises, slaying those they encountered, and we indeed met them
a few times ourselves; fortunately for my wife, they were very trusting monsters and usually
believed her when she falsely claimed to already be dead. She lasted until 1:53 AM, by which
time she’d lost some of her enthusiasm for survival and made little effort to avoid a monster who
swiftly moved to stab her in the back. Certain campers who had R.I.P. wristbands were able to
return after being killed as killers themselves; we noted several friends we had made throughout
the night, now soaked in gore and stalking us with their own Bingo marker knives. This was a
great touch.
There were movies playing in the main area, but they had no audio and appeared to be the
same ones played over and over (either that or Cocaine Bear is just a really long film). Finally, it
was time to begin the camp games; we attended as many as we could, but the posted schedule
was notably inaccurate. At one point we fell into a conversation with the owner, Matt, and
discovered that he was essentially starting the games when he felt like it, and we may have
been inadvertently responsible for delaying one of them ourselves because of this. There’s
nothing necessarily wrong with this extremely laid-back approach to scheduling, except that we
ended up missing a few games we would have liked to attend.
For games, we were divided up, seemingly at random, into four groups, namely the “Jocks,”
“Nerds,” “Sluts,” and “Virgins,” denoted by colored wristbands we had been handed in the
beginning. Alyssa and I were Nerds, of course. The games themselves were souped-up
versions of ordinary summer camp games; for example, in Dead Light, Green Light we found
ourselves assailed with gel BBs if we moved out of turn. Blood Tag was what it sounded like,
tag conducted with bloodied hands used to mark the individuals who were now “it,” and 6 Legs
and a Body Bag indeed involved a six-legged race (an upgraded form of the classic three
legged race) and a human being shoved into a body bag.
Despite the fun of the games and the presence of the deadly nocturnal creatures, the overall
momentum of the night decidedly slowed down at this point. There were big lulls in between
games where all we did was sit around, which was a bit boring after all the activity up to that
point. Nevertheless, we enjoyed getting the chance to chat with other attendees, and at 4 am a
Camp Counselor brought out some materials for S’mores, which we were grateful for.
Final Thoughts
Nightmare Rising: Camp Coffin Creek is a very unique version of a haunted attraction, and one
that truly earns the title of “Extreme” haunt despite its absolute minimalism in terms of effects
and decor. This is an hours-long endurance event, carried by the effective performances of
several excellent scare actors and the physicality of several of the activities. Matt, the owner,
explained to us his philosophy of haunting and considered this minimalism to be a uniquely
West Coast style of creating scares: “give me a candle and some fog, and I’ll scare you.”
Indeed, the creators of this attraction preferred to lay down fog in lieu of any other decorations
and devote most of their budget to getting lots of actors on site. We don’t know if we 100%
agree with this method of haunting – we like set design and effects – but it worked well enough
here.
One thing that we noted when speaking to other guests was that, despite the sometimes
physically challenging activities and the very salty language being used during this extreme
haunt experience (one actor was even throwing around ableist slurs, a step too far for us
personally), this event had no age restrictions. “What did I bring my kids to?” a father who
attended with his teenage sons asked us, and we noted that while there weren’t tons of people
under 18 there, they were certainly present. I suppose, with parental consent, that it could be an
activity they would enjoy, but it does get pretty intense at times.
The attraction is not perfect: as mentioned, there were lulls in the activity, as well as moments
where we wondered just how much attention was being paid to safety. There was a certain
unevenness to the experiences, as well; while we didn’t enjoy certain elements, like the Fight
portion of the Zombie Survival challenge, we absolutely adored others. Certainly at times the
creators’ vision of this attraction exceeded the scope of what they had executed, but the vision
itself was strong enough to create some wildly fun times throughout the night.
Overall, we would definitely recommend Nightmare Rising: Camp Coffin Creek for those
grizzled fans who are looking for something different than your run-of-the-mill haunted
attraction. It is not for the faint of heart, and not for purists either; but if you are willing to
overlook some of the more janky elements, don’t mind minimalistic production design (albeit in a
very cool location), and if you aren’t too worried about getting pummeled while you battle
zombies, then this just might be the event to shake up your complacency and renew your love
for full immersion horror entertainment. Just don’t plan to actually get any sleep.
Visit Nightmare Rising
