Angel of Light: A Terrifying Immersive Experience In Los Angeles
During the Halloween season, Los Angeles comes alive with all manner of haunts and spooky attractions, from the annual Haunted Hayride and Haloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios, to an ever-expanding roster of immersive theatre experiences and walk-through haunted mazes. This year, the historic Los Angeles Theater has been flooded with the ghosts of the past for the premiere of a new immersive horror experience. Angel of Light tells the story of Rota Krisha, a famous singer taking 1930s Hollywood by storm. Everyone is raving about Rota’s voice, but something about her isn’t quite right.
Angel of Light gets the most out of its unique venue, highlighting the stunning architecture and decor already there. Stepping inside of the building, it’s easy to feel as if you’ve fallen back in time, landing in all the vintage glamour of 1935. Angel of Light is broken up into several portions: the holding area, a series of mazes, a ballroom, and the theater itself.
In the holding area, the audience waits for their turn in the first maze, surrounded by a cast of eerie cigarette girls, porters, and paparazzi. This area is filled with rich environmental storytelling, and the actors do an excellent job of setting the tone for the show. However, it should be noted that the size of the crowd can have a significant impact on the experience of the first room. If it’s too crowded, it’s difficult to hear what the actors are saying, and hard to make out some of the action.
But soon after the holding area, the audience is broken up into smaller groups, sent through the first haunted maze in clusters of only a few at a time. This is when the jump scares start. The audience is led through several pitch-black corridors, filled with ominous warnings and twisted religious imagery. Throughout the show past this point, one warning is repeated: “Don’t wake the angel.”
On the other side of the mazes, the ballroom awaits. There, guests can purchase drinks at a bar while characters wander through the space, providing drips of exposition and glimpses into the mystery at the heart of the story. Make sure to explore the space thoroughly, as there are several side rooms with creepy imagery to investigate, and more characters to speak with. One standout is an actress dripping with pearls in a room full of mirrors, posing and twirling around the space as if trapped in an endless loop.
Don’t be fooled into thinking the experience is over at this point. There isn’t much signage to indicate this, but there is still another path to follow. Walking through a room full of screens playing unsettling video footage, guests must then pass through a dark chamber that leads to even more mazes. The scares continue from here, priests and nuns begging the audience to turn back and leave this place, again warning not to wake the angel. Little ghost girls dart around corners, and babies cry behind locked doors.
After successfully escaping the mazes, guests are led into the theater, seated in the audience amongst masked figures and dark shadows for a performance by none other than Rota herself. What happens next is a bit difficult to follow from a story perspective, but is striking nonetheless, pairing multimedia projects with live performances from dancers and haunt actors on stage. The end result is nothing short of stunning.
That is where the experience concludes, leaving the audience to wander back out into the present day, filled with more questions than answers. The ambiguity of the show may frustrate some guests, but it also provides the audience with an opportunity to discuss and theorize about everything they saw, heard, and felt inside.
After experiencing Angel of Light for myself, I had the opportunity to ask the show’s creators, Chris Anastas and Mark Binder, about the process of creating this haunt’s immersive.
DC: What were the unique challenges of putting together an immersive experience?
One of the biggest challenges of this unique experience was putting 21st-century technology into early 20th-century theater. You have to understand there’s no backbone, electricity and plumbing were something from the past and AC always presents its own challenges in an 80-year-old building. Nonetheless, retrofitting such a historic building was a feature in itself. But our team is incredible and rose to the occasion, so I guess the challenge was accomplished.
DC: Angel of Light combines mediums of dance, music, and multimedia in a way that I haven’t seen from immersive theatre or haunts before. What was the process of combining those like?
We consider the Angel of Light a performance art piece—fine art in a horror setting. For us, it was a walk into a Salvador Dali or Yves Tanguy painting and doing absinthe with Fellini. In truth, the venue was our lead actor, so it seemed appropriate to reach out into those early 20th-century art forms and give it our twist.
DC: What’s next for this story? I saw mention of a feature film, as well as hints toward future immersive experiences that continue the tale. Could you expand on that?
Yes, it is true that this 1930s rendition of Angel Of Light is a prequel to a film we are releasing in 2025. Our intention is to come back next year with time marching into the 50s or 70s and expanding more backstories that will flourish in our future.
DC: What is one thing (thought, feeling, memory) you want audiences to walk away from Angel of Light with?
If people can think of the Angel of Light experience throughout the night and their minds are stained, then mission accomplished. The best feeling that we get to share with our guests is watching their ability to drop their ambitions and play in our nightmare.
Angel of Light runs through the end of October, with the final show on Halloween night. If you’re looking for some unconventional Old Hollywood frights in one of the City of Angels’ most beautiful theaters, then Angel of Light is worth a try.
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