A terrifying new event on Cannery Row has the potential to be the next big Monterey attraction.

Erik Chalhoub here. I’ve been obsessed with Halloween mazes and attractions ever since I first checked out California’s Great America’s spooky offerings for the season about 15 years ago in Santa Clara. It’s resulted in annual trips to Los Angeles-area theme parks during this time for their scare-fests, and yes, I make sure to visit at least one Spirit Halloween store a year.

But a few years ago, Great America eliminated its Halloween Haunt event, instead focusing on a more family-friendly affair. For those of us who are willing to pay money to get scared, it left even further offerings between the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles.

I was excited to learn about Haunted Harbor, a new Halloween event on Cannery Row in Monterey by Treasure Hunt: The Ride and Escape Room 831. Marketing materials billed it as the “ultimate Halloween adventure” that “delivers unexpected scares and spine-chilling haunts, enticing Halloween enthusiasts and thrill-seekers alike to test their courage in an experience unlike anything Cannery Row has ever seen.”

I’ve become somewhat of a Halloween event snob over the years, so when Haunted Harbor’s organizers invited me to opening night, Oct. 18, I knew I had to check it out for myself and see if the hype was real.

For me, there are four pillars of a good Halloween attraction: thematic details, special effects, enthusiastic scare actors and what I call the WTF moment.

Haunted Harbor checks all of the above.

Four attractions inside 700 Cannery Row have gotten a Halloween makeover. Treasure Hunt: The Ride, which opened more than a year ago in place of the unintentionally creepy wax museum, transforms into Treasure Haunt, featuring scare actors in the queue and inside the ride itself, making you jump around nearly every corner. The two shooting galleries are also decked out with Halloween flair.

Escape Room 831’s Pier of Fear attraction is now a walk-through maze for Haunted Harbor. Its environments fill you with dread as you navigate through, avoiding the costumed monsters and jump-scare moments. While it’s short-lived, the level of detail throughout gives off Knott’s Scary Farm vibes, which is the highest level of praise I can give.

Oh, and that WTF moment? It comes at the end. I won’t give it away, other than to say it was completely unexpected.

Ron Daniels, president of Daniels Wood Land, which built Treasure Hunt, says Haunted Harbor is a way to give people a reason to visit Cannery Row during the shoulder season—the time when the summer tourists are back home, but before the holidays.

Adding a Halloween overlay to Treasure Hunt was an obvious choice, given the popularity of such attractions elsewhere in the state. “People love haunts,” Daniels says.

Daniels Wood Land teamed up with Escape Room 831 to add more attractions to the Haunted Harbor concept. This year is seen as a test run for the event, with the hopes of building on the synergy in the area and getting more nearby businesses involved in the coming years, he says.

Haunted Harbor runs for one more weekend, Oct. 25-26 from 6-10pm. Tickets are available for purchase.

As one man walked out of Pier of Fear looking slightly dazed, he was asked his thoughts on the maze: “It’s terrifyingly awesome,” he said.

I couldn’t agree more.

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