We swear that Spooky Season arrives in L.A. earlier and earlier each year, and newcomer Third Way Studios — the personal project of USC film school grad and scare actor Sam Eliassi — is promising some very old school immersive horror vibes with The Fear Program which starts this week in Encino.
Built for one or two guests at time, with a premise that hits the sweet spot for those who like the spooky up close and personal:
You have been hired by a strange organization with one simple mission: Your first assignment takes you inside the bedroom of June, a child who insists there is something living in her closet. Her parents think she is making it up. The company thinks her fear can be treated.
We asked director Sam Eliassi to tell us more about the new show which runs July 23 - August 9.
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No Proscenium: Tell us a little bit about your experience! What’s it about? What makes it immersive?
Sam Eliassi: The Fear Program is my debut immersive theater piece, a 45-minute appointment inside the strange bureaucracy of the Institute of Fear Processing. You begin at a tall black gate in an ordinary Encino neighborhood, and within moments, the outside world has disappeared. You are processed as a temporary fear assistant and sent to help June, a young girl who is certain there is a monster living in her closet.
The experience is built for only one or two guests, so there is no audience to disappear into and nowhere to stand back and simply observe. You arrive believing you are there to help someone else confront a fear, but the experience has a way of turning that journey back toward you. It is almost like a guided journal entry on steroids, transformed into a theatrical world you can physically enter.
NP: What was the inspiration for your upcoming experience?
SE: The Fear Program grew from my lifelong fascination with fear and the way facing it has changed my life. As a child, I was often overwhelmed by the things that frightened me, but I was also obsessed with understanding them. Fear became a way of testing my limits, learning about myself, and discovering what could be waiting on the other side of discomfort.
At USC, I studied Cinema & Media Studies with a focus on horror and storytelling, then minored in themed entertainment, where I learned how to turn a story into a physical world. Working as a scare actor at Halloween Horror Nights since 2021 showed me how differently people respond when they willingly step toward fear. Those experiences helped shape The Fear Program, but the heart of the piece is personal. I wanted to create a story-first experience where the design makes fear tangible and participation makes it personal.
NP: What do you think fans of immersive will find most interesting about this latest experience?
SE: For a debut production, I chose to build the show on a scale that still surprises me. Third Way Studios is currently a one-person company, and I ventured out alone to create The Fear Program. I wrote the piece for this location, designed and built its environments from the ground up, and produced the show before an incredible cast and crew joined me to bring the world to life. Physically, the journey is comparable to a Halloween Horror Nights house or a Knott’s Scary Farm maze, but the entire space operates for only one appointment at a time.
A world large enough to move crowds through has been designed around one guest or pair for 45 minutes. Every performer, effect, transition, and reveal is waiting specifically for them. The result feels expansive and strangely private at the same time, as though an entire hidden institution has opened its doors for just two people.
NP: Once you started designing and testing what did you discover about this experience that was unexpected?
SE: I knew every guest would bring a personal relationship with fear into the experience. What surprised me was how visibly that relationship shaped the room. Fear rarely announces itself directly. It appears when someone jokes to create distance, hesitates before a choice, tries to take control, or becomes protective of June or the person beside them. The structure remains the same, but its emotional temperature changes with each guest.
The Fear Program does not ask guests to perform fear. It reveals how they already live with it. Because they enter believing they are there to help someone else, they can approach their own fear indirectly. Some move toward it. Some resist it. Some find courage by caring for another person. I expected fear to be the subject of the piece. I did not expect it to become such an active participant in the storytelling.
NP: What can fans who are coming to this, or thinking about coming to this, do to get into the mood of the experience?
SE: Start with a fear experiment. Rewatch a movie that genuinely frightened you, turn off the lights, put your phone away, and pay attention to yourself instead of only the screen. Notice where fear appears in your body. What makes you want to look away, and what keeps you watching? For something closer to the tone of the show, watch an episode of The Twilight Zone or Severance and pay attention to how ordinary spaces become unsettling once their rules begin to shift.
Before your appointment, take a moment to name the biggest fear you carry now as an adult. Then come curious, wear something you can comfortably move in, and be willing to participate. You do not need to arrive fearless. In fact, we would prefer that you didn’t.
Discover the latest immersive events, festivals, workshops, and more at our new site EVERYTHING IMMERSIVE, home of NoPro’s show listings.
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