You can hear the screams from a few doors down. Fog is rising, and you can see strange people walk in its direction. Something is going on on your street. But who is creating the nightmare?
They scare because they care. They are the home haunters. That is, regular folks in regular neighborhoods who build spooky mazes for Halloween in the yards of their regular suburban homes. Home haunts are often family run, family friendly and free, or, at least ask for small donations to charity.
For the people who seek them out, a home haunt can be a friendly, surprising, and cost-effective way to enhance your Halloween.
And for a lot of haunters, it’s starts as something personal.
“I have always had a penchant for the dark and weird,” says Liam Ferris, owner and operator of the Ferris Haunt in Garden Grove, alongside his young son, Oliver. “I actually have no idea where it came from, but I’ve always been that way. I started as a home haunter back in the late ’80s at my mom’s house. Our neighbor was a set painter for the movie studios, so not only did he have great skill for designing and painting sets, he had access to all kinds of amazing movie props. He let me use his black lights, props, and whatever he had laying around.”
Teacher Christina Lopez runs Deadly Diana’s Place in Fullerton, a long-running home haunt popular with her young students.
“My obsession with everything Halloween started as a young child,” Lopez says. “My mother loved Halloween and would create a great Beelzebub costume for me each year. My husband and I started haunting out the front yard. It has grown to now include our front yard, garage, side of our house, and back yard.”
Irvine’s Kim Home Haunt, now in its sixth year, was created for family togetherness.
“As my kids got older, they started growing out of the trick-or-treat phase, and just disappeared with friends, leaving an empty house,” says Tony Kim. “My wife and daughter started a modest haunted and found not only our kids, but all of their friends wanted to be involved. Every year it has grown and become a neighborhood tradition. Dozens of teens volunteer to scare, greet and help with logistics. As a family, it has become our biggest event of the year and we have many fond —and scary —memories.”
Home haunts can take a lot of work to pull off year in and year out, however, once most haunters start their own event, it can become an obsession.
“It is always on your mind,” Lopez says. “We see trash on the side of the road and think what kind of creep prop can I make out of that? I have created a guillotine, cages, trap doors, creepy trees, body parts, jump scare boxes and many other items from discarded junk. This year, Deadly Diana’s haunted manor is filled with antique furniture I found in the trash.”
Ferris says theirs is about a six-month process.
“We normally start planning in the spring, but the build kicks off in mid-September when we put up the tents and start putting up the walls,” Ferris says. “It is a lot of effort – lots of weekends and late weekday nights. Over the years, I have figured out a lot of ways to optimize our processes, including standardizing our electronics and the way we control props and shows, and re-using existing set pieces and props for different themes.
“We usually change themes every year,” he says. “So that presents a challenge from a workload perspective, but it also keeps things fresh and fun. But knowing what set pieces and props we have, and knowing how to re-theme them, makes it pretty easy to shift themes.”
By comparison, the Kim haunt is a sprint.
“From outside and in, it takes the entire month of October to put it all together,” Kim says. “All the outside decorations are up by October first and then it takes about 3 weeks to design and build the interior maze. Fortunately, the kids help and my company, Hero Within, provides much of the supplies. Just as much work goes into sharing progress on social media [NextDoor App and Instagram @Haunted_Within.] It’s important to involve fans from day one so they have an idea of what to expect.”
The haunters are quick to say their haunts wouldn’t work without family teamwork and support from their neighbors. But it plays out different ways for the haunters.
“My four kids and three nieces have helped scare and design the haunt over the years,” Kim says. “My sister-in-law is our main greeter at the entrance of the haunt. Besides being a welcome face, it takes a lot to manage the crowds each night. Volunteers need to be fed and cared for so my wife and her friends provide meals and drinks for each of the 3 nights. Then we have a number of friends that help with logistics and line management. It takes teamwork to make the nightmare work.”
Lopez has an even wider group of haunters at her disposal.
“My kids have grown up doing this and now my grand children are doing this with me,” she says. “I also work at the local elementary school, so most of our scare actors are students between 3rd and 6th grade level. We also have a student who is in a wheel chair that absolutely loves working the haunt each year. I have definitely passed on the obsession of family fun on Halloween.”
And while the Ferris haunt is also a family affair, it’s especially a father-son project between Liam and his youngest son, Oliver.
“He started out scaring inside the haunt,” he says, “and since then has become the brains of the operation. He comes up with our concept and theme, and helps with the build as much as possible. Working together with him on something that means so much to both of us is the most wonderful thing in the world. I absolutely love how it brings us together. The support from my entire family is what makes this crazy thing work, and I am continually appreciative for their support of my crazy obsession.”
But to create events for a more general audience also takes balance.
“While scaring people is incredibly fun, it’s not the whole point of our haunt,” Ferris says. “I want our haunt to be fun for everyone. I try and design the haunt so that anyone, even really small kids, can go through.”
Kim says “The first couple of years, we managed the scare levels, but to be honest, we just scare at 100 percent now. It’s not the kids that are scared, but the moms.”
Lopez jokes “it takes thought how to scare people in the direction you need them to run.
