Hollywood Gothique

Our first encounter with the Fright Gallery was back in 2003, when they presented a professional haunted house attraction titled “Experiment in Terror.” This turns out to have been an anomaly in their Halloween career, which consists mostly of an amateur home haunt in a quiet Burbank neighborhood. Fright Gallery’s unique approach is to stage an amateur musical spoof in a front yard decorated with tombstones, offering a Halloween twist on some well-known pop culture artifact. In 2005 their play was “Twisted” (which conflated THE WIZARD OF OZ with Beach Party movies of the ’60s – you can see the video here). After that, Fright Gallery took two years off before returning in 2008 with “Dead of the Class,” a take-off on HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL.

We did not enjoy “Dead of the Class” as much as “Twisted,” perhaps because we are not as familiar with the source material being spoofed; nevertheless it was an impress production, as this video shows.

Unfortunately, Fright Gallery did not stage another show for Halloween 2009, despite planning for one. We can only hope that they return in 2010. Until then, memories – and this video – will have to tide us over.