Community Halloween Haunts
Church & School Events, Walk-Through Mazes, Block Parties & More
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There are many ways to enjoy Halloween in Los Angeles, ranging from elaborate Theme Park Halloween Attractions and Professional Haunted Houses to wild Halloween Parties and Street Fairs to humble Amateur Yard Haunts and safely spooky Halloween Events for children. Somewhere in between are the Community Yard Haunts. These tend to be semi-professional Halloween events and attractions; some are yard haunts that outgrew their yard. Community Halloween Haunts are often staged in schools, churches, or community centers, in order to provide a safe and fun way for local trick-or-treaters to enjoy the holiday. Unlike yard haunts, Community Halloween Haunts are usually not free, but they tend to charge only a small fee to off-set expenses, or they request a donation to benefit some local cause.
BEACON HOUSE HAUNT
1003 S. Beacon Street, San Pedro, CA 90731
Phone: (310) 514-4940
E-Mail: info@beaconhouseassociation.com
Web Page: www.beaconhouseassociation.com
2011 DATES & HOURS: October 29, 7:30pm to midnight
2010 ADMISSION: TBA
2011 INFORMATION: This year, Beacon Street House offers another Halloween party at the Barlett Center.
BACKGROUND: Located near the southern end of Los Angeles, the Beacon House Association of San Pedro produced a Halloween block party for over twenty years, providing a safe way for the community to celebrate the season. The Beacon House’s annual Halloween event typically offered a ”Nightmare on Beacon Street,” including a haunted maze, a street fair, dancing, contests, food, and other entertainment suitable for the whole family. The 2006 haunt featured an “alien invasion” theme, including a walk-through maze. Since 2010, Beacon house has offered a scaled down “Halloween Party,” with dancing, contests, face-painting, and Kareoke.
Year round, the Beacon House helps men recover from alcoholism, providing food, shelter, and counseling.
NOTE: The old website specifically devoted to the haunt is no longer operative, but the Beacon House Associations’s Calendar of Events continues to list the annual Halloween party.
THE CATACOMBS – No Longer in Operation
10800 Henderson Road
Ventura, California
Phone: 805-647-8623
E-Mail: shym@sacredheartventura.org
Website: catacombs.sacredheartventura.org
2010 DATES: None. This haunt has been closed down.
2009 HOURS: 2-4pm Children’s Matinee; 6-10pm Adult Haunt
ADMISSION: $7, $5 with food donation; $9 pass allows for unlimited admission all night
2009 INFORMATION: The Sacred Heart Church’s Youth Ministry presents “The Catacombs: A 3D Haunt,” set up in the Youth Center behind the church.
FEATURES: Haunting since 2004, this amateur Halloween event, located in Ventura (northwest of Los Angeles), is designed to provide fun for the local kids, with a “a small but cool maze with a mild scare factor,” while bringing in money and food donations. Although a community effort, some of the people involved have Hollywood FX exerience, having worked on such films as RESIDENT EVIL: EXTINCTION, THE RING, HELLBOY, etc.
CREEPY HOLLOW - NO LONGER IN OPERATION
3101 Overland Boulevard
West Los Angeles, CA 90034
Phone: (310) 289-2525
Websites: www.myspace.com/creepyhollow_1
2010 DATES & HOURS: NONE. THIS HAUNT PROMISED TO RETURN, AT A NEW LOCATION, IN 2009, BUT THERE HAS BEEN NO NEW ACTIVITY SINCE 2008.
ADMISSION: $12 for adults, $8 for children INFORMATION: Creepy Hollow claims its haunted house is the “hottest” way to spend Halloween in Los Angeles.
DARK REALMS: AN AMERICAN HAUNT
537 Palm Dr., Brea, CA 92821
2011 Dates & Hours:
- Oct. 8, 14, 15, 21, 22, 30 from 7pm-10pm
- Oct. 28, 29, 31 7pm-11pm
- For the benefit of young and timid trick-or-treaters, there is a period from 6:30pm-7pm with no scares.
Tickets: $10 for General Admission or $15 for a front of the line pass.
Description: Haunt Worx Productions presents Dark Realms: An American Haunt. Although located in a private home, this Halloween event is more in the nature of a community haunt than a yard haunt – raising money to benefit the Children’s Hospital of Orange County.
According to the press release:
Something has happened this year at Dark Realms haunt, unidentified beings have take over a new dwelling and are lurking in the shadows. These inhabitants will test your fears to the extreme as they try to pull you into their world. Test your fears if you dare or wait outside to see if others make it out alive.
NOTE: All proceeds go to Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC)
THE HAUNTED JAIL – No Longer in Operation
Altadena Sheriff’s Station 780 East Altadena Drive, at Lake Avenue Altadena, California
2009 Haunt Flyer here
Website: www.altadenasheriffs.blogspot.com/
2011 DATES & HOURS: TBA, if any (usually, October 31, 5-8pm)
DONATION: minimum $2.00 for childnen and adults
INFORMATION: The Altadena Sheriff’s Station begain presenting a 3D haunt in1997, which was not recommended for children under five. In 2010, the haunt was cancelled, due to continued reconstruction work on the Altadena Jail, which finally reopened on September 24, 2011.
HORROR VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL: TERRORS IN TIME
New for 2011!
Golden Valley High School
27051 Robert C. Lee Parkway, Santa Clarita, CA 91350
Website: horrorvalleyhighschool.com
Dates: October 22 & 29, 5-9pm
Tickets: $15 at the front gate.
Discounts: Discount tickets available at Santa Clarita Jack-in-the-Box restaurants.
Description: Much of the cast and crew of the now defunct Heritage Haunt at Heritage Junction (whose final manifestation in 2010 was marred by bureaucratic red tape) have set up a new Halloween haunt for 2011. Expect to see the talking skeleton fortune teller, the pirate cove, and other familiar spooks relocated into a high school setting. What’s missing will be the old Newhall Ranch House and other antique buildings, which gave the Heritage Haunt an authentic atmosphere unlike other Halloween events in Los Angeles.
As with the Heritage Haunt, this is a non-profit event, staffed by volunteers who want to share their macabre brand of entertainment with like-minded enthusiasts; consequently, we are filing Horror Valley High School under “Community Halloween Haunts.”
If past history is any indication, this should be a fun way to spend Halloween in Los Angeles.
Photographs:
5311 Acacia Avenue
Garden Grove, CA 92845
Website: ocmurdermanor.webs.com
Date: Halloween Night 7pm-midnight
Description: Every Halloween, this old Victorian estate transforms into Murder Manor, beckoning guests to travel once again down the haunted hallways, where horrific events from long ago return to life.
The Murder Manor haunt is free but donations are encouraged.
NATIVITY CHURCH HAUNTED HOUSE – No Longer in Operation?
Nativity Church – 3743 Tyler Avenue in El Monte, CA 91732
2011 DATE & HOURS: The venerable old church,which we attended decades ago, has stopped sending us annual updates, and our old contact is no longer there. Has this haunt given up the ghost?
DONATION: Usually $3 per person, with proceeds going to benefit the church.
Description: in 2009, Nativity Church presented its third annual haunted house, inspred by horror movies such as SAW. 2008’s theme was “Big Top Circus.”
Thousand Oaks, CA
HISTORY: Previously an amateur/community effort, this Halloween haunted house moved to a new location for its 10 anniversary in 2009, where it offered a much larger and more complex presentation. We are now classifying it as a Professional Halloween Haunted House, and have given it its own page.
The Way of the Shadow Martial Arts Academy
18727 Crenshaw Boulevard, Torrance CA 90504
Email: info@revengeoftheninjamaze.com
Phone: 310-327-1837
Website: www.revengeoftheninjamaze.com
Find more information, plus photographs, on our page devoted to this haunt.
THE TERRY HAUNT – NO LONGER IN OPERATION
Old Location: 1620 West Katella Avenue
Anaheim, CA 92804
Phone: 714 318 0125
Fax: 714 537 4940
Website: www.terryhaunt.com
2011 UPDATE: After cancelling the 2010 haunt with a promise to return in 2011 with a new theme titled “Necropolis,” haunt proprietor Michael Terry recently posted this message on his website:
Due to recent events we will no longer be producing the Terry Haunt’s Annual Haunted House. Our heartfelt thanks to all who supported us, helped us, and made our Nightmares Come True since 1997. It has been a pleasure to bring this event to life each Halloween. All the best…
HISTORY: The Terry Haunt began in 1997 as a yard haunt, then gradually expanded, changing location from a private home to the La Palma Recreation Center in Anaheim for 2007. After location problems put the haunt on hiatus in 2008 , the Terry Haunt returned in 2009 with “Clownz,” set in a large space that used to be a shopping market. Unfortunately, the haunt was again canceled in 2010. 2011 brought the announcement that the Terry Haunt would not return.
Click here for the Terry Haunt archive.
THE TUSTIN HAUNT
13151 Brittany Woods Drive Tustin, CA 92780
Website: TustinHaunt.com
2011 UPDATE: The Tustin Haunt will not be operating a walk-through maze this year. The haunt master is hoping to find a new location (permanent or temporary) for 2012.
TUSTIN HAUNT HISTORY: Located behind the Orange Curtain (i.e., in Organge County), this “semi-pro” attraction, began haunting in 1995, hovering somewhere between a Yard Haunt and a Community Haunt. Although free, the haunt accepted $2 donations to offset costs and offered a $5 front-of-the-line pass. Their 2008 presentation was titled “Red Hill Mining Co. Massacre;” on Sunday, November 2, the day after the haunting was over, there was a behind-the-scenes tour for those wanting to know how the scary effects were achieved.
In 2009, the proprietor moved on to a professional Halloween haunted house, Sinister Pointe in Brea (www.sinisterpointe.com), which featured a Silent Hill maze in 2009; meanwhile, the old Tustin Haunt was reduced to a yard display. During their thirteen years of haunting, they raised money for the community, including the Tustin Public Schools Foundation.
WESTCHESTER HAUNTED PARK
Westchester Recreation Center
7000 W. Manchester, Los Angeles, CA 90045
Recreation Center website: click here
Haunt page: click here
2011 Dates: October 28-31
Hours: 6-10pm
Admission: $5.00
Description: For over two decades, during the final days of October, Westchester Recreation Park transforms into a terrifying Halloween event. For 2011, the maze moves outdoors, leaving the indoor facilities behind and hopefully expanded to include even more horror.
