Hollywood Gothique

Post featuring lots of images

The final installment of our 2011 Halloween Yard Haunt Odyssey takes us to a pair of old favorites, both restless and eternal, and also ventures into previously uncharted realms of mishaps and darkness. The wide spectrum of approaches – from shivers to shocks, from simple to sophisticated – is a remarkable testament to the impressive variety [...]

Dates: October 14-16, 21-23, 28-30
The Ghost Tour at Stathearn Park brings to life the history of Simi Valley, told by dead souls from the past. The experience is not intended to be frightening, but it does hit the right mood for Halloween. People interested in history and/or in enjoying Halloween without being assaulted by costumed maniacs, will find this event to be a pleasant and educational diversion.

Dates: October 7-9, 14-16, 21-23, and 28-31
Six October seasons have passed since last we visited the Six Flags Magic Mountain Fright Fest, in the eldritch year of 2005 (review here). That is vast eons of time in the competitive netherworld of Halloween haunted houses and hayrides, and Six Flags has expanded its Fright Fest with more mazes, scare zones, and shows than ever before; we found this year’s event to be much the same as before in terms of its overall impact, but it is bigger and better than before.

Dates: October 7-9, 14-16, 20-23, 27-31
Does Dark Harbor 2011 boldly voyage into darkly haunted seas never charted before? Not quite: much is the same as last year, the old barnacles scraped away and replaced with fresh paint, the cabins aired out and redecorated, the crew primed and ready for another cruise into terror. In fact, the best way to describe this year’s Queen Mary Dark Harbor is to switch metaphors from the bounding main to music: Dark Harbor 2011 is like a remastered CD – basically the same music, with perhaps one or two bonus tracks, but with improved clarity of sound that brings out details you might have missed before, making the result seem new.

Dates: October 1-31
Location: 5250 Aurelia St., Simi Valley
Hours: Dusk till 11pm
Link out: Click here
Description: As usual, this decorated yard haunt gets a jump on the competition: whereas most amateur Halloween haunts start-up during the last few days of October, this one runs the entire month, from the 1st all the way until Halloween night.
Judging from the [...]

Dates: October 22 & 29, 5-9pm
Location: Golden Valley High School, 27051 Robert C. Lee Parkway, Santa Clarita, CA 91350
Link out: Click here
Description: Much of the cast and crew of the now defunct Heritage Haunt at Heritage Junction have set up a new Halloween haunt this year. Expect to see the talking skeleton fortune teller, the [...]

Dates: September 16 to October 31
Location: Disneyland Resort, 1313 S. Disneyland Drive, naheim, CA 92802
Link out: Click here
Description: Disneyland presents its annual Halloween fun spectacular. The event offers spine-tingling thrills that are not too scary for even young children, including a Halloween Screams fireworks spectacular, photo ops with your favorite Disney Villains, a costume party [...]

Location: 19351 Hatteras Street, Tarzana, CA
Link out: Click here
Description: In operation since the 1990s, this impressively atmospheric amateur yard haunt celebrates its 20th year in Los Angeles. The official dates are October 29-31, 7-10pm, but there is a possibility that it will open for a preview night on October 28, giving you a chance to [...]

On Saturday, October 2, Yours Truly appeared on KFWB’s “Home Wizards,” hosted by Cindy Dole. The home improvement show was doing a Halloween theme for its first hour, offering advice to homeowners thinking of decorating their domiciles for the delight of neighborhood trick-or-treaters. Dole asked me about the different levels of home haunting, dealing with [...]

Location: The Queen Mary, 1126 Queens Highway, Long Beach
Dates: Oct. 1-3, 8-10, 15-17, 21-24 and 27-31
Description: The Queen Mary launches a brand-new Halloween event for 2010: Dark Harbor.

Dates: September 24-26, 30, October 1-3, 6-10, 13-17, 20-24, 27-31.
Location: Knotts Berry Farm
Description: After my mournful despair expressed over the lack of originality on display in the’ 2010 incarnation of Halloween Horror Nights at at Universal Studios Hollywood, it is ironic to note that the 2010 Knotts Berry Farm Halloween Haunt offers even less that is new and novel: only two walk-through mazes and the Sleepy Hollow Mountain Log Ride. Nevertheless, this year’s Knotts Scary Farm manages to impress with sheer quantity and variety: the Halloween theme park event not only offers dozens of mazes, shows, and scare zones; it also provides a wide spectrum of themes and tones, ranging from grim and grizzly to moody and ethereal to clownish and campy. Although Knott’s Berry Farm cannot match Universal Studios in purely technical terms terms, the wide range of imaginative hauntings includes something for every Halloween-loving soul.

Location: Universal Studios Hollywood
Dates: September 24-25, October 1-2, 8-9, 15-17, 21-24, 28-31.
Description: The annual Halloween Horror Nights event returns to Universal Studios Hollywood.

[ October 1, 2010; 7:00 pm; ] Title: Queen Mary Dark Harbor
Location: The Queen Mary, 1126 Queens Highway, Long Beach, CA 90802
Link out: Click here
Description: The Queen Mary launches a brand-new Halloween event for 2010: Dark Harbor. This promises to be a complete revamped haunt, unlike the previous “Haunted Queen Mary” of 2009 and the Queen Mary TerrorFest of years past. The [...]