Hollywood Gothique

I first heard of The Rocketz when I saw them at Knott’s Berry Farm’s Halloween Haunt last year. (You can check them out in the video I shot taht night; they appear at approximately 6:30.) As a rule, I don’t bother with the shows at the Haunt; I’m there for the Halloween mazes and rides. [...]

It is time for Hollywood Gothique’s first annual Halloween Haunt Awards. This is the time - after the last scream has echoed away, the last lightening has flashed, and the last monster returned to its godforsaken tomb - when we sit down and assess the best events and attractions that we experienced during Halloween in [...]

As regular readers know, we were delightfully spooked by last year’s presentation of the House of Restless Spirits, a yard haunt in Santa Monica, defined by darkness and shadowy illusions that may elude the impatient eye. Inevitably, we made a return visit this season, in anticipation of seeing even more ectoplasmic phenomena. Although, from the [...]

As usual, Halloween in Los Angeles has turned out to be crowded with more bats than we could possibly squeeze into a single belfry. Having scrambled to as many Professional Haunts and Theme Park Haunts as we could in the early weeks of the season, now in the final days of October we turn our attention [...]

The Heritage Haunt at Hart Park-Heritage Junction (2401 San Fernando Road in Newhall, California) is an eerie trip back in time to the Old West. Set in what is essentially an old Western museum, this Halloween attraction - titled “Curse of the Ghoul Mine” for 2008 - is sponsored by the Santa Clarita Historical Society, which [...]

Having not visited the Six Flags Magic Mountain Fright Fest since 2005 (reviewed here), we thought it was high time for a return visit last night. Unfortunately, having purchased our tickets and paid for parking, after waiting in line for our first maze of the evening, we were informed that we need a wrist band [...]

Last night, for the very first time, we made it out to Theatre 68’s Haunted House in Hollywood. Although there is still nearly a week to go in the Halloween season, we feel confident in predicting that ths will rank as our #1 discovery for 2008. It is not nearly as long as the mazes [...]

Looking for something besides novelty songs (”The Monster Mash”) or instrumental soundscapes (Midnight Syndicate) to haunt your Halloween party? Well, here’ a little good, old-fashioned rock and roll in the form of a concept album that journeys deep into the dark side of the human soul, combining rhythmic riffs with spooky lyrics - all wrapped [...]

Just in time for its 10th anniversary, we made our first trip out to Horror on Frankel Street (located at 2719 Frankel Street in Lakewood, California). This Halloween yard haunt began inauspiciously enough in 1998, with resident Steve Cometa hiding behind a bush and scaring kids after they got candy at the front door. Since then, Cometa has built his amateur [...]

Looking for nightmarish music to haunt your Halloween party? Or ambient textures to enhance your Halloween haunt? Well, look no further than Hallow’s Eve, Volume II: The Horror - in which the musical group In a World offers a series of instrumental soundscapes in the spirit of the Halloween season.

Travel Town in Griffith Park is haunted. Dozens of ghosts, spooks, spectres, spiders, and skeletons lurk in the darkness, haunting houses, floating among the trees, and otherwise terrorizing the tracks of the Ghost Train. This is the 7-1/2 inch guage motorized train that the  Los Angeles Live Steamers Railroad Museum operates on Sunday year-round during daylight [...]

Aggressive actors offers lots of scares at the fair.
Fearplex is a relatively new  Halloween haunt - produced by the people behind the long-running Spooky House - that replaced the defunct Scareplex that inhabited the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds in 2004 and 2005. We missed Fearplex’s 2007 debut, but we compensated by visiting on opening weekend this year. Los Angeles Halloween [...]

On Saturday, we made our annual trek to Pasadena for Old Town Haunt. We have reviewed this attraction twice before, once for its 2005 debut and once again a year later. The first time out we enjoyed its unique atmospheric setting (suggesting underground catacombs and caverns), but there was a dearth of active ghouls haunting [...]