Hollywood Gothique

Reviews of Halloween events & attractions

The downtown Halloween haunt – which made its debut this October – offered a scream-filled final weekend.
Sometimes we say goodbye too soon. Only last Saturday, November 3, we were bidding farewell to the Halloween season with Hollywood Gothique’s 2012 Halloween Haunt Awards, listing the most memorable achievements that delighted our senses during the preceding six [...]

The final installment of Hollywood Gothique’s 2012 Halloween Haunt Odyssey finds us retracing our steps over previously explored territory, as we head out on October 31, seeking those ephemeral haunts open only on All Hallow’s Eve. From Glendale to Sherman Oaks to Northridge and finally back to Woodland Hills (again!), we wander through the ghost-infested [...]

Part 3 of Hollywood Gothique’s 2012 Halloween Haunt Odyssey returns to a land we visit every October: Woodland Hills, with stops in Tarzana and Encino along the way. Since we have reviewed most of these yard haunts before, we will not delve deeply into details here; instead we will note what new tricks and treats [...]

This installment of the annual Halloween Haunt Odyssey is a bit of a geographical jumble, exploring the paranormal activities lurking inside two amateur Halloween events separated by miles of freeways. Divergent in location they may be, but Pumkin Jack’s Haunted House and Rotten Apple 907’s Wilsley Manor share certain salient traits: both of them are [...]

Hollywood Gothique is criminally late posting its review Heritage Haunt 2012: tonight – Sunday, October 28, is its last night this season, from 6:30 to 10pm, so jump in your cars right now and get out to Newhall; then come back and read this review later.
Okay, now that we have that out of the way, [...]

As usual, Hollywood Gothique began its annual Halloween Haunt Odyssey a little early this year. This ritual trek began back in 2005, when we tried to hit as many Los Angeles yard haunts as possible on Halloween Night. However, as more and more of these amateur extravaganzas have appeared on our radar, October 31 no [...]

Wicked Lit continues with performances on November 8-10. This October’s incarnation of the Halloween Theatre Festival retains the spooky strengths manifested in previous years while adding a few new ingredients to the witch’s brew. Once again, a trio of terrifying one-act plays is presented within the Mountain View Mausoleum and Cemetery. This season, there is a bit more playful interactivity with the “Story Guides,” who keep the audience on the right track and then play (sometimes unexpected) roles in the dramas themselves. Wicked Lit also serves up brief mini-performances (poetry readings and storytelling) between the main courses, creating the theatrical equivalent of an elaborate French meal, with multiple entrees separated by appetizing hors d’oeuvre.

Hollywood Gothique was unable to travel to San Jose last Halloween for the debut of Winchester Mystery House Fright Nights; however, our dark doppelganger, the Haunt Mistress from Haunted Bay, recommended it highly, so we marked our calendar for October 2012, knowing that this year, we would make the trip no matter what. Was Fright [...]

Hollywood Gothique went up north this weekend, to explore the joys of Halloween in the Bay Area, particularly the Winchester Mystery House Fright Nights in San Jose. You can ready our behind-the-scenes interview here; a review and video will follow. Before we get to that, however, we want to shine our spooky spotlight on a [...]

Once again, Hollywood Gothique finds itself transgressing the borders of its native soil in pursuit of Halloween events of northern climes of California (in this case, the Winchester Mystery House Fright Nights), leaving us without adequate time to fully review all the great Halloween attractions in Los Angeles. Allow us to rectify this error with a trio of mini-reviews, focusing on Old Town Haunt, FrightFair, and Wicked Lit – each of which made it onto our lists of 2012 Halloween Recommendations.

It has been three years since Hollywood Gothique stepped into The Empty Grave Halloween attraction in Anaheim. At that time, The Empty Grave  featured a spacious fog-filled layout suggesting an ethereal trip through limbo; the approach was novel and intriguing, but some visitors felt it was an attempt to do a haunt without paying for sets. [...]

2011’s haunt was clever in concept but short on screams. Is 2012 better, badder, bolder? Yes!
Last Halloween, Hollywood Gothique made its first terrifying trek out to the Sinister Pointe Haunted Attraction in Brea. The haunt’s reputation for Halloween horror had lured us into the dreaded netherworld of Orange Country, where we were more than happy to [...]

Ah, never has joy been more bitter! Hollywood Gothique finally makes the sordid sojourn down to Brea to explore the demented delicacies of Dark Realms: An American Haunt – and discovers that amateur Halloween yard haunt that rivals many professional Halloween events. So, why the bitter tears of despair? Because Halloween 2012 may represent Dark [...]