Thread: Gone But Far From Forgotten Favorite Yard Haunts

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If you've hung out on here long enough, you probably have some favorite halloween yard haunts already. Many of them have sadly ended for various reasons. I though it would be fun to discuss the Gone But Far From Forgotten Haunts that have thrilled us, scared us and made us laugh over the years. Help dig up some of these gems by adding your favorite past haunts below.

I'll start off with two of my favorites, neither of which I saw in person unfortunately but would have loved to. Thanks to the internet so many of these memories are preserved.

1) The first haunt I'll mention, more of a halloween related production actually, was done by a group from the LA area I think of friends and neighbors that came together each year and put on haunts that were ultimately play productions. I specifically remember the Gilligan's Island-type theme one year. Another one was mermaid based I think. Each year was a different theme. The amazing facades were built out of cardboard if I remember correctly. I don't know if everyone was in the theater/TV industry or not but I know some of them were.

Still not sure what the haunt called itself or if it changed every year but here's a YouTube Video of the Shipwreck Shores production they did:




2) The other cancelled haunt, more along the traditional haunt, also in the LA area, would be the one done by Bob Burns and his wife, Kathy (fascinating industry people BTW). They started out small, like most of us, and over the years with the help of many volunteers it grew. One year it was a UFO theme, a Frankenstein theme, a take off on The Thing set in the arctic, and underwater theme, a volcano theme with an escaped Ape. Great, great stuff. Bob and Kathy are legends. Pretty sure it was last year when there was a video tribute done of him, production quality video too, that was multi-week episodes highlighting his life and the years he and his friends did their halloween haunt. I thought they were going to try selling it to one of the networks as a documentary.

Found the link on my computer to Bob's website that I spent hours enjoying: http://www.bobburnshollywoodhalloween.com/ It looks like the weekly video episodes have been taken down but there are still some available to view.


I think what set these two haunts apart from others for me was that they were scripted and had actors. I know that's not everyone's cup of tea so to speak but I love that so many creative people got together to pull this off each year.


Update:

After finding the Shipwreck Shores video I found a list of video footage from The Fright Gallery (maybe that's what they called themselves) that has the other videos of their past haunts that I remembered seeing on the halloween website for this group which I think has long been taken down. Hazelwood Manor had a terrific facade; check out the video of it's teardown. There's also video there of the construction of the set for Shipwreck Shores which those doing a pirate scene might find helpful.

OH man...I LOVE the Little Mermaid and that is a great idea for hubby's costume this year. I don't have the body for it...LOL!

Loved the Fright Gallery (that was what they called themselves, along with "a terrifyingly hilarious experiment in suburban lawn art"), they were a group of actors, set designers and other theatrical folks that put on an incredible show... I hated that they even took down their website, as you can't find some of their amazing shows anywhere now. LOVED the Surreal Estate theme they did one year and used it for a party theme... and I can't even find a picture of their set design on the web any more.



http://www.hollywoodgothique.com/hal...right-gallery/

Wow I love this it inspires me to try a little harder.