Rosehill Haunt presents The Final Celebration: 2019 Review
Rosehill Haunt, Studio City, CA
This season, we’ve spent some time talking about the New Blood Haunt Squad™, those innovative and precocious young haunters creating a myriad of wonderful home haunts in all sorts of different styles, from the slick, polished, and gruesome creations of Murder House Productions to the sinister, tense, theatrical vibe of Twisted Minds Productions to the diverse, technologically savvy medleys of Opechee Haunt. Tonight, we round out the quartet with a return to Rosehill Haunt, Ben Conway’s charming, family-friendly, annually expanding Halloween yard display set in two parts.
We first visited Ben’s haunt last year, but he’s actually been doing haunt displays at his parents’ home for over half a decade. Though the endeavors have taken different forms each year, from the spooky to the scary, they’ve continuously grown and expanded as Ben adds on a little extra each and every season. The result is that now, in his senior year of high school, Ben has accumulated a pretty nice collection of sets and decorations that have created a fantastical Halloween world—one that he’s cultivated into the Final Celebration.
A distinctly Boot Hill-esque mural is one of the new features at Rosehill Haunt this year.
If you missed the backstory last year, here it is again:
Two hundred years ago, a skeleton was walking along the road (as they do during Halloween, you see…) when it began playing a song. So beautiful was this musical melody that the other skeletons buried deep within the ground were summoned from their slumber to the dark evening air, and they danced to this requiem until midnight. Every Halloween, that act manifests again.
And Rosehill Haunt truly is a grand jubilee that captures the warmth and heart of Halloween. Spooky skeletons bring a vaudeville feel, be it the wisecracking narrator perched on a wall at the edge of the driveway or the musical duo inside the courtyard that recalls Boney Island. An eerie graveyard lines the front yard lawn, with blues and greens emanating a spectral force that calls to mind the classic tone of Boot Hill in Irvine. A drapery of singing jack-o-lanterns conjures lovely melodies, especially from the Haunted Mansion, bringing a familiarity and emotional resonance.
The singing jack-o-lanterns are back and more prominent before the Conway family home courtyard.
This year, Ben has added two new components to his haunt. The first is a striking and highly saturated cemetery mural as the backdrop of the graveyard scene—once again referencing Boot Hill and its similar background. In addition, in front of the garage door, a new tomb has been unearthed. No one knows what is inside or from when it came—only that at least one poor soul—the skeleton in front—has met a premature demise trying to explore the boundary within.
The tomb is actually a remnant from what was supposed to be a haunted maze. While Ben was happy to build upon last year’s theme, rather than manifest a new one, he initially considered creating a more traditional haunted house with startle scares and frights. But the more he went about, the more he realized that he was most comfortable with a family-friendly offering that celebrated the season and created an inclusive and enchanting ambiance. One admires how this young designer is settling into niche with which he’s comfortable. There’s something commendable about getting to a place where one knows what he wants. It’s a sign of maturity, and for a young haunter such as Ben, it’s another sign of growth well beyond his years.
Also new this year is a mysterious crypt that has just been unearthed at Rosehill Haunt.
Of course, Rosehill Haunt could always change its direction in the future. After all, inevitably, every haunter feels the urge to try something different—if only to flex those creative puzzles. And if Ben stays local once he starts college next year—CalArts in Santa Clarita is currently one potential destination—he’ll be able to maintain Rosehill Haunt on the side!
In the meantime, there’s the conclusion of this season, and Rosehill Haunt’s Final Celebration. Well, final and final final, since there are two more nights left. In Rosehill Haunt, Studio City has a wonderful embrace of all the fun and revelry that make Halloween so nostalgic and romantic. It’s a sense of togetherness mixed with the spice of the macabre, and it’s one revelry we’ll be sad to see fade away when Halloween season is over.
The first-ever Halloween display that Ben ever made, while still in elementary school, is still featured—a testament to the history of this yard display and part-walkthrough that continues to build upon itself each year!
Rosehill Haunt is located on 11560 Acama St, Studio City, CA 91604 and will be open tomorrow night, Halloween, from 6:30-10:00pm, and Friday, November 1, from 7:00-10:00pm. Don’t miss your chance to celebrate this warm and wondrous tribute to the spooky goodness of Halloween. You won’t regret it!
Architect. Photographer. Disney nerd. Haunt enthusiast. Travel bugged. Concert fiend. Asian.
