Haunted Groundz: 2019 Review
Haunted Groundz, Granada Hills, CA
One of the great joys about visiting home haunts across Southern California is the occasional discovery of a gem of a haunt that exceeds the quality of even other typical high caliber haunts. This is an especial joy when it includes a unique and interesting story behind how and why a haunter decideasd to take up creating a residential haunted house for the neighborhood and the evolution that comes from developing said haunt. There are few sentiments that compare to pleasant surprise of finding a home haunter who has crafted something of surprising professional quality, only to learn that the production was largely self-taught or built up through simply years of tinkering and experience.
Welcome to the cemetery at Haunted Groundz.
Today's haunt is one example of such an endeavor. This update looks at Haunted Groundz, a Halloween yard display and haunted show located in Granada Hills. Haunted Groundz is the creation of one Dmitriy Slobodski, a Ukrainian immigrant who came to the United States over two decades ago and was fascinated early on by the spectacle of Halloween. As he tells it, shortly after moving to America, a friend took him to Universal Studios Hollywood during the Halloween season, and he was astounded by the pageantry and mythic quality of how the holiday was celebrated in the U.S. It was unlike anything Dmitriy had ever experienced in his native Ukraine, and he was immediately enchanted.
Similar to how Richard and Christina wanted to ingratiate with American culture after they moved here, Dmitriy felt a pull to join the Halloween ritual after he became an American resident. Especially after his son was born, activities like trick or treating became a cherished annual pastime. But as his son grew older and less attached to the traditional Halloween family activities, Dmitriy began thinking of how else he might celebrate the holiday. And seven years ago, when his son decided he was finally too old to trick or treat with dad and wanted to hang out with his friends instead, Dmitriy was presented with a chance to start a new Halloween custom.
Serenading pumpkins are part of the entertainment.
The result has evolved into the elaborate Haunted Groundz yard show today, but it's beginnings were relatively humble. For the past seven years, Dmitriy has built onto the show segment by segment each year. What started as a nice yard haunt became a bit of an animatronic show, which incorporated very lights startle elements along the sidewalk, not to mention projections and an interlude segment between show cycles. Dmitriy enlisted the help of some friends who happened to have voice acting talents to offer up lines, and the resulting riff session became a Jungle Cruise-esque corny banter with plenty of groan-worthy jokes between an animatronic skeleton, a raven figure, and a projected skull. A friend's towncar a few years later became a photo op. And this year, another friend's artistry became the basis of a time lapse test footage for a possible more full fledged projection show in the future.
The most amazing part of all of this is that almost the entire production is made by Dmitriy, on his own! He has created the animatronics and crafted the gravestones and other bios of Halloween theming, plus handled the recording and programming of the show moments and special effects. And similar to Tina and Arnie from Holiday Fantasies Come to Life, Dmitriy does not work in any entertainment business!! All of this has been self taught from various resources hanging from online tutorials to books to membership at CalHauntS. It has all manifested itself in a charming, family friendly, impressively entertaining show that runs about ten minutes long, with several-minute interlude between shows featuring a medley of Halloween-related songs.
The show starts with a little girl asking her mother what Halloween is. Unable to properly answer, mom resorts to Alexa, but before the Amazon A.I. can really respond, the conversation is hijacked by some wise cracking spirits who possess the raven and skeleton and an animated skull to lob good natured verbal barbs at each other. Next, some pumpkins serenade the crowd with some a cappella croons similar to what we saw in Nights of the Jack. The dialogue shifts back to the previous trio before an animated witch sings a cackling song. Everything ends with some skulls coming out of the columns that line the sidewalk edge, offering a very light and intentionally corny series of startle scares.
A seesawing animatronic skeleton is one of the main characters in the production.
Haunted Groundz is the type of attraction that really captures the spirit and fun of Halloween. This attraction is a passionate labor of love for the local community, and the amount of work that goes into just the setup of the yard show is truly amazing. Similar to Opechee Haunt's Jack's Halloween JamBOOree, Haunted Groundz captures the warmth of the season and washes it down with a bit of irreverent humor. It is truly a charming production that's well worth seeing.
Dmitriy has designs to change the show more significantly next year, hinting at a drastic overhaul for the show that might offer the first comprehensively new content in a while. In the meantime, we left Haunted Groundz thoroughly astonished at the incredible, professional level work that this humble immigrant from Ukraine has been able to put out over these many years. Haunted Groundz is an excellent home haunt that encompasses the goodness of Halloween. We can't wait to see what next year brings!
These corpse heads pop out, but they’re nothing too scary.
Haunted Groundz is located at 13243 Mission Tierra Way, Granada Hills, CA 91344 and was open only October 30, 31, and November 1 of this year. It's a limited run, but worth making time for any haunt enthusiast!
Architect. Photographer. Disney nerd. Haunt enthusiast. Travel bugged. Concert fiend. Asian.
