Orange County Yard Haunts 2020: 1870 Haunt Manor, Hull House, Grim Grinners, and Newhope Slaughterhouse
Orange County, CA
Happy… um… Thursday, folks! We’re continuing right on into what will probably be a crunch of Halloween coverage to close out the back half of October, since this is the time when the bulk of the home haunts are opening up. Home haunts make up the quantitative majority of Southern California’s enormous collection of haunts, and given this year’s pandemic, they’re the ones rising to the challenge to keep Halloween from being cancelled.
Of course, given the nature of the novel Coronavirus, most of them are opting to do yard displays in lieu of walk-through mazes (if they typically do mazes), and that means plenty of creative, uniquely expressed Halloween spirit throughout the Southern California landscape! To capture the multitude of haunted yard displays out there, we’re grouping geographically proximate haunts together as examples of places you can visit in a row, should you choose to venture out in search of haunting surprises. We actually did that last year with a Santa Clarita Valley collection and a small Corona Yard Haunts listing but never quite got around to finishing out our run (Burbank and San Fernando Valley groupings remain unpublished). But it’s more efficient to post about several haunted yard displays at a time, so we’re going to kick off this year’s batch with a quartet in Orange County.
Today’s four home haunts include one yearly favorite, one haunt I discovered through Instagram, one haunt I discovered through the SoCal Haunt List, and one that literally came to me through word of mouth. Each offers a different and diverse way of showcasing its creators’ love of the spooky season, and they’re worth including in your haunt crawl this month!
1870 Haunt Manor
Stop #1 last night took me to north Anaheim, across the 91 from Anaheim Hills, to 1870 Haunt Manor. A walk-through maze last year, this epic home haunt first caught my attention through Instagram posts of its striking facade, highlighted by a single towering structure in front of a pseudo-graveyard scene. Most home haunt facades do not tower so imposingly above their own rooftops, but that’s what the folks in this Anaheim residence did.
Yesterday evening happened to be 1870 Haunt Manor’s media night / haunter night, so I arrived to find a solid group of Halloween enthusiasts gathered on the street in front of the house. Fortunately, everyone was wearing a mask, and people were reasonably spread apart so as to avoid clustering together (unless they were already in their own household groups). There were also a couple of scareactors prowling the sidewalk in search of fright victims, and what appeared to be a gravedigger or some sort of cemetery caretaker up on the elevated lawn, complementing the atmospheric talent.
The facade of 1870 Haunt Manor is definitely one of the more eye-opening home haunt feats I’ve seen.
Of course, the facade was the most noticeable feature of this yard display, featuring “1870” in demonically glowing outlines, and that landmark tower rising high above the street. It turns out that the tower was also usable, as one of the scareactors would occasionally ascend the structure and prop himself out the window to gaze down upon everyone below. It made for an excellent photo op and a cool use of the haunt facade.
A photo op backdrop was also set up on the side for another scareactor to pose with willing guests. Just adjacent to it, a skeleton stood at a railing, enjoying the radio chatter playing at a seat behind him. Across the way, on the other side of a tower, hung a less fortunate skeleton, suspended from a noose strung between two palm trees.
Although the display was relatively compact, it’s scale was broadly impressive, and the spirit of Halloween was clearly alive and well at this location! With some candy and jack-o-lanterns at a nearby table and the scareactors providing some fun startles to unsuspecting guests, this definitely felt a bit like a normal haunted attraction!
1870 Haunt Manor is located at 1870 N. Cymbal Pl., Anaheim, CA 92807 and is open nightly from 6:00 - 10:00 pm through the end of the month. However, full effects and actors are only present on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
Hull House
The second stop of the evening was a visit to what has quickly become a favorite haunt the past couple of years. I first discovered Hull House off the SoCal Haunt List two years ago and visited it on Halloween Night. I found it pretty impressive for a “new” haunt back then and resolved to stop by again last year—only to find it even better! So it comes as no surprise that this year’s iteration is the best yet, right?
Last year’s facade has been enhanced and more sophisticatedly lit at Hull House this year!
Hull House is relatively straightforward in that it is a standard cemetery themed haunted yard display. Only there’s nothing actually standard here. The quality of this set-up is top notch, featuring beautifully blended lighting, subtle and atmospheric soundscape, some beautifully custom-carved crops and figures, and the perfect touch of eerie ambiance that completely transforms this plot of Buena Park from regular Southern California suburbia into a historic graveyard that wouldn’t be out of place on the East Coast.
I’d like to think of Hull House as the “VanOaks Cemetery” of Orange County. The sophistication and beauty and subtlety of many of the lighting and audio effects is only appreciated by spending time and taking it all in. There is a deep refinement that most guests probably won’t even be able to notice in an explainable manner, but the entire presentation works together in a ghostly harmony to produce a soul-soothing but faintly chilling effect that really comes together amazingly.
This year, another figure in a coffin has joined the scene, along with a more flushed out backdrop and more jack-o-lanterns to boot. They lend a macabre atmosphere, and while none of the skeletons are 12-feet tall, they are exquisitely honed and posed in a phantasmic manner. The decorations have also extended a bit next door, where creator Bill Gavin has decorated a bit of his neighbor’s house. It’s okay, though. His neighbor is also his sister. But it’s great to see the neighboring environment enhanced!
The only bittersweet part of this year’s Hull House is that it will be the final run for the haunt—at least in Southern California. Bill and his family are moving to Arizona next year, and they’ll be taking their amazing haunted yard display with them. That means haunt fans should be sure to stop by this place to check out the magnificent work crafted on display.
A skeleton peering through an open coffin is a really fantastic addition this year.
Hull House is located at 6688 San Alano Cir, Buena Park, CA 90620 and runs nightly through the end of the month from dusk till 10:00pm, with full effects operating on Friday and Saturday evenings, plus Thursday, Oct. 29.
The Grim Grinners
After Hull House, I headed back to Anaheim—only closer to the main part of the city, near Disneyland, instead of its north edge that abuts Fullerton and Yorba Linda. Destination #3 of the evening was a listing that I literally encountered just last night on (where else?) the SoCal Haunt List, and though I had no idea what the theme was (Haunted Mansion?) or the caliber of the display, it was somewhat on my way back home, so I figured it worth stopping by.
The Grim Ginners is an incredibly good looking haunted yard display and addition to the SoCal haunt scene.
What I found was a pretty fantastic yard display that featured sumptuous lighting, plenty of fun decorations, and even a few startles from animatronics and motion-triggered effects! The Grim Grinners—a new entry on this year’s SoCal Haunt List—is a yard display that kind of feels like a walk-through maze… or at least a walk-by maze. From the eerily lit giant cobwebs hanging off the front of the house and even up the roof to the multitude of pumpkins to the menacing figures with some startling surprises, this sleek and very photogenic home haunt provided a fantastic tribute to the essence of Halloween!
Most of the yard display is concentrated on the main lawn to the left of the driveway (a lone Sam from Trick ‘R Treat to the right of the garage almost seems like a stranded castaway). A couple of giant jack-o-lanterns on stone posts, a variety of skeletal creatures, and an animatronic scarecrow monster and pumpkin monster offer a taste of a nightmarescape in this otherwise-very-well-manicured Anaheim residence. Layered behind the foreground are additional bits of theming—a two-headed skeleton enjoying a relaxing sit on the porch, and a pumpkin-headed skeleton resting on the roof eave over the house entrance. Even the living room—glowing in an ethereal purple, has been dressed in Halloween decorations, extending the depth of the scene indoors with another skeleton taking in the views of the neighborhood. The thought to the framing and the layering of foreground / midground / background scenes feels sophisticated and cinematographic here, and combined with the stellar lighting, produces a very pretty Halloween scene!
The breadth of theming and detail as the scene progresses is really wonderful, making for plenty of terrific photographable compositions.
I definitely recommend stopping by the Grim Grinners for anyone interested in a quality Halloween display. The Grim Grinners is located at 2015 S Eileen Dr, Anaheim, CA 92802 and materializes nightly from 7:00 - 10:00 pm through the end of the month. And as incredible as all of this looks, the owners say they’re not quite finished yet and intend to add a few more features to the display!
“Newhope Slaughterhouse”
Finally, on my last stop before home, I swung by a little yard haunt that our friends at Parks and Cons had spotted over the weekend. Nicknamed the “Newhope Slaughterhouse,” this gritty display wasn’t on any online list or formal haunt community radar, but it was still a detailed slice of Halloween appreciation—just done in a bloodier and unsettling way!
Effectively a farm or backwoods property gone wrong and taken over by murderous jack-o-lantern creatures, this display on the corner of Newhope St and Kent Ave was definitely the goriest yard haunt of the evening, with severed bodies and hanging heads and entrails littered about, this was certainly not as “family friendly” as the previous stops of the night. In fact, it sort of reminded me a bit of the ambiance at Twisted Dreams Haunt from past years—a rougher and more rugged looking ambiance that was less worried about looking pretty and more concentrated on portraying something horrifying.
The “Newhope Slaughterhouse” features a lot of pumpkins. Some of them ravenous.
The corner property affords two facades, though most of substance faces Newhope St. The show lights also appeared to be off by the time I arrived, so I only had the illumination of the streetlights to help with my photography.
Nevertheless, there was certainly a fair amount of detail to take in, from the murderous pumpkin creatures to the gnarled and gnashed victims to a couple of creepy doll-like figures off to the side. They were clearly static props, but they were unsettling-looking enough that I did wonder if they might suddenly lunge in a calculated jump scare.
Look closely and one can definitely see a few graphic details at the carnage that seems to be occurring here.
The “Newhope Slaughterhouse” is located at 1006 S Newhope St, Santa Ana, CA 92704. It doesn’t appear to have any social media or online presence, so while the display will most likely be up nightly for the rest of the month, I don’t actually have any information on hours with any show effects and full lighting. Still, if you’re in the area, this is a nice quick stop to add to a haunt run!
And that’s our haunt fix for the day! We’ve got a loaded haunt visit schedule for the rest of the month, so we’ll finally be busy on the site with regular updates and content. And like past years, it’ll probably spill into November. But you know what? Time has become immaterial in the year 2020, with these past seven months feeling like the longest eighteen years ever. So it might be fitting to have haunt season just go and go.
If you do feel inclined to check out any of these amateur haunted attractions (or other commercial ones), please remember to be considerate to other guests and the operators. Please wear a mask at all times when out of your vehicle, keep social distance as much as possible, stay patient and nice, and make this fun, safe, and healthy for everyone involved!
Architect. Photographer. Disney nerd. Haunt enthusiast. Travel bugged. Concert fiend. Asian.
