Santa Clarita Valley Yard Haunts 2020: The Farm Haunt, The Dollhouse, Stoney Point Haunt, and Clown Town
Santa Clarita Valley, CA
I didn’t find this out until just a couple of years ago, but the Santa Clarita Valley is an absolute hotbed of Halloween home haunts. Normally known for idyllic and very hot suburbia or the place where Magic Mountain is, during the fall season, this collection of communities north of Los Angeles seems to explode into a cornucopia of spooky cheer. Whether it be via walkthrough mazes or yard displays, there is a plethora of residences who not only enjoy Halloween, but seem to pull out all the stops to decorate for it!
We took a tour of the SCV yard haunts last year and covered a decent number. But this year, with COVID-19 greatly reducing the viability of mazes, just about every home in the area has decided to do a haunted yard display this season. Last Saturday, we took a whirlwind spree through the area that took us to eight of them in a span of two and a half hours before then hitting other haunts, and today, we’re going look at half of the eight stops we took. All of these haunts are open this weekend and next, so hopefully, this inspires you to seek out the spoops!
The Farm Haunt
Our first overall stop on Saturday night was Tim Fowlers creepy, ghoulish, sinisterly dripping with detail The Farm Haunt, a collection of Dr. Diablo’s caskets and curios—with a few creeps thrown in! Last year was the first year in this location for the Fowler family, who had previously run The Farm Haunt from their old residence in Glendale. Year one was supposed to be an introduction to the local neighborhood in the form of a modest (by Tim’s standards) yard display. Of course, if you saw last year’s update, modest was still a beautifully detailed ghost town facade brimming with little goodies.
Year two (this year) would have evolved into a walkthrough maze. Unfortunately, like with everything, COVID changed the plans, and the result was a continuation of the yard haunt—only bigger. This year, a beautiful and imposing gothic carriage has joined the scene, creating a V on the lawn of the Fowler home. Dr. Diablo’s Caskets and Curiosities shop is still there, but the hearse buggy is a wonderful addition that includes a spectral projection inside the window! A reaper sits at the front of the carriage, hunched over, while carved pumpkins line the top and underside of the carriage.
The Farm Haunt might “just” be a yard display, but it has layers upon layers of details and intricate props and decorations to enjoy.
Between the shop and the carriage, a morbid accumulation of caskets and decayed bodies seems to pile up, perhaps suffering from neglect during these challenging times. The display is static here, but the visuals are pretty fearsome in and of themselves. Skeletons and jack-o-lanterns create a garish scene of rot and death, but assembled together, it all looks so gorily beautiful!
Hopefully Tim actually gets to build his maze next year. If the density of his yard display is any indication, he already has enough props for a full walkthrough. The Farm Haunt is one of the very best Halloween displays in the Santa Clarita Valley, and it’s a can’t miss in any haunt fan’s SCV haunted tour!
Zooming in on the background reveals a bit of cursed coffin carnage.
The Farm Haunt is located on 29130 Diablo Pl, Castaic, CA 91384 and runs nightly now through Halloween night from 7:00 to 10:00pm. Though with the evenings getting darker a little sooner, Tim has been turning things on closer to 6:30pm.
The Dollhouse
One rule about home haunts is that the most elaborate ones aren’t always the ones on lists or publicized on the popular horror blogs and haunt media. Such is the case of The Dollhouse, a hauntingly creepy and unnerving display by Phyllis Wagner. A lifelong lover of dolls—especially those that would unhinge most everyone else—Phyllis has been doing a Halloween display for several years, showcasing just a small bit of her massive doll collection. It’s just never really gotten much attention on the social media circuit until this year. I first heard about this haunt just a week ago on the Haunts of L.A. Instagram. Word about this place also spread among my haunt blogger circle of friends, so naturally, we had to stop by.
The Dollhouse isn’t technically a house of dolls. It’s more a yard of dolls.
What The Dollhouse lacks in more sophisticated lighting and larger scale scenic sets it more than makes up for via a beautiful and horrific artisty of doll modification. Not content to show disturbing Victorian style or porcelain dolls, Phyllis has also altered many of them by placing them in bizarre outfits or splicing coverings and accessories onto them. Some of the dolls come off as though Sid from Toy Story had gotten a hold of them and experimented on them. Others are less changed but still haunting.
There are plenty of artistic flourishes at The Dollhouse. A tree on the side is lined with dozens of blank masks. Headless mannequins bear outfits that seem like a mix of dystopian epic movie and S&M kink. Along the house, dolls are posed in more darkly humorous positions—one with hands and faced pressed against the window, another levitated as though possessed by a demon. There are also hanging doll bodies that seem to have been cocooned by unknown arachnids—as though the scene couldn’t look eerie enough. And the lighting I mentioned earlier? It’s harsh and mostly white spotlights with a mix of red-orange string lights along a fence that lines the street and the walkway to the front door—but the effect enhances the jarring visage of each of the dolls, casting harsh shadows and creating an even more blunt scene.
If you want a good series of chills up and down your spine, this is a great place to get them. Unless you love dolls (which in case, you and Phyllis will get along great!), The Dollhouse is almost sure to give any visitor major goosebumps!
But unlike COVID, being outdoors with these dolls won’t necessarily improve the situation of still being in the presence of creepy AF dolls!
The Dollhouse is located at 27337 Denoya Dr, Santa Clarita, CA 91350 and runs nightly through Halloween. Phyllis doesn’t really have hours posted, so I’d stick with the default 7:00 - 10:00pm. Come back around Christmastime, though. These dolls aren’t constrained by merely one holiday, and it seems that there will be a festive winter doll display in December!
Stoney Point Haunt
Last year, we stopped by the Stoney Pointe Halloween Haunt to check out what turned out to be our first ever experience with a patio haunt—that is, a highly intimate haunted house maze built within the confines of a cozy patio area, which only allowed one person in at a time! This year, the haunt has streamlined its name to simply Stoney Point Haunt and transitioned to a yard display like most mazes, but it still retains its interesting variety of themes.
The front of the house at Stoney Point Haunt.
On the main entrance facade, the front porch has been decorated with some of the props that were used in the maze last year. The skeleton mother sitting on a rocking chair, grandfather clock, old timey TV, and desk lamp convey an almost Motel 6 Feet Under / Mable’s 6 Feet Under vibe. A few jack-o-lanterns by the door and some spiderweb lights and a festive Halloween banner accent the scene.
Around the corner, the carnival-esque / cemetery yard display that was also present last year returns. It’s mostly the same, with an unnerving animatronic doll whispering secrets next to a charming and slightly silly graveyard (we loved the lone light bulb in a line along the grass that had googly eyes). A miniature amusement park swing ride spins some creepy clown riders. And new this year, in a bit of dark topical humor, a surprisingly sexy nurse mannequin threatens to administer a cutting COVID test. It’s probably a trap, though.
The yard display to the side rounds the corner on Barnacle Lane. Tombstones and a carnival swing ride complete the scene, and COVID nurse can be glimpsed in the background on the left.
Stoney Point Haunt is located on 23227 Barnacle Ln, Santa Clarita, CA 91355 and runs Friday and Saturday nights through Halloween night, from 7:00 - 10:00pm. Parking is a bit tight in the intimate neighborhood, so plan accordingly.
Clown Town & Creepers
Finally, we have Clown Town and its neighbor, Creepers—a twofer yard display featuring another common Hallowen-related phobia, clowns! Clown Town wasn’t actually complete as of last weekend, though the owner had begun to lay out some of the displays and props. Check out our Santa Clarita Valley Yard Haunts post last year for the more finished product, but there was still a decent amount of carnival castastrophe scattered around.
Clown Town is colorful, neon, and blacklit a-plenty!
Interestingly, the neighbor, Creepers, was complete. Less ornate than Clown Town will end up being, this house still had a pretty fair amount of decorations up, from a variety of clown figures to a “Rotten Candy” stand to a towering animatronic clown that threatened to devour any unlucky passers-by. Most people think that Creepers is part of Clown Town, but it’s technically its own display. It’s just coincidence that the neighbors both happen to have chosen the same, unhinged theme!
Its neighbor, Creepers, features the same theme but in its own, slightly unique style. Neither are great for people with coulrophobia!
Clown Town is located at 25302 Vía Palacio, Santa Clarita, CA 91355, and operates starting tomorrow evening, October 23, through Halloween night, from 7:00 - 10:00pm each night. And if last year was any indication, they’ll be continuing to add to the display until Halloween weekend. That’s the life of a haunter—it’s never complete until you have to take it down!
When this pandemic first started getting serious over half a year ago, my gut told me that Halloween season would be significantly curtailed—but one area where it would still thrive would be in the yard haunt territory. These fantastic residential celebrations of Halloween definitely prove that hunch to be correct, and they allow a relatively safe ability to take in the spirit of the season by being attractions one can drive by and view from car or view on the sidewalk in a social distance controllable way.
This is only half of the Santa Clarita Valley haunts we visited. We’ll be back with part 2 of this valley haunting spree a little later!
Architect. Photographer. Disney nerd. Haunt enthusiast. Travel bugged. Concert fiend. Asian.
