Santa Clarita Yard Haunts 2020: Beware the Dark Realm, Coffinwood Cemetery, Sombras Cemetery, and Cemetery at Lewis Way

Santa Clarita Valley, CA

We’re back with part 2 of our Santa Clarita home haunt run! If you missed the first half of our explorations through this hot bed of residential spoops, click here. If you read it, then continue on, because we have four (plus) more places to check out!

Beware the Dark Realm

We start off part 2 with the classic. Beware the Dark Realm was our second overall stop in Santa Clarita last Saturday, and it’s one of the legendary epic home haunts not only in the SCV but in Southern California period! With decades of haunting experience, Scott Sivley has been reigning his medieval brand of terror for years.

This season, with the Coronavirus pandemic stopping most full walkthrough mazes in their tracks, Scott decided to “downgrade” and “just do a yard display.” The catch is that with Scott, there’s no actual such thing as going small, and so upon arriving, anyone who missed the memo on the change of plans may have still thought it was business as usual just based on the street facade! Towering turrets soar in the air as a massive castle facade covers the normal Sivley residence. Rotting skeletons hung up on pikes litter the front driveway, as hanging lanterns burn brightly with simulated flames. A collection of jack-o-lanterns brings in the Halloween flavor, and the mix of magenta and purple lighting adds an eerie and ominous vibe.

Beyond that, it turns out that Scott couldn’t resist at least providing at least a very short maze. Yes there is a walkthrough component—entirely outdoors—featuring three different scenes with three different occupants of this realm. There’s the dragon lady, who sasses guests who come by, questioning them and warning of potential dire consequences. A foreboding voice in the next room, a dimly lit parlor with an organ and other mysterious curios, calls out impending doom. And in the final chamber, one of the fiendish knightly creatures of this Dark Realm (Scott’s son, Christian), stalks guests as they scurry past and back out into the real world.

Familiar sights and characters return to Beware the Dark Rearlm. The actors are all Scott Sivley’s immediate family. Iconic moments like the animatronic dragon have been repurposed into new segments in the walkthrough.

Beware the Dark Realm also continues to support charitable organizations as part of its haunt—an annual tradition that demonstrates the heart behind the haunters. This year, they are benefiting Family Promise of Santa Clarita Valley, a non-profit organization helping homeless families in the local community. Cash donations are accepted on site, and it’s a really great way to give back!

Beware the Dark Realm is located on 28621 Sugar Pine Way, Santa Clarita, CA 91390 and continues its run this and next Friday and Saturday, opening from 7:00 to 10:00pm. The immersive visual display is a must-do in for the Santa Clarita Valley haunts!

Coffinwood Cemetery

Another classic of Santa Clarita, Coffinwood Cemetery has been the product of Tony Monton and his friend, Tom, for well over two decades. In usual years, this is a combination yard display and mini-walkthrough covering the front yard and the garage. This year, due to COVID, the haunt has been consolidated into a yard display only, with the front yard cemetery pushed forward more and packed a little more densely, and the skeleton tea and creepy doll scenes inside the garage relegated to scenes to gaze at, not explore through.

Still, the yard haunt is pretty impressive. Arrivals will almost certainly be startled by the jarringly loud crash of thunder and dramatic lightning effects spilling illumination over the entire premises. Much of the same props, tombstones, and animatronics return from past years, but they’ve been rearranged a little bit to pack the sightlines more.

Lightning crashes over the front yard cemetery of Coffinwood Cemetery!

The garage scenes are also similar to previous years. A pair of skeletons enjoy an evening beverage in their arachnid-laden surroundings. Next door, a life-size rocking doll relaxes in her chamber of creepy, regular-sized dolls.

This year, more attention seems to have been given on the side planter next to the driveway too, as several figures—from a pumpkin monster to a scarecrow have taken up creepy residence and stand ominously. There’s a patch of jack-o-lanterns off to the end by the sidewalk too, bringing an assortment of eerie autumn spirit!

The garage scene is look only, not walk-through, in order to eliminate any remote indoor element from the attraction.

Coffinwood Cemetery is located at 159 Waterford Dr, Santa Clarita, CA 91354 and is also open this and next Friday and Saturday, from 7:00 - 10:00pm. This is sort of like the north L.A. County version of Irvine’s long-running Boot Hill, which is dark this year, and it’s an impressive graveyard display, to say the least! Do check it out!

Sombras Cemetery

Next up, a new haunt for us that’s actually been running for seven years, but this is the first year that they’ve tried to publicize and put themselves out there. Sombras Cemetery (named after the street of the residence, not an assortment of women’s undergarments) is a beautiful and enchanting little graveyard display that is kid-friendly and full of whimsical character.

An iconic entry way with a pair of Gothic posts and a dilapidated arching sign greet guests as they first pull up. There are are no gates to the domain beyond; this is a friendly and inviting place. As guests navigate a loop that takes them toward and past the front door of the residence, over to the left side of the house, and then out off the neighbor’s side yard and drive way, they can see a series of skeleton in various playful and cartoonishly macabre poses, each seemingly telling its own story.

On one side, a skeleton roasts another on a spit, perhaps waiting for the marrow to roast up nicely. Another skeleton seems to be simultaneously bursting from a grave / joyfully lounging out of its grave. There’s a skeleton hung on a tree, but another one perched on a roof. Just inside the portal to the front door, another skeleton seems to have gotten tied up in things. The gravedigger skeleton sitting down to take a break seems too busy to really help his companion out. There’s also a boney reaper, lantern in hand, seemingly trying to make his way across the grounds. And in the one light startle scare of the attraction, a demonic pupper emerges from its doghouse with glowing, red eyes and a warning to stay away.

Sombras Cemetery is a quiet, beautiful, magical little haunted display.

For Joey, the creator of Sombras Cemetery, haunting has been a nearly lifelong affair. As a teenager in the home haunt epicenter of Burbank, he enjoyed decorating his house for Halloween—mostly with bloody and gory decorations to invoke the horrifying side of the holiday. Now grown and with two young children, he wanted to imbue his display with something that his family could enjoy. The result has been a lovely sharing of this passion with his children, who have helped on some of the prop and skeleton making projects.

His attention to detail and story in evident in how each skeleton is posed and arranged. Everything has meaning—a notion he has picked up from several family members who work at DIsney—and everything contributes to a visual story. In that sense, this haunt actually reminds me a bit of Boney Island, with its skeleton-featured displays that follow a consistent, overarching theme. Sombras Cemetery may not have the same aesthetic or be quite as broad and extensive, but it carries that same spirit of fun and fancy that is appealing to children and appreciated by adults!

Pay attention to each skeleton on the grounds. There’s a motion or story or purpose to each!

Sombras Cemetery is located at 26041 Sombras Ct, Santa Clarita, CA 91355 and is open this weekend, Friday through Sunday, and next Friday and Saturday (Halloween night) from sundown to 10:00pm. It’s an absolutely charming little haunt that’s perfect for the family but appreciable by people of all ages!

Cemetery at Lewis Way

Last but, well, unfortunately in comparison to the others in this post, least, we have the Cemetery at Lewis Way. We found this location off the SoCal Haunt List, and it happened to be our final SCV stop before moving onto a different area on Saturday night. The haunt itself is a typical graveyard scene—more involved than regular home displays, but not quite to the level of the previous three. The lighting is not quite as sophisticated, though the enjoyment and passion for Halloween can still be seen in the assortment of props and characters on the site. The Cemetery at Lewis Way is fine, but it does lack a more cohesive theme or look. Instead, it’s a more elaborate-than-average collection of multiple Halloween themes.

Across the street, however, we also noticed a fun and eclectic multi-themed yard display featuring a custom-made man-eating plant devouring an unfortunate victim. A little beyond, there’s a towering mama inflatable sheet ghost and a few baby sheet ghosts frolicking at her feet. It’s a pretty adorable scene, to be honest. A projection on the side of the house and some tombstones in front complete the scene. It’s not super elaborate either, but it’s inventive and fanciful!

Across the street, this man-eating plant consumes a victim in front of an elegant, inflatable, light-up ghost

The Cemetery at Lewis Way is located at 25739 Lewis Way, Stevenson Ranch, CA 91381. It operates Thursdays through Sundays this month, with its final night coming on Saturday, October 31. The other display is just diagonally across the street—you can’t miss it!

Like I’ve said before, there are a surprising number of very well decorated, creative, artistically impressive haunts in the area, and they’re open this weekend and Halloween weekend too! Go plot a course through these and other open displays, and celebrate these wonderfully inventive ways of showcasing the love for the haunting season!