Riverside County Yard Haunts 2020: Haydenville Haunter, Maze of Mayhem, and Pirates of Cindy Court
Corona & Moreno Valley, CA
Do you want more home haunts? Because we’re checking out more home haunts! A lot more, and this is just a small sampling of it. Today, we’re focused on Riverside County. We checked out a couple of yard displays in Corona last year, but it’s a territory whose residential spooks we’ve largely not explored. And yet, as seems to be the case throughout Southern California, there is a pleasantly surprising fair amount of quality home haunts out in this neck of the Inland Empire! Creativity is not restricted to any particular geographical boundary, after all. So lets check out three of Riverside County’s higher end amateur haunts—all of which feature some terrific custom builds and sets!
Haydenville Haunter presents The Swamp
Darren Talmadge’s Instagram caught my eye last year when I saw photos of what seemed to be a whole dang eerie ghost town that he built for a home haunt maze. With multiple facades, some sumptuous lighting, and a fantastically spooky atmosphere, Darrens’s work immediately marked his haunt as a place to visit, but I never got a chance to do so last year.
This year, I was determined to rectify that. Coincidentally, Darren also reached out over Instagram (the connecting power of social media!) and invited me to visit and photograph his haunt! Even though I had no idea what he was planning on building this year, I was happy to come by and check out his home haunt solely on the quality of last year’s work.
Haydenville Haunter’s The Swamp is a gorgeous exercise in dramatic haunt lighting.
When I arrived last Sunday evening to get a sneak preview, I found a thoroughly impressive bayou scene slayed out across the spacious front yard of a Moreno Valley property. The place was Darren’s girlfriend’s, and he had managed to spread a beautifully lit, delightfully ominous swamp scene that included a brief, open air walk-through that looped through the space. Outside, on the street, a modest row of tombstones lined a relatively nondescript entry, shielding the bulk of the actual display. The full effect was only unveiled after walking around to the driveway to catch an angle of the whole exhibit.
The circuit starts off with an opening scene showing death and decay, with fish skeletons and fluttering fireflies establishing a moody but still slightly playful tone. The scene quickly transitions fully into the swamp itself, with a wooden shack at the far end and a towering, foreboding tree bearing a bizarre, monstrous growth, anchoring a turn under a canopy area. Guests nearing the steps up onto the porch of the shack might get a little startle. Otherwise, they’re greeted by a resting skeleton in a rocking chair (a twisted bit of a Pirates of the Caribbean nod) and a rather creepy doll sitting along on the wood planks.
This is the abode of a wicked swamp hag who resides in these misty marshes, and her sinister magic pervades the air. After passing through the porch, guests encounter an open hovel (Darren called it the bayou witch’s “she-shed”; it wasn’t quite complete when I went through), before turning a corner and escaping back out the way they came in. The experience is relatively brief, but there is a ton of ambiance and atmosphere packed into this cozy layout.
The marshy ambiance and built structures enrich the atmosphere and create a supernatural vibe.
Darren is a contractor in real life, and though he’s never considered himself to have any particular graphic artistic talent, he does know how to build, and he can craft his imagination into constructed reality. That’s the beauty of haunting: it allows people of all different backgrounds and strengths to express themselves creatively. Not limited to traditional art media, they can manifest whole environments with a combination of carpentry, lighting, soundscape, and some special effects. Haydenville Haunter’s The Swamp is a terrific example of the passion of Halloween trough into built reality!
Haydenville Haunter is located at 23291 Park Lane Ct, Moreno Valley, CA 92553, and open this and next weekend, Friday and Saturday nights, fro 7:00 - 10:00pm. Moreno Valley might be a bit far inland for a lot of Southern Californians, but it has a winner in the Haydenville Haunter!
Maze of Mayhem
In contrast to the vibrant color of Haydenville Haunter, fellow Moreno Valley home haunt Maze of Mayhem is an exercise in dark, quiet, creepy, foreboding shadow. Normally a maze (hence the self-explanatory name), this year, Maze of Mayhem is operating as just a yard display, with a graveyard on the front lawn and a dimly lit facade obscuring the garage.
Maze of Mayhem is dark and mysterious.
This is actually quite a contrast to most displays which operate in the light. A lone female figure at the doorway, looking reminiscent of Japanese yūrei, almost hovers at the portal, gazing out upon the drive way. Candles line the windows on either side, as well as some green-lit jack-o-lanterns. Coupled with the sparse but moody graveyard, and this conveys a very tense, uneasy feeling.
The seriousness is contrasted at the far end of the display, where two joy-riding skeletons sit atop an old carriage. They look like they’re having the time of their lives—or deaths—and they shift the time a little bit. Mike, the owner, told me the carriage was new for this year. It’s a great prop, and I can’t wait to see how he incorporates it into hopefully a return to a maze next year!
A few headstones scatter across the front lawn, while a reclining skeleton takes in the view.
Pirates of Cindy Court
Finally for this round, we have the thoroughly epic Pirates of Cindy Court. We visited this spectacular Pirates of the Caribbean tribute display last year, on the recommendation of our friends, Parks and Cons, who had found the it during one of their haunt run explorations and had dubbed it this name. Apparently, the owners found out about this, liked the title, and so the name stuck. Last year, it was an incredible display, full of wonderful theatrical lighting, plenty of custom-made scenes and props, and a lot of nods to the iconic Disneyland attraction.
This year, Pirates of Cindy Court has somehow become even larger scaled and more magnificent. The number of visuals seems to have doubled and now fully takes over the driveway and side planter along the neighboring property line. Additional scenes have spilled out onto the planter between the sidewalk and the street, the corner frontage, and even overhead onto street trees. Some scenes have become more flushed out, such as additional moments from the grotto and the addition of the bayou shack. Skeletal mermaids grace some rocks placed near the house. A cannon salvo erupts on the driveway.
The thoroughly immersive Pirates of Cindy Court is a feast for the eyes.
All the while, meticulous lighting and a soundscape straight from the rides and movies enhances the visual drama, enveloping guests right into a tropical seascape. Guestss can also walk over a “bridge toward the front entrance and gain a closer look at all the props and figures. The exquisite detail and extremely photogenic setting make this haunt an absolute joy to take in, and not surprisingly, I ended up taking quite a lot of photos to capture all of this wonder!
I’ve yet to have a chance to learn more about the owners, what their background is, or what their motivations and inspirations are. But clearly, they possess immense talent, plenty of patience, and a penchant for going very large scaled. Pirates of Cindy Court is by far one of the best yard haunts of the season, and it’s one of my personal high recommendations for those looking for the best of the best!
Awesome scenes from last year have been joined by new scenes from the year to further recreate the classic attraction’s ride experience.
Pirates of Cindy Court is located at 1788 Cindy Ct Corona, CA 92882, at the intersection of Cindy Court and Citron Street. It runs nightly through Halloween. There are advertised hours (I’m not aware of any social media presence from the owners, but I was there a fair amount after 10pm last weekend, and the lights and effects were still on!
That does it for part 1 of Riverside (County) home haunts. Stay tuned for part 2 to come. And we’ve still got more Orange County haunts, Burbank area haunts, and spooks from the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valley regions. And hey, in a year where so much else has gone horribly, we’re going to continue to celebrate these fantastic creations that bring some autumn holiday joy to our hearts!
Architect. Photographer. Disney nerd. Haunt enthusiast. Travel bugged. Concert fiend. Asian.
