Orange County Yard Haunts 2020: Chains of Wakefield, The 8th Plague, Pandemic Nightmare, and More
Anaheim, Brea, and Fullerton, CA
It will be almost all yard displays the rest of the way through Halloween (and probably a bit beyond), since we’re deep into home haunt territory on this final week of October, and home haunts are almost all exclusively yard displays instead of a mix of yard haunt and walk-through maze this year. We’ve been bouncing around Southern California, and today, we’re back in the OC to check out a few more fun spooks—mostly clustered in the northern part of the county! While Los Angeles County has long been associated with great amateur haunts, there are a fair and growing number of Orange County home haunters too, and it’s great to see what they have to offer!
Chains of Wakefield
Our first stop really should have gone with our previous OC Yard Haunts update, except I was inattentive and didn’t realize there was another quality display literally around the corner from Grim Grinners, one of wonderful rookie haunts of 2020! This second haunt turned out to be the “Chains of Wakefield,” so-named by our friends at Parks and Cons, and apparently adopted by the SoCal Haunt List.
The Chains of Wakefield is one of the better lit displays we’ve seen, even though the lighting isn’t really multi-faceted.
The theme of this place is simple but unique at the same time: skeletons and chains—and lots of them! Truthfully, I’ve never seen a home haunt decorated with literally yards upon yards of chains before. The house looks like it’s been TP’d all over—except with chains! Draping across the trees, the rafters, and awnings, and wrapping around skeletons fixed to vegetation, on the roof, or trapped against the garage door or a window, the chains trace lines all across the property.
It may seem like an odd concept, but it works on account of two features: fanciful and silly-posed skeletons and a bunch of fantastic, colorful theatrical lighting that turns the display into something extremely photogenic. Sinister greens, eerie blues, warm oranges, and vibrant magentas wash across the front of the house, bathing it in a polychromatic glow. The skeletons are arranged in all sorts of funny positions, hanging off the eaves, standing trapped, and even posing seductively on top of the roof (that one’s my favorite for its absurdity). The result is some terrific visual humor mixed into a vaguely macabre scene!
The skeletons seem to be getting in a variety of trouble at the Chains of Wakefield.
The Chains of Wakefield is located at 1576 W Wakefield Ave, Anaheim, CA 92802 and runs through Sunday, November 1, from 7:00 - 10:00pm nightly. It’s a very obvious one-two combo to visit in conjunction with the Grim Grinners haunt—two great yard displays around the corner and a minute’s walk from each other!
The 8th Plague
Next up is The 8th Plague, a modest yard haunt on the SoCal Haunt List that we visited after swinging by Grim Grinners Haunt (for a second time) and Chains of Wakefield. Located on Locust Street in Brea (hence the plague reference), this yard display is simpler than most, with a wash of blue light illuminated most of its street elevation, and some greens and orang and purple string lights casting over the porch. A couple of skeletons chill out on one side, while watchful eyes project under the bay window. A few ghouls seem to enjoy their time on the porch too, just people watching the sidewalk, I suppose.
The 8th Plague in Brea is a fairly straightforward display.
The 8th Plague is located at 416 Locust St, Brea, CA 92821 and runs nightly through Halloween, from dusk to 10:00pm.
Although The 8th Plague is most likely a pretty quick stop, there are a few neighbors who’ve decorated as well. The house next door has a very simple and limited Halloween Display, but it goes elegantly with the actual building’s cute aesthetic. Down around the corner, on Alder Street, there are a couple of other houses with some simple but fun decorations. One simply hangs a dozen or so Halloween candy buckets with lights in them, creating glowing jack-o-lanterns that hang from the tree in front. Another has simple Halloween lights and routine decorations—plus a large, lit peace symbol. The peace sign is actually permanent year-round, but it’s still a little interesting to pass by.
The 8th Plague’s neighbor has also gotten into a bit of Halloween spirit.
This residence around the corner on Alder has a simple set-up, but reads powerfully from a visual perspective with the seemingly floating jack-o-lantern buckets.
The modest Halloween display with the large orange Jack Skellington inflatable head is located right next door to The 8th Plague, at 408 Locust St, Brea, CA 92821.
The hanging jack-o-lantern buckets are at 516 E Alder St, Brea, CA 92821.
The “Peace House” is located right next door, at 508 E Alder St, Brea, CA 92821.
None of these are on official lists, so we can’t really comment on operating times.
Pandemic Nightmare
If there is one haunt that wins 2020, this is it. You can put away your special effects and integrated media and incredible architectural sets and complex animatronics. They all pale in comparison to the hilarious Pandemic Nightmare, the most topical haunted yard display possible, and the ultimate perfect Halloween commentary on 2020. In a year when the most serious pandemic in arguably a century has ripped through the entire world, why wouldn’t monsters also be impacted by this mass virus?
The novel Coronavirus has impacted everyone in 2020—even monsters!
There are plenty of wonderful details pertinent to the Coronavirus pandemic, including signs about social distancing, staying at home, mask wearing, washing your hands, not touching your face, delivery services, temperature checks, cleaning services, and the such. There are also monsters hoarding toilet paper, one with a very large thermometer that might be thing up a skeletons backside, and my favorite gag...HAND sanitizer in a cauldron! All of the signs are home-made using simple posterboard and markers. There’s a deep charm to how crafty and personalized this all is.
Ironically, given the title to how some have reacted to this pandemic, the owner is a Karen. Literally!! Karen Ficke has been decorating her yard for Halloween with a different theme every year. In the past, she's done a "Corpse Cafe," a "Monster Water Park," and other creative themes reusing her props and figures and finding cool discoveries at thrift stores. She was actually blown away when I told her that her display this year was getting publicity on social media, but that’s the great part of haunting. Most people don’t do it for any fame; they just want to offer something fun back to their local community.
A self-described Halloween freak, Karen has always enjoyed decorating for the holiday, and her imagination spurs her to assemble a different take for her monsters every year. And she does it all by herself! Her husband, unfortunately, is not quite as interested. But Karen seems quite capable of handling haunting duties solo!
My absolutely favorite gag of the display: hand sanitizer!! It’s a cauldron that’s literally cleaning hands down to the bone!
Pandemic Nightmare is located at 629 Maple Ave, Brea, CA 92821 and runs nightly through Halloween. I didn’t catch official hours of operation from Karen, but the usual 7:00 - 10:00pm sounds like a safe bet. Pandemic Nightmare was impacted by the Santa Ana winds this week, but fortunately, there wasn’t any real extensive damage, and the display was able to be put back together.
Oh, and as a random aside, scenes like the photo below are part of the charming and silly and creative facet of Halloween season. Halloween displays can come in all manners, including just hanging a sheet ghost off a street light and pairing it with another, less shapely sheet ghost off a nearby tree! Those two were literally the “decorations” at Karen’s neighbor’s house, and it was randomly hilarious.
This is simple, random, and adorable.
Pirates on Live Oak Ave
While we were at Pandemic Nightmare, we were able to actually meet and speak to Karen to learn more about her story. She also told us about a pirate-themed display nearby off of Lark Ellen Drive, before State College, that we could see on our way out of the neighborhood. Armed with these directions, we drove off from Pandemic Nightmare and soon found ourselves in front of a swashbuckling display on Live Oak Avenue (not Street, mind you).
This Pirates of the Caribbean-inspired display featured several pirates posed in various activities, plus a skeletal pup and a skull projection across a red-bathed wall. Purple lights lined the walkway, leading toward a gate that separated the yard and an inner cloister leading to the actual front door. Inside, another skeleton stood guard, watching over the entire scene. All through the ambiance, a low and subtle soundtrack of ocean noises and soft waves enhanced the environment, transporting viewers to the high seas.
This was certainly nothing to scale of, say, the Pirates of Cindy Court, but it was still a pretty fun yard display nonetheless!
Pirates have been a very popular theme this year, but this house has been doing a pirates display for at least a few years.
Pirates of Live Oak Ave is located at 3042 Live Oak Ave, Fullerton, CA 92835. They appear to be operating nightly at the typical after-dusk to middle/late evening time.
Spooky Trees on Evergreen Ave
Finally, just across the Y-intersection from the pirate display, I happened to spot a unique and creative display that seemed obsessed with anthropormorphizing trees. Maybe this is how haunted Groots are made… with arms and scary faces affixed to the trunks of actual trees around the front yard. There were also a couple of inflatable Halloween decorations—including, ironically, an inflatable spooky tree. But the simple modifications to the actual trees were the most noteworthy aspect of this simple yard haunt.
A creative and simple way to theme a house with what’s already there—just attach arms and a face to actual iive trees!
Spooky Trees of Evergreen Ave is located at 1985 Evergreen Ave, Fullerton, CA 92835. 7:00 - 10:00pm nightly through Halloween seems as good of an educated guess as anything!
I’d like to emphasize that these haunts and even these “discoveries” constitute just a small part of the Halloween displays all around town. Most are relatively pedestrian, but there are plenty of gems to be found—even simple ones that aren’t over-the-top or super custom but still pretty charming and pretty to behold.
That’s the beauty of Halloween. The holiday encompasses so many themes and possible ideas that one’s creativity is the only thing standing in the way of a unique haunt. And in a year that has been filled with so many challenges, we love that so many people have come out to showcase their passion for Halloween anyway!
Architect. Photographer. Disney nerd. Haunt enthusiast. Travel bugged. Concert fiend. Asian.
