Burbank Area Yard Haunts 2020: Rosehill Haunt and More
Studio City & Toluca Lake, CA
The third part of our back-to-back-to-back Burbank haunting spree takes us to Studio City and the neighborhood of Toluca Lake, where one of our favorite haunts and several unlisted discoveries await! If you missed part 1 and part 2 of our Burbank home haunt series this week, go check them out. I can’t say this enough—there are tons of fantastic yard displays in Burbank and the surrounding area. The Halloween spirit is very strong here, and even if you simply cruise around random streets, you’re bound to find something special and impressive.
So with that reminder in place, lets get to checking out some recent visits from last weekend!
Rosehill Haunt
Rosehill Haunt wasn't even supposed to happen this year. With creator Ben Conway starting his first year in college at the prestigious CalArts, putting a haunt together would have been hard enough. Throw in the Coronavirus pandemic that erupted in earnest in the U.S. in March, and that led to Ben questioning if having a haunt would even be safe, since it could attract lots of people in close contact with each other.
Rosehill Haunt has been restructured this year, and as a result everything has been pushed out to the front yard and driveway.
Incidentally enough, it was Ben's mom who encouraged him to continue the haunt this year as a gesture to the community. 2020 has been filed with so many challenges. Wouldn't people love a little Halloween cheer? And the more he thought about it, the more he was inclined to agree.
As a result, Ben has reconfigured Rosehill Haunt to remove the walkthrough component into the front courtyard of the family residence. He's reoriented the scenes toward the street, practically covering his house. Projections on the second floor featuring skeletons waltzing to Saint-Saëns’ “Danse Macabre” beyond add some depth to the composition, as does the very large background mural for the graveyard itself that’s inspired by Irvine’s Boot Hill.
The front door in front of the front door.
The scenic elements match last year, with no new additions that I can recall. New adds aren't really needed, though. There is enough content to spend plenty of time soaking in the details of the gravestones and skeletons and enchanting soundtrack emanating from an unseen source. There's something magical about this place, and it also conjures up memories of the legendary Boney Island haunt, which influenced Ben's creation.
Though Ben’s been haunting for nearly a decade (yup, he’s not even in his twenties yet but has been creating spooks for half his life), we’ve only caught on the past few years. And yet, with each year, Rosehill Haunt continues to grow more and more beautiful. In the past, Ben has subtitled his haunt “The Final Celebration,” but this year may really be it—at least for a while. The spirits will return to Acama St. at some point, but they may be resting a little longer after this year. Check it out while they’re still around!
The beauty and charm of Rosehill Haunt remains, though, no matter what the layout.
Rosehill Haunt is located at 11560 Acama St, Studio City, CA 91604 and will materialize two more times this season tonight and tomorrow night, from 7:00 - 10:00pm. Guests may view from their car, and if they leave their car and walk up, they must wear a mask and keep socially distant.
Monster Mash Mansion in Toluca Lake
I's entirely possible that I may have stumbled upon a fancy yard haunt that not even Parks and Cons or Haunts of L.A. has covered (or I just totally missed it on their feeds). But last Friday night, while I was driving on the way to Clybourn Manor, I caught a flash of color and brightness to my left as I passed a street and literally hit the brakes to back up and do a double take.
What I saw was this really neat sidewalk display in front of a pretty swanky looking home, filled with horror monsters and villains. Skeletons, the Big Bad Wolf, a Grim Reaper, and even Sam from Trick 'R Treat graced the lawn in front of this opulent residence's front yard, lit in eerie greens and blues and magentas. Tombstones spread across this wide, linear display that spanned both sides of the home's entry path. This meant there wasn't to much depth to the whole production, but what was there was an immediate draw.
I love this area for the random elaborate home haunt discoveries such as this one! It’s a perfect example of completely stumbling upon a great Halloween scene by accident, which is thoroughly commonplace in this part of Los Angeles!
This Toluca Lake mansion of monsters and horror villains is located at 108 S Valley St, Burbank, CA 91505. It was still turned on even after 11:00pm when I stopped by last Saturday.
Toluca Graveyard Haunt
Another random find was this quaint graveyard and spidery display, discovered when I took a wrong turn on the way to another haunt and ended up taking an alternate route. I never would have driven by this house if I had decided to follow the GPS all the way, though.
The house is shrouded by a fair amount of landscaping, with a large tree and tall bushes shielding the building itself. As a result, the front lawn is almost its own park space, and it has several tombstones lit in orange and green, along with a skeleton trapped in a giant cobweb, eyed voraciously by an unnervingly large spider. The display is pretty simple and straightforward, but it’s arranged in a pretty and photogenic manner that retains that touch of homemade charm. And it’s not on any special list either. It’s just there, waiting to be encountered by anyone passing by!
There are many cemetery displays and probably many in Toluca Lake itself. But this is one I happened to find.
This Toluca Lake graveyard display is located at 111 N Rose St, Burbank, CA 91505. It was also running well past the usual 10:00pm cutoff time when I found it.
The Former Toluca Lake Spider House
Parks and Cons called this the “Spider House” last year. This made sense, because the place was overwhelmed by arachnids in 2019. This year, however, has seen the addition of a fearsome, tentacled sea serpent, plus the house becoming a bit of a creature in and of itself. So I think it should get a new name. I’m going with either the Spider KrakHouse, or A-Krak-Nophobia Manor. You can vote in the comments (all 1.3 of you who actually comment), but I’m pretty happy with the two finalists. Not sure what the actual owner would think if they ever found out about this, but you know, a terrible pun is terrible fun.
The house itself is pretty cozy and features lots of creative details. To reinforce the idea of the house as a Kraken, fearsom teeth can be seen at the entrance, and a singular eye blinks and stairs out of a window. There also appear to be ears on top of the roof, which is a little bit mystifying, since that’s not very sea creature-y at all. But Halloween is about using one’s creative spirit to put a unique twist on something. So really, I kinda dig it. I definitely appreciate when people showcase a bit of originality, even if it means taking artistic risks!
The House Formerly Known as Spider House needs a new name this year, because it’s more than just spiders. What would you call it?
The Spider KrakHouse / A-Krak-Nophobia Manor is located at 4403 N Clybourn Ave, Toluca Lake, CA 91602. It’s on the same street as and a bit further north of Clybourn Manor, which is listed on the SoCal Haunt List, though apparently operational much later. The lights were turned on after 11:00pm when I stopped by.
The Current Toluca Lake Spider House
Finally, just further up the street is the new Spider House, because this two story abode is really crawling with those eight-legged creeps—and lots of them! They’re climbing up the house, onto the roof, and trying to get through windows. All the while, terrified skeletons try to get away from them.
This residence is set back from the street and features a gate and fence at the front of their property, limiting the angle of viewing. The owners have used this to their advantage by framing the scene carefully from this singular perspective, adding morbidly fun positions for each giant spider and accenting their eaves with string lights to provide additional illumination. A small graveyard at the front lawn adds an extra touch of Halloween. It’s all a bit over-the-top and most definitely spoopy!
The spiders are coming from inside the house! Or outside… or all around. They’re everywhere, really…
If you want to check out this spider problem in person, head to 4428 N Clybourn Ave, Burbank, CA 91505. It’s just a bit further north than the previous house.
This finishes up our Burbank home haunt foray… for now. I’m planning on going back to Burbank on Halloween night to see more displays that I missed or just heard about over the past week, and perhaps stumble upon more assorted haunts.
The spirit of Halloween is definitely alive all over Southern California, as you can see from the past two weeks’ updates. But in my opinion, nowhere does it glow brighter than around Burbank!
Architect. Photographer. Disney nerd. Haunt enthusiast. Travel bugged. Concert fiend. Asian.
