Orange County Yard Haunts 2020: The Haunt with No Name, Wax Works Tribute, and More
Orange County, CA
Happy week after Halloween! We’re continuing our catch-up for the end of Halloween season—albeit at a slower pace, because Halloween season was tiring, yo! I tallied up my counts and saw that I blasted past last year’s record and actually hit up 90 haunt “credits,” covering over 120 different houses/locations. Of course, a large part of that was thanks to most everything being yard displays this year, which take much less time to visit. But that also means more time to edit photos and type out reviews. So… even-Stevens.
Today, we’re back in Orange County, which proved this year that it’s no slouch in the Halloween department either. We’re covering yard displays from Fountain Valley to Buena Park, making our way through visits on the last week of October. Ready to roll? Lets go!
The Haunt with No Name
No, not that Haunt with No Name. That's in Tarzana and includes a "...Yet" at the end. This one is in Fountain Valley and it features an eclectic mix of cemetery props, spooky figures, some projections against the garage, and some moody lighting. It's a bit rough around the edges, but it certainly showcases a love for Halloween that I love seeing no matter what the form!
The bulk of this haunt is the spacious front lawn cemetery and features a variety of tombstones, jack-o-lanterns, a few inflatables, and some creepy figures and body parts. Colorful lighting sweeps across the yard, incorporating most colors of the spectrum. Up by the actual house, a coffin with a corpse inside seems to beckon. Up above, the ghost of Sauron looks down, spying those who dare approach this domain.
The Haunt with No Name, not to be confused with The Haunt With No Name… Yet, located several dozen miles away.
By sheer timing, this was the first haunt I visited after Spookie Casita the previous Sunday, but the two reminded me of each other—multi-themed graveyard displays with a variety of decorations and props and production components. This one was more sprawling and elaborate, and with a little more organization and a central theme, can become a more refined and sophisticated display. But as it is, it was still a fun, interesting, and ample home haunt that’s most appreciated, especially this year, when COVID-19 threatened to “cancel Halloween!”
An assortment of bodies and creatures springs forth from the ground.
The Haunt with No Name is located at 16299 Farnham St, Fountain Valley, CA 92708 and officially ran weekends in October, but the lights were definitely during the Thursday before Halloween that I visited.
“Hocus Pocus House”
Just down the road from the Haunt with No Name is this elegant, adorable, very nicely decorated place that I'm nicknaming "Hocus Pocus House" because of the banner over its front door. It’s less a home “haunt” and more a Halloween display. Same difference, though, right?
This display isn't scary at all...except for maybe the group of floating white ghouls creatively suspended from a small tree on the sidewalk. Instead, it's a very tidy, intimately lavish tribute to the spirit of Halloween. Ghost projections move along the front yard wall, while spider projections skitter above the garage across the from of the second floor. The entryway is lined with jack-o-lanterns, hanging decorations, and warm, orange Halloween lights. My favorite detail was the skeleton lanterns along the lawn. They were pretty adorable!
This “Hocus Pocus House” was richly decorated wit Halloween props and wonderful lighting and felt stylish and pretty!
This was an unexpected find that I later noticed Midsummer Scream had also seen, and like them, I love that this household was doing their part to keep Halloween alive this year with their superb yard display. Kudos!
Projections against a front yard wall and some super cute Halloween lanterns lined the front.
“Hocus Pocus House” is located at 11322 Snowdrop Ave, Fountain Valley, CA 92708. I assume it ran nightly in October, though I’m not sure how early everything was set up.
There were also a couple of other houses just down the street and visible from "Hocus Pocus House.” They were nothing elaborate, but they were a minute's walk away (just like "Hocus Pocus House was a minute's walk from Haunt with No Name). It's always nice to find a little cluster of Halloween homes in close proximity!
This house on the corner of Livingstone Street and Snowdrop Avenue had a bit of a creative arrangement of lights and frightful figures.
I wanted to take photos of the other house head-on, but the owners opened their garage door right before I could snap some pictures, and I wanted to respect their privacy / not look like a complete creeper shooting *into* their home.
The nearby neighbors were located at 16339 Livingstone St and 11270 Snowdrop Ave. As they weren’t any formally listed haunts, I’m not sure about their hours or dates either.
Wax Works Tribute Haunt
A couple of weeks ago, I received an invite from Will Brandenberger to visit his and his friend, Blake Brennan’s Knott's Scary Farm tribute haunt, Wax Works. I had seen this on Parks and Cons' feed, but as they were not publicizing their address, I was originally content to simply enjoy the entrepreneurial creativity of these two 16 year old haunters from the interwebz. As such, it was flattering to be extended an invite to check it out in person!
When I arrived on Halloween Eve, I found an impressive yard display doubling as a love letter to Knott's Scary Farm. Will told me that he (and Blake?) have been attending the annual Halloween Haunt summed age 12, and last year, they really fell in love with Daniel Miller's Wax Works, a museum of horrors descent into the depraved mind of one Dr. Augustus Scratch and his macabre fascination with creating gloriously terrifying works of art--with people! Their passion and enthusiasm led to their crafting of a home haunt dedicated to the maze this year--along with some Easter eggs to Knott's in general!
Wax Works featured an impressive mix of audio/visual theming and traditional practical props—much like Knott’s Scary Farm has evolved its modern mazes!
The most prominent feature of the haunt is the multiple projections onto the garage door and second floor window. Flames erupt around the "factory" down low, enveloping a practical set that includes firewood and a propane tank. Spectral projections manifest on a section of all right beside the flames, while a flow-thru video of the Wax Works maze loops above.
Will and Blake also created their own melted wax-laden signs to announce the location presence, custom candle displays, and even procured a Wax Works victim head from Cliff Leblanc, a member of Plague Productions who worked on a lot of the actual props and theming elements for the Knott's maze.
A brief walkthrough component up to the front door included an electric chair animatronic victim, a towering ghoul, and a laser swamp maze that hid the oldest Halloween prop of the household, an old hag that doubled as a stand-in for Knott's Green Witch, and some projections from Knott's Paranormal Activity maze.
A custom-made Wax Works sign hung over the entry archway to the house, while an awesome, foggy laser swamp created a creepy ambiance below!
Will and Blake's attention to detail was also in display, as they expertly built themed enclosures to hide AV equipment and positioned other projectors in discrete locations. Their excitement and passion and professionalism was in clear dismay as they showed me around. I was left super impressed by the savvy and ambition of these two young haunters. This is what makes Halloween great--the creativity of enthusiasts of the holiday that inspires then to take up complicated projects to showcase their love and give something for the local community.
Will and Blake asked that I not reveal the location of their haunt, as it was mostly intended more for family and friends and local neighbors. Out of respect for their privacy, I will not indicate their address, though if they decide to be more public next year, I will definitely relay information!
Haunt on Santa Elena
I actually visted this haunt last Sunday, the evening after Halloween, after a second visit to Knott’s Berry Farm for the final day of Knott’s Taste of Fall-O-Ween. It’s actually located right on the corner of Western Avenue and Santa Elena Drive, diagonally across from the exit of Knott’s South Parking Lot. It was a display I had heard about from Midsummer Scream, and the timing ended up being super convenient for a visit.
Behold! The best decorated house in Buena Park for Halloween!
It turns out that this house actually won first place in Buena Park’s Halloween decoration contest! I’m going to assume that Hull House wasn’t entered or qualified, but I’m probably biased. Nevertheless, this haunt definitely had a fair share of spooks and a cool props all laid out across its front lawn. From a terrifying giant pop-up jack-in-the-box clown to three witches in focused discussion around a cauldron brew to chained demons huddled around some graves to a skeleton gleefully driving a hearse, this collection of spooks on Santa Elena celebrated a quintessential view of Halloween. With Halloween string lights lining the house behind and even draping down toward the lawn, the whole scene was most certainly a celebration of the autumn holiday, and well worth the convenient stop next to Knott’s!
Color changing lights create an unstable scene with this menacing jack in the box!
The Haunt on Santa Elena is located at 7491 Santa Elena Dr, Buena Park, CA 90620. No information on hours or dates, but I imagine it was ready somewhat early in October—at least early enough for city judging!
By my count, I’ve got five or six more haunt updates in the tank for this year. And I fully intend on wrapping up coverage much sooner this year than I did last year. There’s not much else going on anyway until Christmas season fully starts, and even then, there will be similarly scaled down events like Halloween. In a year where time has kind of lost meaning, I hope you don’t mind an extension of Halloween!
Architect. Photographer. Disney nerd. Haunt enthusiast. Travel bugged. Concert fiend. Asian.
