Straite to Hale Productions presents Casket Creek: 2021 Review
Straite to Hale Productions, Rancho Cucamonga, CA
We interrupt our slew of Christmas event announcements for a #ShriekySunday return to spooky times in today’s retro review of one of the home haunts we visited on Halloween night. We’ve been all across Southern California this season, hitting up favorites in the Burbank area, the Santa Clarita Valley, Riverside County, and across L.A. and Orange Counties. But one area had slid through our visits until the final night of the season: San Bernandino County.
Now, I know you might be wondering what terrific Halloween goodness can come out of San Bernandino, but as we’ve seen from our Riverside haunts, there is quality Halloween craftsmanship everywhere. Plus, we discovered three amazing yard displays last year when we ventured out to the Rancho Cucamonga area. It was after that trip last year that we were contacted by the subject of today’s update, Straite to Hale Productions, asking us to come out to their home haunt, Casket Creek. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to fit another trip to the area last year, but their display and theming and fantastic Old West world that creators Mark Straite and Ron Hale (see how that name came about?) put on convinced us that a visit this year was definitely in order.
This impressive ghost town facade sets the tone for the quality haunt that Straite to Hale Productions presents with their Casket Creek production this year!
Although the team behind Strait to Hale have been putting up a home haunt for the past five years, it’s really come into its own over the past few. Last year was the first iteration of the Casket Creek Theme, which brought guests into a haunted ghost town that is bright to life all in the front lawn—albeit at the cordoned off distance of a yard display, because that was pretty much Halloween life last year in the throes of the Coronavirus pandemic—very few actual mazes, just a lot of displays. But Casket Creek wasn’t just any display. Ron and Mark crafted a stunning ghost town filled with spooky and surprising animatronics, beautifully illuminated, with thunder and lightning and strobes to create a truly spooktacular environment and set up the mythology of their haunt.
This year, however, with COVID doing better in Southern California (and people actually vaccinated), an actual walkthrough maze was in order, which allowed Straite to Hale to continue developing the mythology that they had created for their haunt! Apparently, once upon a time, the citizens of Casket Creek had found, tried, and condemned an accused witch in their town. That didn't end up working so well, as the executed crone cursed the town in her vengeance. The story does sound a bit like Knott's Scary Farms lore for Calico / Ghost Town, but the story here is just coincidentally similar.
Cobwebs and skeletons seem to be all that remains of the cursed Casket Creek!
Instead, Mark and Ron have simply conjured their love of the Old West and all things spooky to create a beautiful and eerie western village, with detailed facades and a boardwalk and cursed creatures teeming within! From a saloon area to a town hotel to a laser swamp to a conflagration finale, Casket Creek provided a thoroughly stunning foray into a sinister and bedeviled outpost. We also appreciated some haunt markers outside to several friendly haunts like nearby Samhain’s Lot, Hellsir, and Greenewitch Cemetery, and not-as-nearby Ghostwood Manor, and The Farm Haunt. These represented nearby and/or other home haunts who had visited Straite to Hale in the past, and it was a great show of how the haunt community is interconnected.
The bountiful sensor-triggered animatronic scares or prop effect scares also played roles in Casket Creek this year, but so did live scareactors, made up of a team of the duo’s teenaged kids and classmates. The combination live and staged startles provided a fun guessing game of where the next scare would come from, keeping the maze interesting from start to finish!
This desolate Old West town may look dead from the outside, but terrors hide within!
The caliber of the work at Straite to Hale Productions was exceptional this season, and we can’t wait to see the next chapter of Casket Creek next year. And this work hasn’t gone unnoticed either. This year, Mark and Ron were able to do work for the Winchester Mystery House’s Halloween overlay, dressing the most cryptic abode in the world and providing scenic and set work for their Halloween event. With that level of professional endeavors, it’s a wonder that they were able to put on their own home haunt too, but such is the fruit of pre-planning and building a whole ghost town a year prior!
A great conflagration is a climactic part of the haunt, which mixes live actors and sensor-triggered scares to great effect!
Straite to Hale Productions is located at 6477 Jasper St, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91701 and was open as a walk-through maze Fridays through Sundays, October 22 - 24 and 29 - 31, from 7:00 - 10:00pm. It was also operational as a yard display nightly from October 18 through Halloween night. This is an absolute fantastic haunt that has entrenched itself with its quality San Bernandino County brethren as a place to visit every season!
Architect. Photographer. Disney nerd. Haunt enthusiast. Travel bugged. Concert fiend. Asian.
