Spooky Hollows presents Ghostbuster Tribute: 2021 Review
Spooky Hollows, Van Nuys, CA
As we get settled into the new year and wait for some of the off-season local theme park festival events to kick into gear, we’re going to continue recapping last fall’s Halloween season, since we went to just so many places. Today’s destination brings us over to Van Nuys on the night before Halloween, to a home haunt that we’ve visited several times before!
Spooky Hollows has reincarnated itself in many forms over the years. It's been a full walkthrough maze, a mini haunt at Midsummer Scream, a cool yard display, and a full fledged haunted show. This year, however, Spooky Hollows took on a new role: interactive IP tribute haunt, with its Ghostbusters attraction that mixed spooky surprises and haunt wizardry to bring a very fun and heartfelt experience to guests during the last two weekends of October!
If you need to capture a ghost, who you gonna call?
You may recall that last October featured the premiere of the latest installment in the Ghostbusters franchise with Ghostbusters: Afterlife. As it turns out, Spooky Hollows creator John Casella has long adored the franchise and has always wanted to do a haunted production that references and recreates the many classic scenes from the movies. Last year's new sequel presented a great excuse to finally do so.
The set-up of Spooky’s 2021 production was similar to its haunted show the year before, occupying the entire width of the Casella residence front yard. Although there was a sequence of events that roughly followed the narrative of the classic and beloved movies, this was not a straight haunted show. Instead, it was a mixture of different scenes and effects that played relative to but sometimes independent of each other, taking the form of vignettes to explore and enjoy.
This was an amazing effect, because the ooze really did react to loud noise and yelling!
Guests were able to yell at psychomagnotheric slime, discover Slimer hiding in a yeah can, witness Vigo the Carpathian take ghostly steps toward the gate separating the sidewalk from the yard and rattle it, watch a variety of scenes projected onto the front of the property, see the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man meet his electrifying demise, catch a couple of ghosts be sucked up into a Portable Containment Unit, and more. There were projections and videos that incorporated highlight scenes and, of course, included a rousing rendition of the hit Ray Parker Jr. theme song. Visitors were also able to take part in a sort of virtual interactive installation that allowed them to engage and sort of manipulate one of the film’s ghostly spirits!
The way that creator John Casella and his team crafted this entertaining and surprising love letter to the Ghostbusters franchise was simply wonderful. They really captured the joy and love of the film franchise and rendered it in very creative, homemade but professional quality exhibits and segments. Kudos to Spooky Hollows for continually reinventing themselves and what they can do. Their flexibility is even more diverse than ectoplasm!
The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man forms the climax of the impressive Spooky Hollows’ Ghostbusters Tribute home haunt!
Spooky Hollows is located at 16418 Gilmore St, Van Nuys, CA 91406 and ran the last two weekends of October, Friday through Sunday, from 7:00 - 10:00pm. Shows ran continuously in a loop, and the limited sidewalk viewing didn’t seem to be a impediment, as guests were able to move around each other.
Architect. Photographer. Disney nerd. Haunt enthusiast. Travel bugged. Concert fiend. Asian.
