Spooky Hollows presents The Cult of Mr. Sticky: 2022 Review
Spooky Hollows, Van Nuys, CA
After Rotten Apple 907 yesterday, our next home home haunt also takes on a longstanding fixture in the residential Halloween community, Spooky Hollows! For years, this attraction has been a fixture of the Van Nuys and Scare L.A. / Midsummer Scream Halloween scene, bringing its unique brand of spooks and showmanship to the local and greater horror community!
Welcome to Spooky Hollows!
The past few years, Spooky Hollows has pivoted away from its traditional walkthrough haunted mazes and moved toward haunted shows instead. Drawing on inspiration from such legendary attractions like House at Haunted Hill, creators John Cassella and Christopher Els have sought to create a more cinematographic form of storytelling that also is less intensive and easier to set up long-term than a walkthrough maze.
Spooky Hollows started this a couple of years ago with a show dedicated to its cult favorite mythological figure, Mr. Sticky, a bizarre, somewhat silly, Slenderman-esque character that started as a joke and became the icon of its maze. We all remember that 2020 was the year that the Coronavirus pandemic threatened to cancel Halloween. As a result, most professional haunts shut down, and home haunts turned almost exclusively to yard displays because having numerous people come through in close proximity of each other and scaring monsters was a bit too risky at the time. Spooky Hollows, however, was one of a few attractions that opted to showcase an actual scripted, multi-media performance instead, and their show ended up being an exceedingly fun and enjoyable hit.
To follow this up, last year, Spooky Hollow created a similarly formatted haunted show, this one dedicated to John’s favorite movie of all time, Ghostbusters. The resulting tribute haunt was Spooky Hollows’ first venture into intellectual property haunts, but it proved to be a fantastic success as well, refining and enhancing effects and haunt wizardry to unveil a lovely passion project.
It’s very spooky. Wonderfully so!
This year sees a return to the 2020 show and provides a proper title: The Cult of Mr. Sticky. The format and sequence of this production is the same as two years ago. Guests start at the right half of the Spooky Hollows yard display—a dark and ominous graveyard scene with beautifully lit tombs and menacing jack-o-lanterns and skeletal bats and creepy spiders lining the deathly landscape. Here, they learn of how Mr. Sticky first came to be, along with his first followers who helped feed him souls for his insatiable hunger. The second half of the show moves left to a swampy scene overlooked by a skeleton in a rocking chair—reminiscent of the bayou at Pirates of the Caribbean. Only this narrator is much more sinister than the banjo player animatronic at Disneyland. As Mr. Sticky grows more and more powerful, so does his cult proliferate, and finally, on this special night, Mr. Sticky makes a sudden and dramatic appearance!
The main addition this year is a final climactic moment that provides a nice startle scare for guests right in front of the moment, accompanying the other startle scare from one of the effects at the gate. The technology, programming, planning, and choreography of the entire show is impressive and enchanting, with moments like a news broadcast from a radio overhead by a skeletal farmer and projections conjuring imagery to illustrate the haunting legend adding extra layers that immerse guests into the story. The Spooky Hollows team has also worked to enhance the theming and ambiance of the scenery and display, tweaking lighting effects and little decor details to completely transform the Cassella front yard into a much more stirring environment that feels like a ghostly wilderness rather than San Fernando Valley suburbia.
Legend tells of an old hag who help nourish and grow the spirit of Mr. Sticky.
The plan moving forward is to alternate haunted shows each year at Spooky Hollows, between Ghostbusters and Mr. Sticky. Of course, being haunters, the Spooky Hollows team will always be tweaking and fiddling and adding effects and components, so it will be interesting to see how their shows progress. It’s a great way to tap into the nostalgia of seeing something familiar play out again but still offering something fresh to reward returning guests. Just the simple act of doubling the cadence of returning shows keeps them feeling unique too—a smart, strategic choice.
Today, Mr. Sticky has grown more powerful than ever!
We love what Spooky Hollows has provided for the Halloween community. Even though this year’s show is largely a repeat of two years ago, it’s still a wonderfully enjoyable experience, with little adjustments that have amplified the sophistication of the presentation. Who knows what other ways Mr. Sticky might show up in the future? It’s all up the Spooky Hollows imagination!
All hail Mr. Sticky and his sacred stickiness! Mr. Sticky is everywhere!
Spooky Hollows is located at 16418 Gilmore St, Van Nuys, CA 91406 and ran last weekend from Friday through Sunday and this Friday through Monday, from 7:00 - 10:00pm. Shows are approximately 10 minutes long and ran continuously in a loop, with 5 minute breaks in between each show. Viewing is on the sidewalk, following the highlighted scenes as they move around the front yard. Parking is free and available in the neighborhood, though nearby Odessa Ave probably offers more favorable spots.
Architect. Photographer. Disney nerd. Haunt enthusiast. Travel bugged. Concert fiend. Asian.
