It’s “spooky season” in the Santa Clarita Valley, as residents are dusting off animatronics, constructing elaborate webs, and welcoming residents with friendly faces into a ghoul-den experience.
Many houses throughout the valley are displaying their work — some for the first time, others for decades. Whether it’s a yard display, walkthrough maze, or event, residents can be sure to find fright around the next corner.
The Signal was able to scare up some of the highlights:
Bar Harbor Scares
Alan Mah Baxter and his wife, Elizabeth, began “Bar Harbor Scares” roughly five years ago, but have expanded as their daughter Grace, 10, has gotten older:
“I think Halloween is kind of a lifelong thing, really. One year, Grace came up to me, and she’s like, ‘I’ve never done a walkthrough maze. I kind of want to try it, but I’m scared.’ I think that the fear is, as a young kid, you don’t know what’s on the other side,” Baxter said.
Born and raised in this valley, Baxter grew up decorating for Halloween, but decided to expand the initiative in a way that children are not only comfortable, but also even excited, to experience their first “scare.”
Starting on Sept. 26, Baxter wanted to get an earlier start this year. Residents can stop by on the remaining dates: Oct. 17, 18, 19, 24, 26, 30 and Nov. 1 from 7 to 9 p.m.
“For me, I wanted this to be an introduction to kids, to get them excited about Halloween, because I felt like I got that as a kid, and it kind of started me on kind of a lifelong obsession with the holiday,” Baxter said. “I decided that I wanted to create something where this is essentially going to be the first walkthrough maze that an elementary-aged kid can do and not be too scared, but have it also be a spooky and scary kind of environment where a few things pop out at you.”
As for coming up with the name, the Baxters took inspiration from the name of their street, while being selective with the word “scares.”
“‘Bar Harbor’ is the name of our street, so I think it’s just a cool name. And then for the whole ‘Scares’ part, for me, it just implies that this is my introduction for kids who want to go and have something pop up and startle them for the first time and have that experience.”
Baxter prides himself on not using actors, and in being a family-friendly maze for people of all ages to enjoy.
“If there’s young children who are scared of having something jump out of them, I ask them, ‘Hey, are you OK with this?’ I can hold off and not trigger these animatronics, and they can just walk through the ambiance,” Baxter said. “You’ll get the fog and get the lighting, you’ll get the lightning flashes that happen from strobes, but nothing’s going to leap out at you, and that allows the youngest kids to get their first experience in.”
About 1,200 people showed up last year, and according to Baxter, Halloween has evolved into something he’s “never seen before.”
“To see so many activities throughout the year and to see the community and people engaged in it, it’s just been a dream come true. I love it.”
Baxter, who can monitor the maze and time the animatronics through muscle memory, still ensures that each person who goes through the maze gets a unique and individualized experience in the minute to a minute-and-a-half it takes to walk through the maze.
“We have multiple fog machines, strobe lights synced to sound, spider webs. I have several animatronics that are hooked up to a remote that I can control, whether it’s like a jumping spider or a crow that pops up, or this kind of pumpkin that splits apart and pops out,” Baxter said. “I basically set up some walls and some curves and turns. You kind of enter through this tunnel that we built this year, and there’s some lanterns on it.”
As for the most rewarding part for Baxter? Seeing the newfound confidence of children as they experience their first, monumental maze and discover their newfound love for Halloween.
“What I love the most is after it’s done, these kids come out, and they’re just excited and confident, and they feel like, ‘Wow, I did this,’” Baxter said.
Wildwood Ghost Town
When moving into their property nearly six years ago, it only made sense for Chad Nix and his wife, Savannah, to begin a new tradition after throwing a Halloween party for friends: thus, “Wildwood Ghost Town” commenced.
Inspired by Western themes at theme parks, such as Disneyland’s Frontierland and Knott’s Berry Farm, the Nixes will host “Sundown Saunter,” a yard display from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., followed by the “Vein of Vengeance” maze from 7 to 10 p.m. on the following dates: Oct. 18, 24, 25, 26 and 31.
“Wildwood Ghost Town is a home haunt walkthrough located in Newhall featuring highly detailed sets, special effects, live actors and an authentic ‘Wild West’ ambiance. We have some mildly spooky scenes, but it’s fun for people of all ages,” Nix said. “Guests can enjoy a sunset experience in the Old Town West and walk around during ‘Sundown Saunter.’ ‘Vein of Vengeance’ is our main event, and that is going to have the story of the outlaw. It’s still family-friendly, but will have actors and louder noises.”
Nix, who has been working on the new set since last year, has fully redesigned the look of the maze from prior years.
“We are going to be featuring a full, Western ‘main street’ scene. It’s going to be completely different than last year. Our last three themes have been Old West, but we’ve done a pirate theme before. We did a farmhouse theme once,” Nix said. “Our neighbors all have kids, and their kids love coming through. They all have competitions to see who can go through the most amount of times. It’s definitely a neighborhood experience.”
According to Nix, over 1,500 people came throughout the days the maze was open last year, and is hoping for even more attendance this year.
“I would say there are two best parts. The first one, it’s a creative outlet. For me, I recently discovered that I love making stuff, so this has been a great project to funnel that creative energy into. The second part, it’s really fun to make something for our community that’s free, family-friendly, and brings the community together,” Nix said. “I’ve met tons of great friends through doing this.”
Having an immersive story for residents to follow along and enjoy is key for Nix.
“This year, we’re telling the story of an outlaw who’s come back to claim a new gold-vein discovery. So, the guests will get to jump into that storyline and experience going back in time to the Old West, and get to be a part of the story,” Nix said. “We tell our story through our sets, and we have highly detailed sets that are authentic to the time period. We try to make everything pretty historically accurate. We have special effects such as lighting and audio, and then I do all the set building and that sort of thing. It ends up being really, really fun.”
Ghost Ship Grotto
Near the cul-de-sac of Pinecone Place in Castaic, Dena and Scott Brenner could be seen building their extensive maze, “Ghost Ship Grotto,” that runs throughout their entire backyard in early October.
Taking place on Oct. 17, 18, 24, 25, 30, 31 and Nov. 1, the Brenners are gearing up for their biggest haunt yet.
“We have always had a big Halloween party every year, because Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. I grew up loving Halloween. Scott came up with the idea of instead of having to answer the front door, we should create something where people could come in through the side of the house,” Dena said.
Starting with a yard display to showcase immersive Halloween decorations three years ago, the Brenners thought to expand to their first-ever maze last year.
“We came up with the story ourselves. There’s this pirate ship, and you’re on this ghost ship. It sinks, catches fire, and then you are underwater in a sea cave with sea sirens who are trying to get you to go underwater, forever. We needed a way to get you back up to land, so we came up with several different ideas on how to do that and created a story with a beginning, middle and end,” Dena said. “That’s what brought us to expanding this year and doing something more immersive.”
According to Scott, last year’s maze was 80 linear feet, but this year’s nearly tripled to 240. Thanks to the help of their friends, as well as their own creativity, the Brenners found success in navigating a bigger haunt.
“We never could have ever gotten to where we are now without our friends,” Dena said. “My parents were both actors, and I did a lot of theater. My dad taught me a lot about how to build and create things that are the illusion of something, but for both of us, it’s been trial and error, and finding out what works and what doesn’t and getting ideas from people.”
“My dad was a woodworker, so I think it passed on through the genes and it comes naturally. It just became something I can understand. We started building props and trying to accumulate things in July and August, but the official start weekend was Labor Day weekend,” Scott added. “We started thinking about it in April. Every time we’d drive in the car, we would just have these conversations. Dena would record so we can record our freestyle discussion and best thoughts.”
Even though their work could resemble major movie productions, the Brenners created their own, original storyline for residents to enjoy.
“It’s really hard to stay away from Disney. I did not want to do a ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ walkthrough, because I wanted us to be original. I’ve seen amazing haunts that are a ‘Pirates’ theme. We just wanted to be different,” Scott said. “For us, this is an art installation for people to appreciate.”
Beware the Dark Realm
Christian and Scott Sivley, who are spearheading “Beware the Dark Realm,” and have been for years, are taking on a new rock and roll theme.
On Oct. 24, 25, 31 and Nov. 1, residents can experience “Crazy Train” firsthand in tribute to singer Ozzy Osbourne, who died in July.
“My dad started doing haunts way back in the day, when he was younger. As [my brother and I] grew up, the decorations turned into displays that turned into full-on walkthrough mazes. Over the last 10 to 15 years, it’s exploded into being a much larger event,” Christian said. “It’s really a year-long thing that we work on. All the props, costumes, masks, walls, everything is all handmade and we put together ourselves. We try to improve it and make it look like something truly custom.”
According to Christian, the production has been compared to the likes of Universal’s “Halloween Horror Nights” and “Knott’s Scary Farm.”
“It’s a lot of fun and a lot of time that goes into it, but a lot of love that goes into the building and creation process that gets us to the end product at the end of the day. We’ve gotten really good at getting things up and running as quickly as we can,” Christian said. “We don’t have a ton of animatronics. I think that’s something that has made us stand out in past seasons here — we’re lucky to have a good group of actors that are passionate about what they do, and really make the experience come to life.”
Christian’s main goal in being open the four nights is quite simple: scaring people.
“We put a lot of time into decorating and painting styrofoam, but I’d say that 95% of the guests aren’t going to notice that, and I think that’s attributed to the actors that make the event really scary. We get a lot of people running out screaming, which is what we always want,” Christian said. “It’s definitely not recommended for the young ones. Every once in a while they can handle it, but others will run out with full tears. The actors will tone it down with the kids, but it’s still creepy.”
The Sivleys, who have always had a deep appreciation for rock music, felt it would only be right to pay tribute to the late singer.
“This is our biggest square footage footprint we’ve done for the maze… With Ozzy passing away this year, we had a moment where we thought it would be a cool way to pay tribute to him,” Christian said. “We’ve got about six or seven songs that we’re readjusting to make it more creepier. Guests will hear classic Black Sabbath songs and be thrown into that world.”
Although residents will have a whirlwind of an experience, they will also have the opportunity to learn about various pop culture references as they get their scare on in the SCV.
For a list of mazes and displays throughout Santa Clarita, visit: https://signalscv.com/2025/10/halloween-haunts-haunted-houses-and-yard-displays/
