Pumkin Jacks Haunted House presents Halloween
Pumkin Jacks Haunted House, Santa Clarita, CA
Last year, when we took our first-ever trip up to Santa Clarita Valley to check out their home haunts, we visited a fantastic quartet of residential haunted attractions that showcased creativity and passion. Shiver Haunt, Club Fear, Coffinwood Cemetery, and Beware the Dark Realm all offered a wide range of Halloween experiences, from the silly to the sinister to the campy / creepy to the epic. But there was one haunt that we couldn't make, because it wasn't open the Friday that we went up: Pumpkin Jacks Haunted House (no second P, no apostrophe, apparently). And unfortunately, we weren't able to make a second trip last season to catch it later.
When planning this year's home haunt itinerary and plotting Santa Clarita haunts part two, Pumkiin Jacks was definitely on the can't miss list, and so, last Friday, it formed the penultimate stop in our SCV adventure (The Curse of the Treasure being last for geographical reasons). And after going through their intimately intense home haunt, we're glad we caught this Santa Clarita haunt mainstay!
Pumkin Jacks’ take on Halloween plays with timelines more loosely than Avengers: Endgame, but it’s a terrific maze.
Pumkin Jacks Haunted House is the brainchild of Bond Landeen, a mechanical contractor by day who has been bringing thrills and chills to his local Saugus neighborhood for the past decade. A truly committed haunter, Bond revamps his haunt every year, bringing a unique theme to tackle, resulting in a completely new experience. Last year, Pumkin Jacks took guests into Hawkins with a stunning Stranger Things maze, but this season, they threw it back to a Halloween classic: Halloween, the beloved John Carpenter classic featuring everyone's favorite psychotic, emotionless, stabby stab giant, Michael Myers.
The entirety of Pumkin Jack's Haunted House is contained within the Landeen home garage, plus a built out section on the side yard emptying guests back into the front driveway. Despite the fact that this is a garage haunt, the layout somehow feels extensive and lengthy. There are multiple rooms leading through the garage, each highlighting iconic moments from the movie.
The experience is full of Michael Myers getting murderous.
We start with the facade, which recreates the iconic Myers House in Haddonfield. Entering the front door, we are immediately transported to Halloween night, 1978, complete with kitschy decor and ominously dark lighting. In a display case, an anachronistic Easter egg newspaper discusses Michael Myers' heinous murders in headline form, and that distraction is enough to allow a clown to leap out from a side closet--the first of many pop-out scares.
And the scares come quickly and relentlessly, and organically as well. Although jump scares are expected, what is innovative and surprising is just how diverse the startles are in this maze. Universal would do well to take notes on how to combine an excellent IP-based storytelling device with scares that are not identically repetitive and telegraphed. The best scare of the night comes next, when we approach the stairway to a second floor unfortunately doesn't exist (in the maze, at least; the Landeen house is two stories), only to have it flip forward and have a Michael Myers burst out of a hidden compartment! This was the most astonishing moment of the maze, because though we knew something was coming, we expected a scrim or Pepper's Ghost effect--not the most creative variation of a drop portrait scare that we had ever seen!
Yeah… she ded.
Blood sufficiently curdling, we continue into the bedroom, where we see Judith Myers murdered by an adult Michael Myers. Again, not chronologically accurate within the movie timeline, but the derivative nature of a home haunt means that this still works well. A second bedroom brings us in front of the gravestone of Judith Myers, and a Universal-style boo box scare--minus the giveaway strobe and jarring sound effect.
Michael lurks in the kitchen as well, menacing and creepy, as well as in a foyer. Exiting the house, we're greeted by a chainsaw-wielding fiend who interrupts our progress. We manage to sidestep him and scrape our way through a series of torn sheets. And just before we escape, Michael Myers is waiting again, knife in hand, with murderous intent!
Michael Myers, creepin’ up on y’all.
We came out of the layout in complete awe at the execution, production, and talent from the maze. This was a fitting and stellar tribute to a movie that is synonymous with the fall holiday, and Pumkin Jacks home haunt version left us giddy with appreciation at the fantastic take they had provided. The lighting effects, the audio, and the ambiance all combined to really transport us into the movie, but the flow remained organic despite having synchronized moments. Maybe that's the advantage of the intimacy of a home haunt, where there is no challenge to fill the content of an extended full theme park maze. But in any case, Pumpkin Jacks Haunted House provided an amazing rendition of the film.
It is sad, then, that our first visit to Pumkin Jacks will also be our last--sort of... or maybe... Bond has designs to go pro next year, and definitely will not be holding a haunt at his home due to the strain it puts on the local neighborhood with the crowds and traffic that this longtime successful haunt brings. The street is especially packed on Halloween night, when a DJ and huge crowds descend upon the haunt for a big block party. If Pumkin Jacks Haunted House does successfully transition to a professional haunt, though, they're well positioned to excel. This is one of those sophisticated, expertly planned and construction home haunts whose level of detail and technical innovations is at a level that can only be defined as epic. And that caliber will do well no matter what format it's presented in!
And what haunted house is complete without a chainsaw guy?
Pumkin Jacks Haunted House is located at 28603 Natalie Lane, Santa Clarita, CA 91390 and runs one last time this Halloween night, from 7:00 - 11:00pm. Come celebrate Halloween on Hallween at this Halloween attraction! It may very well be the last chance ever to experience the terror and triumph of Pumkin Jack!
Architect. Photographer. Disney nerd. Haunt enthusiast. Travel bugged. Concert fiend. Asian.
