Epic Home Haunts is a documentary that follows four groups of haunters in Southern California as they prepare their homes for Halloween. As a result of their dedication, they end up giving back to their community with a frighteningly good time.
If you are unfamiliar with haunts, they are mazes set up in garages, homes, or even wooded areas. The patrons then walk through the haunt and get a good scare.
These kind of attractions have been around dating back to the 80s, and have become increasingly popular with the modernization of horror. Internet resources have also been a huge contributor to the success of haunts. Hollywood Haunter, a husband and wife team, have a YouTube channel where you can follow their preparation process. They will also give you walkthrough tours of the haunts showing all the small details of the mazes.
One question that others ask these home haunters quite often is “Why?”. Why are they spending countless amounts of money and time on an event only lasting a few nights in October? Jon Cooke, designer, producer, art directer extraordinaire, says that the hard work is better than the feeling of not creating a haunt that year. I can completely understand that mindset. Isn’t creating something that wasn’t there before the most amazing thing?
The documentary not only shines light on the talents of these home haunters, but also their kindness. Most all of the haunters featured in Epic Home Haunts collect donations for their charity of choice as admission.
They are also very willing to accept others into the community. Fifteen year old Sam Kellman has nothing but positive things to say about his experience becoming a part of the SoCal haunt community. They have welcomed him with creepy outstretched arms, and declare that kids like him are the future of the haunt world.
Personally, this documentary gave me so many ideas for my own Halloween yard displays. This is our first year in our current home so we are starting slow much like many of the home haunters featured in Epic Home Haunts. We have just a few skeletons and pumpkins here and there at the moment but have already started discussing how we could incorporate the backyard.
If you are an artist, love Halloween, or have dragged your family to a haunted house over two hours away because you just needed to see it for yourself, check out Epic Home Haunts streaming on Amazon Prime.
-Brittany Fernandez (Twitter)
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