REVIEW: halloweentown

NOVEMBER 1, 2022

review: halloweentown

While Halloween can lean into the darker side of life - like gore and death - it also creates the space for people to explore the stranger parts of their creative impulse. For example, you can make a giant UFO that has crash-landed in your yard or have a giant telephone pole impaling your home - if you can think of it we have likely seen it! The more lighthearted haunts that are welcoming for people of all ages are rare. One of these haunts, Halloweentown, is located in Altadena. We visited this joyful haunt for the second year in a row, and really enjoyed our time at this DIY home attraction.

Halloweentown is a private event and is only open for one night. Located within a backyard, this special haunt is made for the enjoyment of the local community. Inside you will find a psychedelic, neon-lit world built by a mother and nurse, Missi Figueroa. Impressively she somehow finds the time to build an incredible haunt constructed from foam and cardboard - creating a fantastic place for her neighbor’s kids to trick-or-treat.

Inside her yard, Missi has created a tiny town with trails, along which scare actors hand out candy. There is a mysterious, Madame Leota inspired character, Guy Fieri hanging out in “Flavortown”, and our favorite - a bear who has eaten a mysterious, mustachioed fisherman (whose ‘missing’ posters have been spread out through the pathways). The colorful, festive, and intricate flats make this whole place feel like Pee-wee's Playhouse tripping on acid. It's a charming hybrid of fun and innovation.

Missi is a great contributor to her local community and it's inspiring to see the world she has built for all of her friends to experience for only one evening. The amount of work that goes into such a thing is unfathomable. We were thrilled to make our annual visit to cover her inspiring, somewhat private, contribution to American folk art.

VC

November 01, 2022

Hauntsofla.com

#halloweentown #losangeles #hauntedhouse #hauntedmaze #halloween #hauntsofla