Altadena’s popular house of horrors is a fulltime job each October
by Timothy Rutt
It’s the Balian Mansion of Halloween: the haunted yard at 1640 Braeburn Road attracts more than 3.500 people. Unlike Altadena’s famous overdone Christmas lights, tho’, the Braeburn Haunt attracts everybody on a single night: Halloween.
And getting there is no easy task.
Judy Pastor and her husband Vance Weisbach have been putting this together for 14 years now. On a recent afternoon, Pastor is supervising some family members and other volunteers, fine-tuning the effects and the height of the many things that hang as part of the display.
There are effigies, dead bodies, zombies, and monsters all over the place. Creatures and unfortunate souls dangle from every tree. Anybody who dares go through the front gate will see creatures, inflatable displays, doorways, coffins, and even a real hearse. Those who survive have to go through a tunnel of darkness to find their way back to the land of the living.
All of these things Pastor and Weisbach keep in their attic and garage storage 11 months out of the year. In October, the assembly starts, with the help of many volunteers. On Halloween night, the horde descends. Pastor says that Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich has helped them to close off the street, with the California Highway Patrol standing watch to make sure the horror goes on in an orderly manner.
Pastor demurs giving a figure on how much they’ve sunk into their display, but does offer that Weisbach spent $1,000 the day before to stock up on candy for the event.
The haunting starts as Halloween night descends, and goes on until 10 PM, when it must stop. But the job isn’t over yet — by the time the sun comes up, it’s pretty much all been put away for another year, as ephemeral as a Halloween ghost.
Fair warning, there is mostly gore. When my child was young, I would alter my route as it gave him nightmares. Luckily, we dd not live on this street and could avoid the rated R+ display.
To each her own. My 6 1/2 yr old has been coming since he was 4 1/2, each year getting a little more brazen. This year he hopes to make it all the way through, a real right of passage for him. We come during daylight on our walks and watch it go up and he’ll go during daylight.
No nightmares here and I’d rate it PG-13.