This Santa Clarita family has spent 50 years making free Halloween haunts. See inside its latest

There’s decidedly thing spooky going connected astatine the Sivley location successful Santa Clarita. While the different well-kept houses connected Sugar Pine Way person Halloween decor out, the Sivley’s is engulfed by a towering medieval castle.

A detailed, hand-carved facade reaches each the mode retired to the sidewalk and skeletons defender the windows and castle walls. Two ample woody doors unfastened into the Sivley’s yearly location of horrors, otherwise known arsenic Beware the Dark Realm.

The autarkic attraction, which was featured successful the 2018 documentary movie “Epic Home Haunts,” is unfastened for six nights, Oct. 15-16, 22-23 and 29-30, from 7-10 p.m. and admittance is free. However, a $10 donation to the non-profit enactment Family Promise of Santa Clarita volition get you a front-of-the-line pass. All guests indispensable deterioration a look covering astatine each times careless of vaccination presumption and manus sanitizing stations volition beryllium disposable connected site. It’s not recommended for children nether 10.

“We usually commencement gathering astir the 2nd week of September,” Scott Sivley said arsenic helium enactment immoderate last touches connected the haunt past week. “It takes astir a period full to acceptable up, and it has morphed implicit the years. It’s been the medieval taxable for astir 10 years, but we’ve done a psycho circus of horror, we’ve done an alien encounter, Universal Monsters and a Haunted Mansion benignant thing.”

Sivley, who has constructed location haunts successful the country for 50 years, got his commencement successful his parent’s store connected Gothic Street successful North Hills successful 1971. He said that he’d grown to beryllium six-foot-tall by the property of 10, truthful radical would marque comments oregon springiness him soiled looks erstwhile helium trick-or-treated, truthful helium gave it up.

“There was a neighbour astir the country from maine who worked for 20th Century Fox and connected the TV bid ‘Lost successful Space,’” Sivley recalled. “He’d amusement up wearing the costumes from the amusement and scare the vicinity kids and pursuit them astir and I saw however overmuch amusive helium was having doing it, truthful I thought I could bash that, too. I had besides gone and seen Disney’s Haunted Mansion erstwhile it opened successful 1969, truthful I thought, ‘Okay, this is what I’m gonna do.’”

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He went down to the section JC Penny store and asked if helium could person their aged appliance and furnishings boxes truthful helium could marque walls with them. He constructed a maze with carved pumpkins, filled it with volunteers to present scares and utilized a grounds subordinate to tube successful scary sounds.

He continued to bash the haunts astatine his parents’ location until helium joined his wife, Cynthia, successful 1988 and the mates moved to Sugar Pine Way. Neighbors began volunteering their clip to assistance with the Sivley’s haunted houses, and their 2 sons, Christian and Jacob, joined the household fun, too. Sivley said radical ever presume that helium and his household enactment successful the amusement business, but he’s really a retired mailman and his son, Christian, works for Nike. Each year, they proceed to pull thousands of haunt enthusiasts that enactment up astir the artifact for the experience.

“It has ever been ace fun,” Christian Sivley said, adding that connected apical of making definite the attraction is moving smoothly this year, helium is the self-appointed King of the Castle and Jacob volition erstwhile again presume the relation of the Court Jester. The brace volition beryllium joined by a twelve oregon truthful different volunteers who volition formal up arsenic assorted royal subjects, villagers, witches, knights, blacksmiths and much to support with this year’s theme. He besides said that immoderate of the unpaid scareactors person been moving with the household for implicit 30 years.

“I deliberation 1 of the coolest things astir our event, too, is we hand-make oregon custom-make each of our costumes and we usage a batch of prosthetics and makeup, too,” helium said. “It’s thing we’ve learned done the years from a household person who is simply a nonrecreational constitution artist, who besides volunteers with us. We bash walk a batch of clip moving connected that. We besides person a batch of the aforesaid volunteers coming backmost and they’ve developed their ain way, oregon their ain style, of however to scare people.”

Christian is besides liable for conjuring up the backstory for each attraction. Though the medieval castle has stood for implicit a decade, the themes person changed. One twelvemonth it was invaded by werewolves and the adjacent a execution of crows had taken over. This year, it’s filled with dragons.

There is heavy fog, tons of eerie lighting, animatronics, peculiar effects and the full attraction takes astir 10-14 minutes to spell through. Some actors are lying successful hold conscionable to scare and others volition assistance dilatory down the crowds with storytelling.

“It’s important successful a haunt to power the velocity of radical due to the fact that if you permission it wide open, they’ll tally close done it,” Scott said with a laugh. “I learned that years ago. I didn’t bash each of this truthful you tin conscionable tally done it.”

When his location isn’t successful its haunted state, the props and walls are stored wrong the garage, on the broadside of the location oregon successful a compartment the Sivley’s built successful the backyard. They person amassed rather the postulation of props passim the years and Sivley said present that he’s retired, helium budgets astir $1,000 a twelvemonth to enactment into the attraction, astir of which goes to fog foodstuff and making definite the volunteers are fed. He makes wealth by selling disconnected items helium nary longer needs.

Each year, helium donates proceeds from the lawsuit to a section non-profit, which has included nutrient banks, the Santa Clarita Historical Society, household centers, home unit programs, and for the past mates years, Family Promise, which helps families experiencing homelessness.

“With each the canned nutrient donations and currency donations implicit the years, we’ve made good implicit $100,000 for the charities,” Scott said, noting that attendees are generous and that immoderate nights the donation enactment is longer than the escaped admittance line.

Scott said he’s been trying to enactment with the metropolis to find a caller venue truthful Beware the Dark Realm tin grow and rise much wealth for section non-profits. He said he’s had a large narration with the metropolis and the vicinity for implicit 3 decades now, but he’s unsure however agelong helium and his sons volition beryllium capable to big the location haunt astatine its afloat capableness unless it tin beryllium moved.

“We’ve conscionable outgrown this space,” helium said. “If we moved locations, we could truly rise a batch of money. Here, I tin lone beryllium unfastened six nights — you can’t beryllium unfastened much than that successful a neighborhood. There has to beryllium an abandoned building, oregon crippled of onshore somewhere, we could instrumentality over. So we are precise earnestly looking for that.”

Beware the Dark Realm

When: 7-10 p.m. Oct. 15-16, 22-23 and 29-30

Where: 28621 Sugar Pine Way, Santa Clarita

Tickets: Admission is free; a $10 donation to Family Promise Santa Clarita Valley volition get front-of-line access. Those passes tin beryllium purchased online astatine bewarethedarkrealm.com.