In Los Angeles, it may be hard to observe the change in seasons, but hayrides, commonly found on the East Coast, can provide thrill-seekers with a simpler, more traditional, but still scary take on Halloween.
Melissa Carbone, executive director of Ten Thirty One Productions’ premiere Los Angeles Haunted Hayride, is responsible for bringing this East Coast tradition to the city of Los Angeles, at the King Gilette Ranch in Calabassas until Oct. 31.
“I’m from New England so I grew up going on haunted hayrides and I just moved out to L.A. about 10 years ago and had been looking for one every year to no avail,” she said. “I love Halloween, and I do a haunted house at my house every year. It’s always wildly popular in the neighborhood, so I was just like, “˜Hmmm, I wonder if we supersized it and did a hayride what would happen.'”
The company Ten Thirty One Productions has an objective that’s different from theater troupes or amusement parks; they’re trying to take the novelty of a Halloween thrill ride and turn it into a Los Angeles tradition.
“We like to look at this area and see what’s missing and then try to capitalize on that with something that’s fun and original and makes people want to keep coming back year after year,” co-executive director Alyson Richards said. “We’re just really excited to be bringing something that’s not your typical amusement park here in the city.”
It is easy to understand why it’s so hard to find such an attraction in Los Angeles, and it’s not because Angelenos don’t like to be scared.
“To be honest, I think the reason that there isn’t one here is because there is no woods. Just finding a spot that was conducive to a haunted hayride was nearly impossible,” Carbone said, “Of the year of preparation for this event, six months of it was just finding a piece of property that would work.”
But they’ve found just the right place, a 588 acre ranch in Calabasas, which has room for not just the hayride, but a pumpkin patch, hay maze, house of mirrors, ghost stories and more.
Out there under the trees, sitting in a wagon full of hay, you feel far removed from Los Angeles, and it’s a good feeling.
UCLA psychology graduate student Keely Muscatell came out for the hayride to remind herself of her childhood. “I wanted to spend some time outside of Westwood and get myself in the Halloween spirit,” Muscatell said. “And do something scary, because I feel like now that we’re older Halloween is now more about dressing up and partying and not about the fun experience of feeling scared like it was when we were little.”
It certainly is scary, thanks to the 30-some actors who come up to the wagon throughout the ride, yelling and screaming, blaming you for their broken scooter, and trying to recruit you for a devil-worshipping church.
“I did really enjoy it, minus the man on the stilts chasing me,” Muscatell said.
But in addition to being the scariest attraction this Halloween, the Los Angeles Haunted Hayride has another goal that really has nothing to do with the holiday.
“We’re working with the Environmental Media Association so that … some of our proceeds go to them, and also to bring them on board as green coaches to make this event as environmentally sound as possible,” Carbone said.
“Halloween attractions have historically been environmental nightmares, so we’re hoping that by doing this, other Halloween attractions will want to do the same thing.”
It’s a new kind of Halloween attraction for the dwellers of Los Angeles that is more influenced by the spooky Halloween of childhood rather than the mass-produced gore of theme parks.
“This is less about cramming 20,000 people through like a haunted maze that’s not scary because you’re there with 20,000 other people,” Carbone said.
“It’s more about using the natural elements of woods and campfires and things that freaked you out when you were a kid, and getting a little break from reality for a minute.”