A few month in the past, as he was mendacity in a hospital mattress after a stroke, Kenny Enea had one major concern: Would the Halloween decorations be accomplished in time?
“The one factor he was nervous about was getting out and ending,” says Ana Lovelis, his accomplice of 32 years.
The Hatteras Haunted Home in Sherman Oaks is in its eighth yr, and is a mixture of gathered, handmade, store-bought and vintage gadgets.
(David Butow / For The Instances)
In any case, if the frilly front-yard hang-out wasn’t totally assembled by Oct. 31, eight months of labor may very well be for naught. That is the eighth and last yr Enea’s household of 4 will probably be remaking its Van Nuys property right into a frightful, walk-through attraction that spooks 1000’s of holiday makers every Halloween.
At the moment, Enea, 62, is on the trail to a full restoration, and the Hatteras Halloween Home — its official identify, based mostly on the road that borders the house — was wrapped with days to spare. The household is planning a large-scale bash Friday that includes a tarot reader, a handful of actors and even a marriage: Lovelis and Enea have determined that after three-plus many years collectively, it’s time to tie the knot. Their two daughters, Nia and Rena Lovelis, each of their mid-20s, will function “greatest man” and maid of honor.
The Hatteras Halloween Home has develop into one of many extra well-known dwelling haunts of the San Fernando Valley, a area now recognized for extravagant, do-it-yourself Halloween shows, particularly in Burbank. To enter is to stroll by way of a small cemetery earlier than encountering a winding array of thematic areas — a skeleton seated at a decrepit classic piano provides strategy to a rickety bridge, a smooshy swampland, a doll-laden tea temple, a chapel and an exorcism room.
The Hatteras Halloween Home began small as an accumulation of Halloween gadgets however has step by step grown into an elaborately themed walk-through attraction.
(David Butow / For The Instances)
The shows are so large that when the facades for the bridge and mini church began taking form, the household acquired a go to from a metropolis inspector. A neighbor, says Nia, complained that the household was constructing an unsanctioned ADU.
“They thought it was an precise home extension,” Ana says. “We had been like, ‘No, it’s Halloween decorations.’ The inspector got here by, and I used to be like, ‘No, it’s foam.’”
One phase of the hang-out is lighted by bloody arms holding plastic tea candles. Stairways to nowhere are hiding bones and physique elements of their underbelly. Hand-written notes, courtesy of a story dreamed up by Nia, dot the house and trace at an enveloping backstory. An summary, slow-waltz of a moody soundtrack, courtesy of Rena, units the mysterious tempo. A mixture of store-bought animatronics, handmade props and located objects — classic lamps, creatures with elongated necks and an assortment of mystical, witchy knickknacks, fill each nook.
After eight haunted homes and 32 years collectively, Kenny Enea and Ana Lovelis will marry this Halloween contained in the hang-out’s church.
(David Butow / For The Instances)
Contemplate it a group of intimate rooms, every one holding new reveals and surprises. It’s possible you’ll need to duck, as an illustration, in case you spy a snake close to a foggy water fountain. Elsewhere, a cupboard by no means stops quivering as we await its door to swing open. Months went into setting up the encompassing fences and the vintage-inspired lined picket bridge — Enea and Ana run a development agency — and luxuries similar to holidays had been skipped because the household estimates that not a night or weekend glided by with out some work performed on the haunted home. Ana places the overall value at someplace within the $20,000 vary. And Rena is fast to joke, “Don’t ask concerning the DWP invoice.”
The Hatteras Halloween Home
In a approach, the hang-out appears like an extension of the household’s dwelling. On a current afternoon the 4, plus Darragh Hettrick, Nia’s accomplice, had been gathered in a lounge that felt like a mixture of an vintage retailer, a tarot tent and an apothecary haven. Or maybe the embodiment of a witch’s coven — candles, crystals and fantastical gadgets (a small mermaid hangs on one wall) — grace the house.
“It’s not simply Halloween,” Enea says. “We’re form of drawn to the darker aspect of every little thing in life. Every thing is just a bit left of middle. Loads left of middle.”
“We’re trying to marry the darkish with the sunshine,” Ana says, noting she’s held a fascination with Halloween, costumes and masks since early childhood.
A creepy girl determine at The Hatteras Halloween Home.
(David Butow / For The Instances)
The household’s haunts at first began comparatively modest — a hodgepodge of Halloween decorations. However within the final 4 years, particularly, the couple and their kids have experimented with numerous themes. Final yr, as an illustration, was a “hell resort,” with rooms themed to demented clowns or terror at sea. Different years they’ve experimented with aliens, full with a 12-foot spaceship hanging above the proceedings.
It grew to become a household craft undertaking taken to its maximalist excessive. Ana says she wished one thing the neighborhood youngsters may expertise totally free. Many neighbors began collaborating, both dropping off previous Halloween decor and even performing within the hang-out. Enea says the undertaking introduced him pleasure throughout our annoying and divisive cultural local weather.
“In these occasions we’re experiencing on this nation and the world, there’s no politics and there’s no faith right here,” Enea says. “We’re actually simply having time. There’s no left or proper. Everyone seems to be simply in it, and having time. I see the expertise of individuals coming by way of with the children, and everyone seems to be simply so blissful. Can’t we’ve that all through the world? I do know it’s Pollyanna pondering, however we may give this little part of Van Nuys happiness.”
The Hatteras Halloween Home is estimated to have drawn about 3,000 individuals final Halloween.
(David Butow / For The Instances)
A number of dwelling haunts all through the San Fernando Valley have been garnering consideration within the Southland in recent times. Jen Spincic in 2020 created the Halloween in Burbank and Past map and website to catalog all of them. Spincic’s accompanying Instagram comprises dives into among the higher recognized, which this yr included a home that’s a mash-up of “Depraved” and “The Wizard of Oz,” a creepy exploration of all-things clowns and a joyous celebration of Disney-inspired tradition.
“Within the final three years it’s actually exploded,” Spincic says. “Increasingly more individuals are adorning. It’s a vacation spot. I see that folks on the information hold calling it ‘Halloween city.’”
Halloween in 2025 typically stretches into the late summer time, and more and more there are conventions, theme parks and movies that remember a spooky temper year-round. Spincic additionally attributes the expansion to our cultural local weather, theorizing individuals want neighborhood and tension-free locations to rally round. “These days all people hates one another, with political variations or no matter it’s,” Spincic says. “It brings individuals collectively. Individuals are laughing, connecting and speaking.”
Props, creepy antiques and bizarre dolls are discovered all through the Hatteras Halloween Home.
(David Butow / For The Instances)
Nevertheless it all raises a query. The Hatteras Halloween Home clearly brings the household nearer. Nia can speak for greater than 5 minutes explaining the byzantine narrative she has constructed for the hang-out. Rena speaks proudly of experimenting with jazzy sounds for the soundtrack (the 2 daughters had been within the now-defunct L.A. rock band Hey Violet). Can they actually quit the hang-out?
Nia says the household is getting nostalgic for the times earlier than they turned their dwelling right into a vacation spot, once they explored the creativity and paintings of others.
“They purchased a cabin and so they need to spend time constructing that subsequent yr,” Nia says of her mother and father. “I don’t assume we will do nothing. Mother and I will probably be on the market subsequent yr placing up some props, however earlier than we began doing the walk-throughs we’d go to Reign of Terror (in Thousand Oaks), and all the house haunts. It was a convention for the household.”
Enea says he additionally wants a break. This yr he labored with the native fireplace division to make sure the hang-out was as much as code, and on Halloween night time they’ve employed actors and safety. However earlier than Enea can chill out, Anna is rattling off a collection of desires for the longer term — maybe the household opens a Halloween-inspired pizza parlor, or perhaps a “haunted” dwelling that may be rented out.
“My concepts are limitless,” she says. “I simply have to determine the right way to pull Kenny in on it.”
And moments after the household talks concerning the haunted home’s retirement, as an illustration, additionally they converse excitedly of the Krampus determine they bought that can make an look this Christmas season. They are able to take away the hang-out from the yard, however don’t count on the Hatteras home to utterly go quietly into the night time.
The Hatteras Halloween Home comes with an elaborate, barely hidden backstory for friends who need to dig deep.
(David Butow / For The Instances)
