SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Just in time for Halloween, a haunted house unlike many others has taken over San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Every inch of it is handmade.
Called The Haunt, the installation opened over the weekend, and features a maze of monsters and ghosts crafted entirely from everyday materials, from tissue and tape, to pipe cleaners and cardboard.
What they’re saying:
“It’s kind of like a swampy moth forest,” said artist Aaron Wojack, a co-founder of the creative collective, Bat Witch Ghost. “There’s a lot of nostalgia in this, for the haunted houses I went to when I was a young person.”
The DIY haunted house, which debuted last year as an experiment inside Wojack’s Mission District apartment building, has grown into a full-scale experience filled with hand-painted sets, papier-mache creatures, and eerie video projections that tell a continuous ghost story.
For families, The Haunt offers a more whimsical take on Halloween.
“It was spooky but appropriate for kids. We loved it,” said mother Bianca Foss of Petaluma.
“My favorite part was watching my daughter go from hesitant to brave running through shouting, I’m not afraid of you.” said father David Pocci.
The couple attended one of the center’s afternoon “family friendly” shows. Evening shows offer a little more scare, with live performers around every corner.
Every detail of this haunted house is a deliberate counter to the AI-driven commercial decorations dominating store shelves this season.
“It was just so inventive,” said Foss. “You can tell how much heart and hard work went into it.”
The Haunt runs through Nov. 1 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.
The Source: Original reporting by Zak Sos of KTVU