Halloween is the one night out of the year that people can face their fears head-on. Many local residents have turned their homes into nightmare realms, but they may not be as scary as they seem.  Local resident Alan Baxter is the creator of the “Bar Harbor Scares” home haunt. Baxter said this is his fifth year putting on the elaborate home haunt and it all started with his daughter, Grace Baxter.  Several years ago, his daughter brought up how she wanted to go through a Halloween haunted maze, but she was nervous about getting too scared. She wanted to experience the fun of going through a maze and getting spooked. So, Baxter decided to create a home haunt that would be entertaining and chilling for families.  “I know Halloween sometimes the haunts can focus on things that are either gory or violent or too intense for young kids,” said Baxter. “And so for me, I wanted to have something where the kids can actually walk through and not just look at it from a distance and experience it and have their first haunted house walk-through experience.”  His goal was for the visitors of “Bar Harbor Scares” to have a positive association with Halloween and build up their confidence when going through mazes.  Throughout his five years of transforming his front yard, he said he constantly sees the same families coming back to enjoy it. This year the theme focuses on old-school haunted house elements. Baxter said as an ’80s kid, he wanted to recreate his childhood experience with Halloween for this generation.  Baxter has his display up for the remainder of October and Nov. 1.  Newhall resident Chad Nix is another creator of a home haunt. Nix has also been hosting an immersive walk-through for five years. This year his walk-through is called “Wildwood Ghost Town” and centers around a wild West theme.  Nix said recently there has been more attention on his haunted walk-through.  “Last Halloween, we had a huge line down the driveway and into the dirt road, and just seeing people excited about coming. It was great energy and an atmosphere for a street that’s normally pretty quiet for Halloween stuff,” said Nix.  His walk-through maze features live actors who take guests through the abandoned ghost town. Nix said a newly added feature this year is interactive special effects.  “It’s supposed to be a ghost town from the California gold rush, and it’s called Wildwood because we’re located back in Wildwood Canyon,” said Nix. “The old West theme is really fun to do because of the history of Newhall and where our city came from.”  Nix got started building walk-through mazes when he moved to Wildwood Canyon. He said his house had the ideal setup for a maze and he had a passion for building.  “I love building and creating stuff, and our walk-through is built out of mostly recycled and found materials,” said Nix. “So old fences, stuff I find on the side of the road, it’s a fun, creative outlet to make a fun, family-friendly experience for our community.”  Other local residents have put together intricate yard displays featuring animatronics and decorative lights.  Mark Hartman, creator of the “Witch City” yard display, said he has been building different parts of his display and adding them together since 2019.  Hartman used to work in special effects and does lighting for the film industry. He said has a huge love for Halloween and wanted to join the two together.  “I thought it’d be fun just to do an over-the-top decoration weeks before Halloween. So every night, parents and their kids could go for a walk and just kind of enjoy it,” said Hartman.  He added that he felt that during the pandemic Halloween was “cancelled” and diminished. In the recent years, Hartman has wanted to build a display that gives people the Halloween spirit.  “I built a 20-foot Reaper back in 2019 that was kind of fun. And then in 2020 I built a giant pumpkin-headed Reaper thing. And then around 2020, I started purchasing animatronics and making it more of an interactive sort of thing where there’s press pads and you can trigger various animatronics as you walk through it,” said Hartman.  Witch City sits on Hartman’s walkway and is an intricate display featuring animatronics, lights and characters Hartman has made.  Hartman said it is rewarding to see families every year enjoy the hard work that goes into making the displays. With such a busy schedule and limited days off, Hartman said any chance he got on his days off he would spend between eight to 10 hours setting up the display to be ready for October.  “The imagination and the thrill of confronting our fears, because I feel like kids and adults alike, when you confront your fears, we get a little bit stronger. We get a little bit braver,” said Hartman. “And to me, that’s kind of what Halloween is all about. It’s about enjoying the things that scare you in a safe environment and knowing that that you can conquer your fears.”  Hartman said he hopes more people get into the Halloween spirit and decorate their houses in an elaborate way.  For listings of Halloween haunts and events, go to signalscv.com/2024/10/2024-scv-halloween-haunts. If you would like to submit a haunt to be added to the list, please email the information to [email protected].  The post Santa Clarita’s Local Hunted Houses and Events  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.