Serene Drive is anything but on Halloween night

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Ken Earwood, left, children Mason, Brady, Brooke and wife, Teri, prepare for the 16th annual Earrywood Haunted House in Huntington Beach.

(Scott Smeltzer / Daily Pilot )

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The Earwood family, from left to right, Brooke, Teri, Brady, Mason and Ken, prepare for their Earrywood Haunted House on Serene Street in Huntington Beach.

(Scott Smeltzer / Daily Pilot )

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Ken Earwood shows off a prop at his Earrywood Haunted House in Huntington Beach. The popular attraction is now in its 16th year.

(Scott Smeltzer / Daily Pilot )

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Friends of the Earwood’s Layne Barnes, left, Travin Williamson, center, Aliyah Husaini don doll masks in one of the rooms in Earrywood Haunted House in Huntington Beach on Friday, October 26. (Scott Smeltzer / Daily Pilot )

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Jason Williamson, left, and Greg Barker prepare to attach the front door on the Earrywood Haunted House in Huntington Beach.

(Scott Smeltzer / Daily Pilot )

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Jacob Barker, left, and Brady Earwood attach a piece of plastic over the exit on the Earrywood Haunted House in Huntington Beach on Friday. They are preparing the property for its 16th annual Fright Night.

(Scott Smeltzer / Daily Pilot )

By Priscella Vega

Oct. 30, 2018 12:20 PM PT

The Earwood family transforms its Huntington Beach home into a haunted house every Halloween with creepy clowns, chainsaws, dolls, blacked-out rooms and tributes to iconic horror film villains, such as Michael Myers (“Halloween”) and Freddy Krueger (“A Nightmare on Elm Street”).

As spook-seekers wait in line to enter the attraction, a fog machine sets the mood. Horror films project onto a rooftop screen.

“We try to play to all of your senses for classic scares,” Ken Earwood said.

Small, tight rooms and hallways, he explained, elicit the best screams.

The event began as a Halloween-themed birthday party for their son, Brady, that snowballed into an annual neighborhood production. The haunted house, which is set up in their backyard, is in its 16th year. About 1,500 people visit annually.

Given neighborhood expectations, advance planning is a must. The family, as well as friends who volunteer at the haunted house, begin brainstorming scary ideas over Labor Day and start building sets and decorating rooms by mid-September.

“We go to all the haunted houses every year to get ideas,” Earwood said.

Unlike popular attractions, such as Knott’s Scary Farm, Earwood said they only guide three to four guests through the home at a time so they get the “full experience.”

The Earwoods spend about $2,000 annually to build elaborate sets and purchase new costumes and props.

“We’ve had people come out screaming, laughing, crying,” he said. “It’s what it’s about for us. It’s one way to take everyone’s mind off everything. Everyone loves to be scared.”