Houses of Horror: 3 Halloween Haunts Designed by Top L.A. Creatives

The Gorey House

4408 Mariota Ave., Toluca Lake

THE PROS: Emmy-winning production designer and former president of the Art Directors Guild Thomas Walsh (Desperate Housewives, In Plain Sight, Client List and John Carpenter’s Vampires) and his wife, costume designer Merrily Murray-Walsh

CONCEPT: In 2008, Murray-Walsh put together a collage of author and illustrator Edward Gorey’s The Evil Garden, and her husband got out the power tools and paint and created the current look.

WHEN: The Gorey House is up and running through Nov. 3.

The House at Haunted Hill

4400 Saltillo St., Woodland Hills

THE PROS: Emmy-winning lighting designer Matt Ford; his wife, actress Lori Merkle Ford; voice actor Corey Burton; How I Met Your Mother’s Neil Patrick Harris; Emmy-winning writer Ed Valentine; Emmy-nominated composer Christopher Hoag; actors Heather Marie Marsden and Todd Fournier

The House at Haunted Hill

CONCEPT: Although the Fords created the show at their house in 2000 as an homage to Disney’s Haunted House ride, it long since has left that inspiration in the dust. The 12-minute show, mounted by an all-volunteer cast and crew, uses holograms, projections, animatronics and lighting effects to recount the tale of a starlet’s marriage to a screenwriter whose wife and daughter mysteriously have disappeared. Neil Patrick Harris cameos as reporter Snapper Bixby.

WHEN: Oct. 30 through Nov. 3. The free show runs every 15 minutes from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., except on Friday and Saturday, when it goes until midnight. The Fords have the city close the street. Details, parking information: houseathauntedhill.com

Boney Island

4602 Morse Ave., Sherman Oaks

THE PRO: Former Simpsons animation producer Rick Polizzi

Boney Island

CONCEPT: When he couldn’t find Halloween entertainment suitable for his two young daughters, Polizzi, the producer and author with Fred Schaefer of Spin Again: Board Games From the Fifties and Sixties, created Boney Island in his front yard. Inspired by New York’s Coney Island, it originally was conceived as an amusement park. In the 16 years since, the annual display has morphed into what he describes as a “magical water story” with a cast of animated skeletons who perform magic tricks, dance and sing. And with each year, the cost has grown. “Some people might think I’m crazy, but I’ve gotten so much goodwill from it and made so many contacts.”

Boney Island

WHEN: On Oct. 24, the lights to this free display will switch on and will fire up at 6 each night through Halloween. Details: boneyisland.com