Built in the driveway, garage and side yard of DJ LaForge’s home on Rebel Way is Rebel Yell, a dilapidated plywood Victorian home filled with horrors that’s eight miles south of San Jose State.
Rebel Yell Haunted House, also called a “haunt,” tells the story of a mad scientist living in the Rebel Hill Funeral Home, performing human experiments in a desperate attempt to bring his family back to life.
Originally, Rebel Yell started as a front yard graveyard where LaForge and friend Ernie Lopez would hide and scare people.
“But then we wanted to get more elaborate, put on more of a show,” Lopez explained.
The haunt evolved from there, becoming more complex each year.
LaForge said even though nobody can go through and come out with enough knowledge of the narrative to write a book, the story helps make the haunt cohesive.
“We don’t have Freddy Krueger, we don’t have Jason, we don’t have people chasing you around with chainsaws,” LaForge said. “We want to scare people, we want to have jumpscares. But, more than that, we want it to be cool.”
One of the main inspirations for Rebel Yell is Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion.
“It’s got that immersive, cool escape from reality kind of thing,” LaForge said. “We want it to be an experience that takes you out of reality for a minute.”
The haunt isn’t just an escape for its guests.
“I come out here and work on this, and I’m not thinking about work,” LaForge said. “I’m not thinking about bills. I’m not thinking about the fact that I’ve got to repair my washing machine or whatever else.”
Actors jump out from hidden spaces throughout the haunt.
The haunt’s eight pneumatics aren’t controlled by timers, steps pads or motion sensors. They’re controlled by someone pressing buttons while sitting in a central control room.
“Which is, number one, safer,” LaForge said. “And number two, a lot more fun.”
The mechanics of pneumatic devices use compressed air, according to Britannica, and can greatly injure someone if they are at a close enough range.
Since the pneumatic devices are controlled by someone watching a camera, they can make sure no one has their face right over the machine when it goes off.
“Also you can time it to get just that person in the group that you want to scare,” LaForge said.
LaForge credits Ernie Lopez with doing most of the engineering work behind Rebel Yell.
“He would come to me with ‘Hey, how do we think we could do this?’,” Lopez said.
Lopez said one of his favorite pieces he’s made is the “haunted bookcase” which opens “automatically” when a button is pushed on the control panel.
“Early on, we liked the idea of having a secret entrance,” Lopez said. “And you pull a candlestick and open the door. Like a classic movie motif.”
Despite being called one of the “scariest home haunts” in America in a 2007 episode of the T.V. show “Route 666,” the haunt can get a variety of reactions.
Tom Logan, a haunt contributor who helped set up the haunted house, says there’s a variety of reactions from the attraction.
“I get everything from a scared adult to a five-year-old who laughs at it,” Logan said.
The hard part of running the haunt, according to LaForge, is building it – a process that can take over a month – and tearing it down – which can take a couple weeks.
Rebel Yell is free-to-enter, but does take donations for the local charity Angels on Stage.
Angels on Stage is a non-profit dedicated to enhancing the lives of special needs children and young adults through professional performing arts, according to the charity’s website.
“We figured we would just do a local charity that was near and dear to our hearts,” Lopez said.
Lopez said seeing the positive impact Angels on Stage had on his daughter made choosing the charity a no brainer.
“Just getting her out of her shell and making friendships,” Lopez said. “And becoming – as she gets older – a bit more of a mentor to the other kids.”
LaForge estimates that over the past few years Rebel Yell has raised between $3000 and $4000.
This year the haunt was expanded by four feet and included another hallway.
“We keep figuring out ways to improve it even with the limited space we have to work with,” LaForge said.
Rebel Yell opens for a preview night on Saturday 7-9 p.m, 7-10 p.m. Halloween weekend and 6-10 p.m. Halloween night.
