Haunted Carnival, Creepy Clowns In Rancho Santa Margarita

RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, CA — Step right up, don't be shy! But perhaps you should be scared. This Halloween, the family who in years' past have produced the Wonderful Wizard of Oz and other unique holiday attractions have outdone themselves with the creepiest carnival you've ever laid eyes on.

All sets at the house were made from scratch, according to residents Bart Ortberg and Frank Welch. Neighbors of the 5 Allyssum residence already can't wait to see the clowns and carnival in action on Halloween night.

For Ortberg, who has always decked the halls from Halloween through the holidays, it is more about celebrating his beloved "Beepa," who passed away in July.

"(My father) loved being part of Halloween at our home each year," Ortberg told Patch. "Dad would answer the door, praise costumes and pass out candy. I'd always tell him, 'only one piece per child or we'll run out!' But he never listened."

In honor of his father's love of Halloween, this year, the family has gone over the big top!

For weeks, they have labored over the decor, the majority of which Welch made from scratch.

While putting up the spinning wheel, a car stopped, and those inside rolled down their windows, leaned out and just started applauding, Ortberg told us.

"The other night, we heard this family coming down the sidewalk, and one of the kids said, 'Mommy, we're almost at the best haunted house!'"

Their love of Halloween stretches back to the 70s, when he was a child, though they've come a long way from hanging up his mother's best bed sheets in their makeshift "chamber of horrors." He's always loved Queen Mary's Dark Harbor, and Knott's Scary Farm. Now, Ortberg volunteers as a "scare actor" at Scream in the Dark Haunted Maze: Lake Forest.

"I think back and realize, if I would have had someone putting up all this Halloween stuff, with fog, sound effects, lights, in my neighborhood as a child in the 70s, I would have loved it and been so excited!" he told us.

"Also this year, we've partnered with a neighbor in town. He's going to bring over a box for our visitors to drop off a nonperishable food item, if they like, which will be donated to the area's homeless."

Enormous animatronic clowns talk and move, hanging clowns drape from the eaves and peer from the upstairs windows, and if you're brave enough to ask the carnival barker for a piece of candy perhaps you can get one before you run away!

Visitors can decide if they're brave enough to take the scary trick-or-treat path toward the psychotic clowns, or take the fun filled carnival path to play games in advance of their candy collection.

"My mother and friends will be running the carnival games, outside," he told us.

It is a labor of love, both of his father's memory and an enduring love of the season... both the fun, and the frightening.

So be sure to head to 5 Allyssum, Rancho Santa Margarita ... and decide how brave you are or how much fun you will have at the Halloween Carnival.

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