By Mary Ann Bourbeau
HOLMDEL – Halloween was once a time for jack-o’-lanterns, scarecrows, Casper the Friendly Ghost costumes and trick-or-treating. Somewhere along the line, adults co-opted the holiday and everything changed.
The adultification of Halloween spread with the release of movies in the “Halloween” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street” franchises, combined with gore fests like “Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” Next came realistic haunted houses, spooky theme parks, parades and elaborate yard displays that rival those at Christmastime. Pretty soon, bars were organizing Halloween events filled with drunken, costumed revelers.
But Jasen Smith wants to bring back the wholesome Halloweens of days past. The Wall Township native is the founder of the Los Angeles-based Experiential Supply Company, which creates fully immersive large-scale experiences for film studios in Hollywood. Once the pandemic hit, he pivoted the company to create its own experiences and the result was Haunt O’Ween. It was designed in 2020 as a drive-thru experience in his Los Angeles neighborhood.
“My oldest daughter was born on Halloween, so it’s a big event in our house,” said Smith. “I thought, what if we recreated the entire holiday in one place where families can come in their cars?”
Last year in Los Angeles, Smith was able to create an in-person event with over 100,000 guests, myriad activities and even more candy – over 3 million pieces. This year, he chose New Jersey to begin a national expansion. Haunt O’Ween, an all-ages, interactive Halloween playground, will take place in the parking lot of Bell Works in Holmdel Sept. 10 through Oct. 31.
“What better place than coming full circle to Monmouth County where I grew up?” asked Smith.
The event encompasses more than 200,000 square feet covered in 35,000 pumpkins, with lots of spooky fun and nine distinctive and wholly immersive Halloween worlds for children of all ages. Visit the Funnybones Ranch, Hidden Hollows, the Fangtastic Fair and Ghoul Town, and walk through the Pumpkin Tunnel. Go trick-or-treating in the Town of Haunt O’Ween. There will be face painting, pumpkin carving, rides, games, trick-or-treating, a dance rave, sand art, live character performers and much more. It’s all included for one price and guests can stay as long as they want.
“It’s a Hollywood-level production right in your backyard,” said Smith, who wanted to create something his three daughters, ages 6, 4 and 2, could enjoy. “It’s spooky fun with ghosts and goblins, not blood and gore. No one will be scared.”
Kids can ride on a carousel, jump in bounce houses, glide down slides and be part of a dance flash mob in a 60-foot illuminated dome. There will be musical and stunt performers and an inordinate amount of photo opportunities. There will also be food and drinks available for purchase, including signature cocktails for the adults.
It took six months of planning and a team of 200 to create the Haunt O’Ween experience.
“We’ve worked very hard this year,” said Smith. “This is about families having a safe and incredibly fun place to enjoy the holiday.”
Smith graduated from Wall Township High School with the goal of becoming a police officer. When he discovered it wasn’t his passion, he dropped out of college his junior year and began working in a gym.
“It wasn’t really a good move, but I learned a lot about sales, marketing and business,” he said. “I knew it was just a temporary stop.”
He later began selling advertising on the frames surrounding televisions inside bars, and soon he began coming up with bigger and better marketing ideas. He had a friend who was doing experiential ad marketing, similar to what he was doing but on a much larger scale. His first major motion picture job was with Paramount Studios for a “Mission Impossible” movie, where he created an obstacle course in which fans could run like Tom Cruise, diving into a tank, balancing on the wing of a plane and rappelling off a building. Since then he has created experiences for movies like “Frozen” and “Ford vs. Ferrari.”
“I come up with the ideas and my team executes them,” said Smith. “It’s pretty damn fun.”
Tickets for Haunt O’Ween start at $40 and children under the age of 2 are free. For more information, visit hauntoween.com/new-jersey.
The article originally appeared in the September 15 – 21, 2022 print edition of The Two River Times.
