Halloween is almost upon us, which means that you and everybody you know should be on the lookout for fun ways to celebrate our most dark and sinister holiday. Personally, my favorite way to enjoy October is by watching scary movies at a breakneck speed. For those seeking to kick things up a notch, a horror-themed Airbnb in the California mountains may just do the trick.
Unique Stays Club, the family-owned company behind the property, has styled it to remind visitors of their favorite horror films. The house (advertised on Airbnb as: “Horror Themed Cabin! Retro Scary Movie-Inspired”), is located in the remote region of Sugarloaf, not far from the scenic Big Bear Lake in southern California. A wonderfully retro, midcentury modern interior includes a bathroom intentionally set up to look like the bathroom from The Shining, replete with a door bearing a “REDRUM” inscription and an ax stuck in it.
Also spotted in various videos and pictures of the rental: a replica of the Necronomicon, from The Evil Dead; an upholstered goat head that evokes The Witch; a “hacked” rotary phone that reproduces quotes from horror films when you pick it up; Freddy Krueger’s sweater hanging in a closet. The apartment is also rigged to creep visitors out with weird noises and flickering lights, though these effects can be turned off by flipping a wall switch labeled “Exorcise Demons.”
The images of the rental are really something else:
If watching scary movies is one of the most enjoyable parts of the Halloween season, the horror cabin may be the ideal location to watch them since it feels like a locale right out of Friday the 13th. The rental includes a selection of horror favorite DVDs and streaming, the owners have said.
SFGATE recently interviewed members of the DeRose family, who own Unique Stays Club. They note the importance of “theming”—the industry trend that sees rental owners getting creative to draw in customers. “Without the theming, I think we would be struggling up there,” Travis DeRose, co-manager of the Big Bear cabin, told the outlet. “We don’t have a view, we don’t have a Jacuzzi or a pool or any of those luxury amenities — but we do have a switch that turns on special effects that scare you.”
To check out more views of the Unique Stays Club horror cabin you can head to their Instagram, where there are plenty of pictures and videos to give you an idea of what a stay with them will look like.