Habilitat launches first drive-thru haunted house at Aloha Stadium

HONOLULU (KHON2) — Typically, there are a number of haunted houses on Oahu that residents can walk through for a good scare, but because of the pandemic the Halloween tradition is a bit different this year.

According to the CDC, traditional in-door haunted houses are considered high-risk because screaming and the lack of social distancing can spread COVID-19.

In order to still provide a spooky Halloween haunted house experience, Habilitat Hawaii created the state’s first drive-thru haunted house at Aloha Stadium.

“It’s safe. You don’t have to get out of your car. You don’t have to roll down your window. In fact, we prefer you don’t,” said Habilitat Hawaii Executive Director Jeff Nash.

Those with tickets will enter the queue at Aloha Stadium.

At the start of the haunted house experience, staff members will ask you to pull up, put your car in park, and turn off the lights.

“We’ve done this whole thing where there’s no contact, even the tickets. You don’t even have to pass a ticket. You just show them the ticket through the window, they scan it, and then you get in the queue to go through,” Nash explained.

The production is elaborate.

“There’s 50 actors. There’s six different scenes here in the parking lot at the stadium, and there’s about 132 people involved in this production,” Nash said.

The experience isn’t just for fun. It’s to raise money for a good cause.

“So 100% of the proceeds from this go directly to Habilitat to help fund the treatment of people that don’t have the means to get treatment,” Nash said. “Basically, our job is to take people who have kind of lost their way in life, and retrain them how to live within the laws of society, and give them the skills necessary to thrive.”

Habilitat Hawaii helps those with drug addictions.

Nash said those participating in the program are the actors for the drive-thru haunted house.

“About the most that’s going to happen is there’s one scene where the girl comes close and taps on the window with her finger, but no, we don’t want to hurt anybody’s car, obviously,” Nash reassured. “So it’s a no-touch kind of thing. There is some water in there, but it’s just tap water.”

Habilitat Hawaii already sold-out of tickets for the month, but the organization is considering adding more dates.

“What we’ve noticed is that there’s a lot of people that are just itching to get out and do something, but they want it to be safe,” Nash said.

To purchase tickets, click here.