The house, family are scarily good

Van Nuys clan goes big each Halloween to bring people together while frightening them

- TODD MARTENS

KENNY ENEA and his family say this year will be the last time they will turn their home into the elaborate Hatteras Haunted House.

Photographs by DAVID BUTOW For The Times

About a month ago, as he was lying in a hospital bed after a stroke, Kenny Enea had one main concern: Would the Halloween decorations be completed in time?

"The only thing he was worried about was getting out and finishing," says Ana Lovelis, his partner of 32 years.

After all, if the elaborate front-yard haunt wasn't fully assembled by Oct. 31, eight months of work could be for naught. This is the eighth and final year Enea's family of four will be remaking its Van Nuys property into a frightful, walk-through attraction that spooks thousands of visitors each Halloween.

Today, Enea, 62, is on the path to a full recovery, and the Hatteras Halloween House — its official name, based on the street that borders the home — was wrapped with days to spare. The family is planning a large-scale bash Friday featuring a tarot reader, a handful of actors and even a wedding: Lovelis and Enea have decided that after three-plus decades together, it's time to tie the knot. Their two daughters, Nia and Rena Lovelis, both in their mid-20s, will serve as "best man" and maid of honor.

The Hatteras Halloween House has become one of the more well-known home haunts of the San Fernando Valley, a region now known for extravagant, do-it-yourself Halloween displays, especially in Burbank. To enter is to walk through a small cemetery before encountering a winding array of thematic spaces: A skeleton seated at a decrepit vintage piano gives way to a rickety bridge, a smooshy swampland, a doll-laden tea temple, a chapel and an exorcism room.