We're Back · Halloween 2026

Something is rustling in the orchard. This Halloween it awakens.

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Every Halloween since 2014, Rotting Orchards has shown you the fear between the trees.
In 2026, the mad scientist invites you into his lab.

What Moves in the Dark

Built on IgorBox

Nothing in the orchard moves by accident.

Every branch that reaches for you, every shape that shifts at the edge of your light, answers to IgorBox. The control system was born inside this very haunt, through years of teaching the dark to move on cue. For 2026, the whole orchard runs on it.

See IgorBox
IgorBox
  • Every scare timed to the frame, with light, sound, and motion as one
  • Sensors that feel you coming and spring the trap
  • No two nights alike, with delays, counters, and scares that strike at random
  • Retuned from anywhere, yet it runs the night on its own
The Tale

How It Grew

A home haunt that started small. It did not stay that way.

2013

Mike and Eesa Heijmans raised their first haunt in the yard, half for the neighborhood, half for themselves. The roots went deeper than they knew.

2014

Rotting Orchards took its name. Hand-built mechanical props, bigger and darker, and the first money raised for those who needed it. The news came to look.

2015

The haunt was carried to Elk Grove, California. More than 400 souls walked through the dark, the largest gathering yet.

2016

Three nights. Over a thousand visitors from hundreds of miles. The orchard had grown far past the yard it came from.

2017

It crossed the country to Elmhurst, Illinois, and fell in with the Chicago Haunt Builders, learning from the finest in the craft.

2021

It moved south to Port Orange, Florida. New ground. Deeper roots.

2026

After years in the dark, the orchard wakes. Rebuilt on IgorBox, sharper and more alive than ever, with the same rot at its heart.

Mike Heijmans

Mike Heijmans

Engineer of the unseen. He builds every mechanism and controller that gives the orchard its pulse, and made IgorBox in the process.

Eesa Heijmans

Eesa Heijmans

Keeper of the vision. Artist and designer of the haunt, the eye that makes every corner of the dark feel real enough to run from.

The Cause

The Orchard Gives Back

Rotting Orchards has never been for profit. Every year, the fear you find between the trees raises money for a different cause.

For 2026, the choice is yours. Give to the Marine Science Center in nearby Ponce Inlet, or help Eesa's retired mobility service dog, Chuck Norris. This year he needed a $6,000 surgery to cut out cancer. He was insured for life by Nationwide, until they dropped him last year along with thousands of other pets.

Come for the scares. Leave something behind for a good soul.