The Spirits Are Calling: The Willows Immersive Experience Returns Just in Time for Halloween

The most chilling dinner party in Los Angeles is back—just in time to summon your Halloween spirit.

The Willows, the city’s most talked about immersive theater experience, has returned for its 10th season with a brand-new home: the historic, and deliciously eerie, Beckett Mansion.

This isn’t your run-of-the-mill haunted house. The Willows is a family gathering where every smile hides a secret, every hallway whispers, and every clink of a wine glass might be your cue to follow a character into the shadows. For two hours, you’re not just watching a story—you’re inside it.

New for 2025, the historic, 120-year-old Beckett Mansion serves as the setting for this season’s chilling tale.

The Beckett Mansion itself previously made news in January 2023, before The Willows moved in. As reported by KABC-TV's ABC 7 Eyewitness News, the 1905 Colonial Revival landmark—designed by Los Angeles City Hall and Griffith Observatory architect John C. Austin—was restored using hemp-based materials. Known as “hempcrete,” the sustainable insulation is fireproof, mold-resistant, and energy-efficient, helping preserve the mansion’s historic grandeur while giving it a modern, eco-friendly edge.

Once a beacon of prestige in LA’s Adams-Normandie neighborhood, the estate had fallen silent recently—until JFI Productions spent the better part of the past year bringing it back to life.

When the production company arrived, the house had no water, no power, no pulse. Now, painstakingly restored and outfitted with carefully sourced furniture and décor, it feels alive again—perhaps a little too much so.

The mansion is more than a backdrop. It’s a character. From its gleaming hardwood floors to the shadows that stretch across its crown moldings, every detail has been staged to transport guests into The Willows’ unsettling family home. And unlike film sets, this one breathes—because you’ll be walking through it, room by room, with only 24 other guests to share in the encounter.

The evening masquerades as a family dinner, but beware: this isn’t the night to show up hungry. What’s served is a symbolic spread—a playful “jarcuterie” with a mini Babybel cheese wheel, pretzels, and nuts, followed by a light soup and a pour of wine. The sustenance you’ll find here isn’t for the stomach; it’s for the imagination. This is theater disguised as supper, where conversation is the main course and revelation is the dessert.

Since its debut, The Willows has sold out more than 1,200 performances and ensnared over 6,000 guests in its tangled web.

Its reputation for sophisticated, spine-tingling storytelling has lured celebrities like Trent Reznor, Anna Kendrick, Jason Sudeikis, Brie Larson, Olivia Wilde, and Madelyn Cline into its orbit.

In Los Angeles, where entertainment options are endless, The Willows has earned the kind of buzz most productions would kill for—fitting, given its subject matter.

Part of the show’s allure is its shape-shifting nature. Every season, the creative team rewrites, retools, and reimagines, ensuring loyal fans never experience the same nightmare twice. With seven narrative tracks playing out simultaneously across the mansion, each guest’s journey is unique. One might find themselves in a hushed library conversation, another swept into a candlelit parlor for a confession. The story evolves moment to moment, breath to breath.

“For nine years, we have consistently sold out our flagship show, Creep LA, so it was only right that we commemorate our tenth season with the return of The Willows, one of the most requested tickets in Los Angeles,” said Justin Fix and J.T. Swierczek, co-founders of JFI Productions. “JFI fans have come to expect premium content that’s equal parts cerebral, shocking, seductive, and, of course, creepy.”

It’s this promise—of something cerebral, shocking, seductive, and creepy—that makes The Willows feel more séance than stage play. The fourth wall isn’t just broken; it’s dissolved.

If this sounds like your kind of twisted family reunion, don’t waste time. September and October performances sold out in a heartbeat, but JFI Productions has added November and early December dates for those still brave enough to make the trek.

Tickets are priced at $250 and can be found at jfiproductions.com. Shows run Thursday through Sunday evenings, offering the perfect macabre capstone to your weekend plans. And though the calendar may inch past Halloween, fear not—November and December are just as dark within the Beckett Mansion’s walls. After all, the dead don’t keep track of holidays.

The 10th season of The Willows also hints at what’s to come: a permanent venue on the horizon, where JFI’s particular brand of interactive nightmares can thrive year-round. The Beckett Mansion may only be its latest haunt, but it proves the point—this isn’t just theater. It’s a living, breathing, terrifying work of art.

So step carefully if you choose to attend. The soup may be warm, the wine inviting, but don’t let your guard down. In this house, family ties are binding, secrets fester, and guests are never quite who they seem. You may leave the mansion at the end of the night—but the mansion won’t leave you.