How Erick Yaro Wessel Built a Horror
Haven in Burbank
When you step inside The Mystic Museum on Magnolia Boulevard, you’re not just shopping—you’re entering an immersive world of horror nostalgia, movie magic, and oddities. Owner Erick Yaro Wessel has transformed a vintage curiosity shop into a mecca for horror fans and an anchor of Burbank’s thriving Magnolia Park “horror district.”
“If you just be yourself, people will see that. Put your heart and soul into it, and it shows.”
Wessel’s story begins in Simi Valley, California, where he was born, but his formative years unfolded in Cleveland, Ohio. “I always tell people I’m from Cleveland because that’s what I resonate with,” he explains. After moving back to Southern California in his mid-twenties, he sought a change of pace—and a chance to make something of his own.
A simple “For Rent” sign set the wheels in motion. “I was just walking down Magnolia Park and saw the sign in the window,” he recalls. “It clicked as soon as I saw it… It was my time to take that leap and start my own business.”
At first, Wessel’s shop was a straightforward vintage store. “My whole house was decorated vintage—hand-me-downs from my grandparents. Old furniture, antique tools, knickknacks,” he says. But he quickly realized he needed to stand out among Magnolia Park’s many retro boutiques.
“I thought, how do I differentiate myself? And then I realized—I just had to be myself.”
That meant leaning into his lifelong love of odd stuff and creepy things—taxidermy, horror collectibles, and cult movie memorabilia. With limited funds, Wessel literally sold items from his own apartment to fill the shelves. Over time the shop evolved into the Bearded Lady Vintage & Oddities and, later, the Mystic Museum brand in 2016.
Although Wessel’s main passions growing up were music and skateboarding, horror was always in the background. “I would sneak out of bed to watch USA Up All Night and all the horror movies they’d play—Elvira and all that stuff,” he says.
“Once I started the shop, it brought me back home. It grounded me.”
Even today, Wessel keeps music in his life. He plays in a pop-punk/emo cover band performing early-2000s hits by Blink-182, Fall Out Boy, and Taking Back Sunday. “For me, it’s therapy. Some people have poker night or go bowling; I play music,” he says.
The Mystic Museum isn’t just a retail space. It’s an interactive experience—a cross between a museum, movie set, and Instagram-ready photo studio. That concept began in the original shop, a tiny former doctor’s office å tåwo giant Halloween Town stores.
“We built our first photo op in the reception area of that little house. That led to the immersive Mystic Museum we have now.”
Today, visitors buy tickets to enter elaborate, movie-style sets dotted with animatronics, scent effects, soundscapes, and hidden triggers. The current exhibit even gives guests a “fake knife” to activate scares throughout the space.
Wessel designs most sets himself, blending carpentry, set dressing, and curation, but he also works closely with professional artists. “A lot of my friends are special-effects artists for TV and film,” he says. “Sometimes the same people who built the original studio props make ours from the original molds. You can’t get that anywhere else.”
When asked about his favorite horror movie, Wessel doesn’t hesitate: “Monster Squad.” “It’s basically The Goonies of horror movies,” he laughs.
“My favorite genre is horror-comedy. But I’m a big fan of anything unique, independent, and new—anything that turns horror on its side.”
Next door to the Mystic Museum is Wessel’s second venture, The Horror Boodega, an all-horror-themed convenience store. On its shelves, even an ordinary Twinkie has a horror connection: featured in Ghostbusters and Zombieland. Other products nod to Beetlejuice or 1980s gross-out nostalgia like Garbage Pail Kids and Madballs.
Wessel’s many tattoos came from anywhere and everywhere—friends, shops, and artists he’s met through his work. Mystic Museum has long been a hub for local artists, including tattooists, who once exhibited in regular art shows.
Ask Wessel what his art form is, and he answers without hesitation: “Curating and creating immersive experiences.”
“It’s a cross between set design, photo-op design, and immersive theater.”
He compares Mystic Museum to “the Museum of Illusions or Ice Cream Museum mixed with Universal Horror Nights.” He sketches the concepts and activation ideas, then works with a team to handle programming, animatronics, and effects. “You can’t do everything yourself,” he says. “When you mix your art with other people’s art, you create something really special and unique.”
In recent years, Wessel has expanded into building installations for others under Mystic Museum Productions. For Paramount Scares at the Midsummer Scream convention, his team built a giant haunted movie theater with multiple photo ops. They’re now creating a haunted walkthrough for Evil Dead In Concert at downtown L.A.’s Million Dollar Theater, where an orchestra performs the film’s score live.
Why Burbank? Wessel calls it “the real Hollywood.” “This is where the studios are, the special-effects makeup artists, the set designers. Being close to the people who work in the horror film industry is a plus,” he explains. Over the years, more horror stores have opened nearby, turning Magnolia Park into a unique destination.
Running two stores, building exhibits, and gigging with a band isn’t easy. “If you try to see me juggle alone, you can’t—I can’t do it,” Wessel admits with a smile. “You need help. Even with help, it’s hard.”
He’s learned to take things one day at a time and guard against burnout. “It’s really hard to sit back and enjoy what you’ve created,” he says. “Even when you’re a popular store, you still struggle with the economy and bills. You have to do the stuff you don’t like as well as the stuff you do.”
“If you just be yourself, people will see that. If you can show your passion in your work, it shows. You have to actually like it. You have to keep doing it. And you have to not let other people bring you down.”
For Wessel, that authenticity has built not only a business but a community—a living museum of horror nostalgia that keeps growing year after year.
Originally published in www.theburbankblabla.com.
