I spent £20k making my home a Halloween horror
Traditionalists (myself included) have long grumbled about witches and goblins usurping poor old Guy Fawkes. How could we allow our British Bonfire night to be marginalised by that tacky american import, Halloween, with its pumpkins and its ‘trick or treat’ extortion racket?
Well come back, pumpkins, all is forgiven. Because ghoulish jack-o’-lanterns and roaming gangs of egg-throwing teenagers are positively enchanting compared to the new wave of Halloween displays spreading across the country.
Following yesterday’s reports that police have told a Hampshire cafe to tone down its window display featuring a family massacre, a family in north of England is determined not to be outdone in the quest for Britain’s most grotesque tableau.
rather as with the ‘Ho-Ho Homes’ that blink into neon life every Christmas, we must now look forward to a rash of what you might call Woo-Hoo Homes every october.
take the Waltons of Preston (unlikely to be confused with their wholesome TV namesakes from rural Virginia).
they have spent £20,000 converting their house into a ‘Zombie apocalypse’, with rampaging corpses smashing up a crashed car on the drive and a cornucopia of body parts within. as a result, this House of
Visitors will encounter murderous clowns
terror is thought to be the most decorated Halloween-inspired home in Britain.
they have been planning this year’s display for ten months and even travelled to america to source some of the exhibits. Five temporary rooms have been added to the family home, including a ‘Zombie’s House’, a ‘dracula’s lair’, an ‘Exorcist room’ and a ‘Haunted Carnival’.
Visitors will also encounter several murderous clowns and puppets, including ‘Billy’, the tricycle-riding killer dummy from the horror movie saw. He and his trike can be found in a blood-splattered bathroom.
‘i am definitely a big kid,’ says dad, businessman Chris Walton, 48. ‘i love dressing up and having parties, and it’s escalated from there.’
over the years, his ‘House of terror’ has raised thousands of pounds for charity — and has become increasingly ambitious each time. animatronic horrors and video screens are not the only additions to the 2015 show.
‘this year is the first time we’re using pneumatic props rather than electric ones, so we can control the speed and ferocity,’ says Chris. ‘strangely, it tends to be the clowns that scare people most of all.’
the display is open to the public for free, while visitors will be invited to make a donation to Cancer research.
Manchester residents, meanwhile, can visit the lee family in salford. For the third year running, Martin and sam lee have gone overboard with the red sauce.
this year, their terrace house is a morgue featuring a similar blend of zombie/clown attractions and a particularly enthusiastic chainsaw massacre in the loo. all proceeds to a hospice in llandudno.
Penny for the Guy, anyone?