Halloween is bittersweet for creator of handmade horrors
There’s a house in Orlando that shows every sign of being haunted.
Garrick Spears’ home, on Orange Avenue just south of Mills Avenue, is covered in large spiders and skeletons — presumably humans who had the misfortune of meeting the spiders. And in the north corner of the yard, three specters are bellowing in the wind. It’s probably not coincidence a graveyard lies just before them.
Spears, 53, is a fan of all things spooky. And those elaborate terrors on his yard are his creations.
“We have a captive audience on this road,” Spears said. “It’s fun to create these things, and it’s more fun to see people’s reactions.”
Spears, who works in IT for Florida Hospital, has long been a Halloween fan, thanks in part to talents he inherited from his parents and their encouragement.
His mother, Leda, designed costumes for local theater groups. His father, Richard, often recruited by his wife to design sets, helped craft Spears’ first-ever Halloween costume: Sesame Street’s Oscar the Grouch.
“My dad made me a trash can I could stick my arms and legs through and walk around in,” Spears said proudly. “My dad could do anything.”
Spears later began applying the prop and costumedesign skills his parents taught him toward Halloween.
But his enjoyment for the holiday was challenged 18 years ago, when his father went into surgery after a diagnosis revealed an aortic aneurysm. He never woke up — and died on Halloween.
The following year, Spears entered a costume contest and won $1,000.
“I actually felt kind of guilty about that when I thought about my dad . ... But when I told my mom about it, she said to me that she was sure he’d be proud,” Spears recalled. “I thought, ‘OK, maybe it’s all right to be happy on Halloween.’” His mother died earlier this year.
Spears has won a total of $12,000 in costume contests — most of them are off-color, including his “Lindsey’s addiction” costume, which consisted of Spears wearing a pill bottle for Lindsay Lohan.
“Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, there’s a lot of money to be made in dressing in indecent costumes,” Spears said. “I’d like to think that Dad would be pretty proud of $12,000.”
Spears and his partner, Will Wallace, moved two years ago into the Orange Avenue home, which could work as a haunted house without any of Spears’ decorations. Built in 1926, it’s an old-Florida house with a basement — a rarity in the Sunshine State. Creaky hardwood floors and electric candle lights built into the walls add to the somebody-is-watchingus vibe.
“When we first moved in here, we used to joke about this place being haunted,” he said.“Things would move; we’d hear sounds. So, the house to me is perfect for Halloween decorating.”
The props on Spears’ lawn are made from scratch. Last year he turned a lot of heads with his three ghosts, all sporting glowing white cloaks and uncomfortably life like facial features.
This year, he upped his game with the creation of a full-sized man caught in an enormous spiderweb.
“I think that’s the one I’m most proud of,” Spears said. “It took about six to eight hours to finish up. … When it was done I backed away and looked up at it. The thought of it being caught in a web like this, it honestly gave me a shiver.”
Though he thrives on creating creepy decorations, Spears makes is clear that there is a reward for trickor-treaters brave enough to walk past the spiders: Extra-large candy bars.
Surprisingly, Spears hates scary movies — especially movies that exploit gore. But he loves spooky things and being creative, like his dad.
“These days Halloween is still bittersweet,” Spears said. “But I believe he knows I’m doing something I enjoy.”