Elaborate haunted house took two months
There’s something spooky growing again on Church Drive in South San Jose.
Bob Schiro’s house — which for 10 months of the year looks like all the others on the suburban block — has slowly been transformed into a haunted forest, complete with a wicked looking tree growing out of a cavernous witch’s den. There are crypts and spider webs and scary monsters lurking in the corners, all ready to give a good-natured fright to Halloween visitors.
“I like the challenge of creating something new,” said Schiro, who previously has turned his house into a ghostly pirate ship, a haunted mansion and a ghoulish version of the Hotel De Anza. “We’re not just creating the same thing every time. It motivates me.”
Schiro and his “Boo Crew” of about a dozen people have been working on the new idea since August. The fabrication is like a Hollywood-style set, with a lot of attention to details. The house will be open to visitors on Wednesday and Thursday, from 4:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. each
day, with the first 90 minutes reserved for nonscary visits tours. But after 6 p.m., you’d better be ready to jump.
The Halloween extravaganza, which draws around 5,000 people over the two days, has become an annual tradition on Church Drive for more than a decade. Schiro’s display not only takes over his driveway and front yard but creeps into his neighbors on each side, who get into the spirit along with everyone else.
And it’s helpful that there’s aren’t houses across the street — just the parking lot for Church of the Chimes, which fills up with onlookers during Halloween.
It’s free to visit, but a donation to Second Harvest Food Bank is requested. Last year, even with rain, seven barrels of nonperishable canned goods were donated.
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