AN Atherton couple has something “scary” for everyone at their house this Halloween – with a display full of “creepy graveyards, werewolves and spiders.”
Lauren Allister, 30, and Paul Hilton, 36, are bringing the “screams” at their Powys Street home. People can see their display through to November 1.
Lauren said: “We wanted to do everything from dragons, werewolves, spiders to clowns, and haunted graveyards.
“So we could make sure everyone's scared.
“People can look forward to a sensory experience.
“There will be smoke, bubbles, things jumping out at them.
“When people scream, it's kind of a good thing.
“I love horror and jump scares.
“I’ve always been a fan of Halloween. My partner is too.
“We’ve been doing this for six years.
“Our thought was, many people put up displays for Christmas, but you don't often see much for Halloween.
“And we started small.
“The display went down really well.
“The next year, my mum saw an animatronic dragon in Costco and picked it up for us.
“That dragon opened up possibilities. It all started from there.”
When they started, most of the decorations were handmade.
Now they have inflatables, a lava swamp and a smoke machine.
Lauren said: “We've got so much stuff that we can't fit everything out onto the drive.
“Every Halloween, it takes us around two weeks to build and test the animatronics and the display.
“And then about four or five hours each day for Paul to put everything out.
“Any free time in the two weeks leading up to Halloween is spent on that.
“This year we’ve put up a gazebo with a laser swamp that we’ll take down after the holiday.”
And people love to see it.
She said: “It goes down well every year.
“We just like doing it to make everyone happy.”
Lauren and Paul are part of a theatre society and love to give their display a dramatic flair.
She said: “Paul will be outside hiding this year posing as an animatronic. He’ll jump out at people.
“Next year, we plan to get some actors in our theatre society to come on board as like zombies.”
And children have different reactions to the Halloween fun.
Lauren said: “Some cry or don't want to come onto the drive.
“And some think it's brilliant and funny.
“We have kid friendly inflatables with bright colours that aren’t too intimidating.”
And they love to trick-or-treat at their house.
Lauren said: “We'll leave a bowl of sweets in one of the inflatables for children trick-or-treating.
“And when we answer the door on Halloween night, we get dressed up.
“This year, I'm going to be Morticia Adams and Paul will be a clown.”
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