FAIRMONT — Between wailing banshees, howling werewolves and mummy “wrap” music — well, it’s enough to wake the dead in Fairmont, as Halloween nears.
Of course, that’s the object of the exercise as mad scientists channel their inner Frankenstein at haunted houses throughout town.
“Come on, people. Just because there’s some scary monster out there … we still have to exist,” said Tim Liebrecht, Main Street Fairmont executive director, of COVID-19. “We’ve lost a lot of joy and the element of fun. We’re scared with fear. We need to recapture our sense of community, our sense of culture and have some fun.”
People can be safe and sensible about COVID, but also need to live their lives, he said.
And area residences decked out for the holiday allow those driving or walking by to get in the spooky spirit while maintaining pandemic precautions.
At Morgan’s Dead and Breakfast on Coleman Avenue, an Addams family butler with Igor eyes greets you at this house of fright, where Halloween haute monde meet for after-life, party-down pandemonium. The one and only Howlin’ Werewolf DJs this fete.
He is known for his chain-link bling and amped up, full-moon “AHH-WOO.” Nearby, a skeleton horse pulls an ornate funeral coach, transporting some stiff to his just desserts. The driver, a proud member of the Skull and Bones society, appears to be suffering late-stage ketosis.
It’s clown world, as you ascend the stairs to the porch that is Monty Python meets Friday the 13th. A mobility-challenged, one-eye, hand-less, peg-leg Captain Hook swaggers about. Meanwhile, a headless horsemen sports his jack-o’-lantern head.
The haunting hour is near as the witch stirs a very fine bloodreaux in her cauldron to go with the Texas chain saw corpse cooking on the grill. Old Sparky, the electric chair, snaps, crackles and pops a cadaver who forgot to pay his energy bill.
The Morgan family, Michael, Karen and their three children, go all out decorating, starting about six weeks before Halloween, since it takes so much time.
The family makes the most of their decorations, and they have some animatronic figures mixed in with the dozens of Halloween elements. While they have decorated for several years, this is the Morgans’ first time decorating their newly purchased, historic home. However, Michael grew up in the neighborhood and remembers trick or treating as a kid. He recalls how his dad loved Halloween and would “go all out” decorating.
“We do it so people can enjoy it,” Michael said. “Halloween is for everyone. Everybody has lost so much. No one has made any good memories this year, and this is one good memory.
“We’re going to be out there, giving out candy and hoping for trick-or-treaters,” he added. “And this makes masking fun.”
“I love Halloween,” Brooke, 8, said. “I love the grill, because the bones look real and fake.”
On Emerson Street, goth pales in comparison to a banshee as she rises out of her mausoleum, floating in the night air. There’s that Mona Lisa smile haunting the stitched mouth. The darkened, shadow eyes are set against a whiter-than-white skin that would shame a Clorox commercial. She keens and wails above the cemetery that houses “RIP” and “Pearly Gates.”
Halloween music and spooky lights adorn the old house as a shrewish hag tends her bubbling kettle, adding pinches of toad skin and grave dust as well as drops from a bottle of nightmares. Nightly, she applies this wrinkle-removing face serum that eats away rust and turns skin green. She swears she looks centuries younger.
The Grim Reaper steals the upstairs, outdoor parlor scene. The towering figure in the black hooded cloak is holding a lantern near a coffin under a floating ghost. Skeletons and spirits abound, as well as mirrors that reflect, alas, only humans. Art abounds in this parlor. A lovely portrait of newlyweds Mr. and Mrs. Bones bears a ghoulish resemblance to the American Gothic painting. A trio of deaf Beethoven busts shout at one another. When you don’t have hands, sign language can be difficult. Certainly, the priceless replica of Rodin’s The Thinker is a masterpiece of skeletal remains.
“Halloween is my favorite time of year,” said Mark Kitchen, who with his house mate, Jason Kellison, created this haunted house.
Since August, the pair have been cobbling together objects from Goodwill, yard sales, discards and store-bought decorations to create their Disneyland of Horror. They enjoy the season and hope that trick-or-treaters will come and hang five in their Boo vibe.
“Halloween is especially important now with what’s going on,” Kitchen said. “We want to make people happy, we want them to say ‘Wow.’ ”
For five years, C & D Bunner Family Spooky Yard Hunt has brought a glow-in-the-dark, fright fest to their Bunner Ridge family haunt, several miles out of town. Part of the thrills and chills is the winding road trek out to the middle of nowhere: A perfect isolated place where you discover a haunted maze and spooky area.
The towering, 10-foot high maze of night glow horrors is jam-packed with blood-curdling scares in this maze worthy of King Minos’ labyrinth. There are about 60-themed rooms and areas rank with zombies, corpses, aliens, vampires, evil clowns and a host of other motley monsters around each corner, room or dead end.
“This is for kids of all ages,” said Dorothea. Her husband, Charles, kids and several volunteers work hard to put the fun back into scare. “With the virus going on, we’re trying to get people to have something to look forward to do.”
“We want to keep Halloween alive.”
By Jana Mackin
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