“Boo!” Out of the darkness a skeleton lunges at your ankles. Its ghostly coffin illuminates a field of tombstones and a blood red tree in a spooky green light. A ghastly orange skull, as tall as the tree, looms out of the dark with fog billowing from its cloaked figure as a cackling witch circles a pot on a broomstick.
The only thing between you and them is a jagged wooden fence, sharpened stakes haphazardly arrayed like broken teeth. To your left the grim reaper beckons, lanterns in hand, to enter through its cloak and to brave the horrors beyond... All for a piece of candy.
“We went a little above and beyond this year,” admitted Chris and Misty Bowman of the South White Oak Neighborhood, conveniently located in town, just south of the Marshfield Cemetery heading on towards the First Baptists Church.
Standing below a ghoulish figure in a tattered robe at least four times their height, the couple are the mad creators behind an unique decorated house featuring a trick-or-treat path that traverses haunted graveyards, bewitched lawns, spider-infested tunnels, and cursed pumpkin-patches.
“In little towns like Marshfield, we just don’t have a lot of big extravagant things for kids to really enjoy,” explained Chris. "We wanted to make a place for the neighbor kids and everybody else to come.”
However, turning your home into a haunted horror scene is no easy task. The spiked fence, made with a bucket of nails and a heap of discarded pallets, took a month of construction alone. Other decorations have been bought, modified, or assembled from basic materials to add to the spookiness.
Homemade fog machines in ice coolers, a custom-built tunnel, and a sea of boxes in their garage further evidence the dedication of these modern day Frankensteins to their craft.
“We’ve always loved Halloween, but our daughter was the one to really push us to do this” added Chris.
As for the reward of braving their horrors, what candy lay at the end of the tunnel? “We would like for that to be a surprise,” Chris said with a grin. For those who dare, it may not be the only surprise waiting at this house.
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