By Kyra Gillespie
Cobwebs, dismembered hands in letter boxes and giant fake spiders adorned homes and front gardens, while ghoulishly-garbed trick-or-treaters took to the streets in search of candy across Cardinia to celebrate Halloween.
From Dracula to skeletons, witches and dragons, there was no shortage of costume creativity from the residents, who showed out in full force on Wednesday 31 October.
Most impressive of all was Dan Ioannou’s ‘Haunted House’, which was set up in the front yard of his Victoria Place residence in Pakenham.
The attraction, complete with live actors, themed-sections and plenty of jump scares, saw 1300 people through its doors.
“The house had five different sections and a different theme for each section,” Dan said.
In the first there was an electric chair – Hannibal Lecter style – with lights attached and an actor in the chair, who could be ‘electrocuted’ by the press of the button.
After surviving that, a dark tunnel led into the creepy crawly section, then into a ghost section and death section with a live actor Corpse Bride in a coffin.
A ‘creepy clown’ room had Halloweeners of all ages squealing, topped off by a zombie in the garage for the finale.
“I love that they love it; they make it what it is,” Dan said.
The whole thing cost the 34-year-old around $7000 to pull off.
“I used to do a massive display for Christmas, and then one year I decided to just decorate my doorstep with Halloween decorations and I couldn’t believe how many people came out to do trick-or-treating.
“So I decided to do a Halloween display and now it’s bigger than Christmas. This year my budget was $5500 but I always blow my budgets,” he said with a laugh.
“I make about 90 per cent of the decorations myself throughout the year; I physically make them from scratch because I want them to be unique. I’ve already started thinking about next year.”
This year marks the second year for the Haunted House.
“It keeps getting bigger and better every year. I’m considering applying for funding next year so I can keep it going.”
