Halloween enthusiasts go all-out for scary displays
By Linda Taaffe, Town Crier Staff Writer
 Audrey White, Nia technique class instructor at the Spa of Los Altos, leads her class in a recent workout. Nia combines Eastern and Western influences to cleanse the mind and body. |
When tombstones appear on graveless lawns, and strange and frightening power tools echo through the neighborhood; whenever fuses blow when the air is deathly still … that is the time of Halloween at three Mountain View homes, where the occupants are compelled to delve into the dark side and turn their yards into cemeteries, haunted mansions and other displays of terror for the pleasure of frightening the wits out of passers-by.
Ghoulish masterminds Rens Boorsma, Larry Jenkins and Brent Ross have captivated trick-or-treaters with their homemade Halloween displays for about a decade each.
The three share an appreciation for twisted humor, a fascination with scaring people and a talent for using smoke and mirrors and whatever else they choose to turn their homes into frightful displays that have earned their city the honorary name Mountain Boo in the Halloween underworld.
Boorsma reinvents his walk-through mansion every year with A-list ghouls, moving props and gory movie scenes intended to terrify guests. Jenkins prefers to startle and entertain with Mr. Skull, an interactive, animatronic corpse who insults visitors in the graveyard under his Spring Street elm tree. And Ross stages an elaborate computer-programmed show for audiences to view from cemetery gates in front of his house.
The projects are no easy undertaking - the prep time requires several volunteers logging in more than 40 hours each in the weeks before the event, and production costs have run as high as $12,000 for one season. Jenkins said he has been shocked with 110-voltage wire more than a few times while setting up his display in the rain.
Yet each creator says the effort has been worth the outcome, even though visitors pay no fee to view their displays. Why? It’s fun, according to all three.
“This is something I could probably do during the whole year, if I had an excuse,” Jenkins said.
For Boorsma, “It’s always more fun being on this side of things.”
Their obsession has linked them together in a Halloween cult world that most mortals never observe - one that includes those who like to scare and those who like to be scared.
The three former Awalt, Los Altos and Mountain View high school students, respectively, learned of one another through the cult’s elaborate network of amateur prop builders who scour neighborhoods and the Internet searching for new “fright” techniques and tips to exchange with one another, including such fine details as how to make body parts using wax molds of oneself.
“People share their ideas with me. I share my ideas with them,” Ross said. “I don’t keep anything secret. I’m just happy people are willing to keep up the spirit. Not very many people decorate anymore. You’re lucky if anyone puts up Christmas lights. All the kids around here love it … That’s the driving force. This is basically for people to enjoy.”
Devious Concoctions,
an animatronic show
Ross pulls out all the stops for his 14-minute animatronic ghoul show on Bush Street, spending as much as $12,000 a season to add all the special effects any great haunted attraction needs.
“I never do anything simple,” said the industrial design student, who raises funds for Devious Concoctions (DC) productions through donations and the sale of his two prop-making books.
The cemetery features 12 animatronic ghouls, including an organ-playing ghoul capable of blinking and moving his hands across the keys; six pop-up creatures, intended to startle visitors; 10 fog machines; and original soundtracks composed specifically for the show, all set behind stone columns and iron gates.
A computer controls every motion and sound for the pre-programmed show that runs in continuous cycles throughout the night.
Ross, his brother Clayton and his friend Cliff Chamblis work year round in his parents’ garage testing every ghoul’s movements and perfecting the show. Every creation is trial and error, said Ross, a self-taught prop maker.
“I can sit in the garage for days,” Ross said. Most neighbors have grown accustomed to seeing skeletons and ghouls strewn across the yard on any given day. One new neighborhood boy seemed a little disturbed when his family moved in last spring and Ross had skeleton parts scattered across the driveway - until he figured out what they were for, Ross added.
The Ross house becomes a neighborhood attraction starting in early October when Ross transports his props from a rented storage unit. Cars slow down, children stop on their bikes and last week a motorist impressed with the production even stopped to give Ross a donation.
The driveway looked much like an episode of the extreme home improvement show “Monster House” last week as Ross and his buddies scrambled to put 500-pound latex- and cheesecloth-covered ghouls in place, fit coffins in tight spaces and finish setting up archways. Chamblis and Clayton were sent to collect fallen, decaying leaves from a nearby park to conceal the driveway.
Ross said the show attracts more than 1,000 guests a year. In honor of his 13th production, Ross has secured a permit to close the street to traffic this Halloween.
“The intent is to entertain, for people to enjoy,” Ross said. If there are a few startling moments, that’s OK, too, he added.
The Devious Concoctions show is scheduled to operate 8-10 p.m., today and Thursday; 7 p.m. to midnight, Friday and Saturday; and tentatively on Sunday. The cemetery is located at 519 Yosemite St., on the corner of Bush Street, about two blocks from Castro Street. For more information, logon to dc-cemetery.com.
Haunted mansion
on Limetree Lane
Boorsma’s haunted house on Limetree Lane is not for the squeamish. The longtime Mountain View resident seeks to terrorize and scare the bejesus out of guests.
The professional DJ mixes old-fashioned smoke-and-mirror type props with an element of surprise to satisfy scare seekers. It’s not unusual for trick-or-treaters to run past the candy bowl to escape Boorsma’s illusions.
“We really have a good time,” Boorsma said.
Boorsma combs construction sites for his inspirations of terror. Discarded doors, broken shutters and a variety of other items from the waste pile that spark ideas typically find a place in the part-time contractor’s haunted house.
This year’s mansion takes visitors on a six-minute walk through 10 horrifying rooms that Boorsma plans to keep confidential from the public until Halloween night. Hint: The mansion includes real bugs, underground scares and “narrow” escapes through Boorsma’s back yard.
This year’s mansion is the largest and most elaborate Boorsma has produced since he began terrorizing the community eight years ago. It is also his final production.
Boorsma said the event has gotten more time consuming every year. Setting up is comparable to holding down a second full-time job for six weeks, he said.
“Every year we try to outdo ourselves. It’s getting tough. We’re running out of ideas,” Boorsma said.
His houses have included everything from floating eyeballs that chase visitors and a recreated shower scene from “Psycho” to a trash compactor room that closed in on guests.
Taking direction from his entertainment career, Boorsma and his wife, Karen, operate the production like a well-oiled, professional event. Boorsma assigns each of his volunteers one room to manage and build. On event day, volunteers keep count of the number of guests, sending in six at a time to keep the pace moving. The volunteer actors have two-way radios to notify one another of mishaps or good potential scare victims.
Boorsma even plans to set up entertainment for those waiting to tour the house. For those too scared, Boorsma and his pals have set up a wire chicken coup waiting area. The production typically includes about 25 volunteers, who either know Boorsma or met him through the haunted house.
Boorsma said 844 people visited his last scare fest. The line extended down the block.
Boorsma’s haunted house will operate from dark until midnight on Halloween. It is located across from Springer School, at 1901 Limetree Lane in Mountain View. For more information, logon to www.soundtraxdj.com.
Mr. Skull,
the interactive corpse
Mr. Skull and his animatronic cemetery buddies at Jenkins’ graveyard at 1671 Spring St. have drawn visitors from as far as King City looking for an opportunity to outwit the chatty corpse.
Strategically placed night vision cameras, infrared lighting and hidden microphones scattered throughout the graveyard provide Mr. Skull the eyes and ears he needs to carry on a conversation with visitors. Mr. Skull is capable of moving his head in every direction.
His creators control the animated skull from a remote control booth in the garage, Jenkins said last week while two of his cohorts began running some of the 400 feet of electric cables needed to operate the event across the yard from the garage to the graveyard.
“Can I drill a hole through this tree branch for the lights?” his friend asks.
“I don’t see why not,” Jenkins responds, while one of his friends proceeds to climb the tree and drill a hole and another positions a floodlight to illuminate the area. It is well past 10 p.m.
Childhood memories of his father seemed to have cast a strange appeal over the ghoulish holiday, Jenkins said.
“There are two things I remember … My dad always had Christmas lights and a huge speaker on the porch that he mounted and kept up year-round. He painted the screen white so it looked like ghosts on the front … and he would play scary music,” he said.
Jenkins said Mr. Skull made his first appearance on Halloween nine years ago when, on a whim, he and his friends positioned a latex mask on a microphone stand, tied fishing wire on the skull’s jaw to make it move and hid behind a tree to wait for unsuspecting trick-or-treaters.
The haunted graveyard evolved into a fully animatronic production, where the Grim Reaper makes his appearance in a decaying outhouse; a cow skull moves up and down over the dirt; human limbs reach up from graves; and other ghouls pop out from tombstones amid fog, lightning and eerie sound effects.
The engineer said he doesn’t rely on blood or guts to spook his audience. The intent is to entertain, he said. The annual production draws about 200 people.
“We’re scared if we stop doing it, the house will get egged,” said co-creator Jim Whitney, an engineer who grew up in Los Altos Hills.
Jenkins nodded.
“One year we decided we weren’t going to do it. We were watching a hockey game that was on and heard an angry mob screaming ‘Mr. Skull, Mr. Skull’,” he said. About 30 trick-or-treaters were assembled on the sidewalk. Jenkins and his other co-creator, Dave LeDrew, a graphic designer, quickly set up the corpse on the front lawn.
Mr. Skull is scheduled to perform today through Saturday, from dark until he gets tired. His graveyard is located at 1671 Spring St., near Highway 101 and Old Middlefield Way. For directions and more information about Mr. Skull, logon to mrskull.com.
- The Town Crier apologizes to all Walt Disney fans offended by the opening paragraph’s parody of the Disneyland Haunted Mansion.
