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Gory Halloween display in Dallas is so scary that neighbors keep calling 911
The homeowner covered his home in gore, transforming his front yard into a horror film directors John Carpenter and George Romero would be proud of.
While the ongoing pandemic is putting a damper on some people’s Halloween plans, one artist in East Dallas, Texas, is dead-set on scaring the bejeezus out of his neighbors.
Steven Novak isn’t going down the easy route of decorating his home for Hallow’s Eve, with your usual paper jack-o-lanterns, paper bats, cardboard black cats, and other harmless fare. Instead, Novak is covering his home in gore, transforming his front yard into the site of a massacre that such horror film directors John Carpenter and George Romero would be proud of.
In fact, the grisly decor Novak has conjured has been so convincingly horrifying that his neighbors just can’t stop calling 911. Thankfully, the Dallas Police Department has gotten a kick out of the faux crime scene.
“Neighbors told me cop cars were in front of my house a lot during the day,” the cheerful Texan told the Dallas Observer. “I was only home twice to receive them. They told me they thought it was cool and that they were only there because they were required to reply to complaints from the sergeant.”
“They were in formation at the door and when I opened it they asked me if it was all mine. I asked, ‘You mean the blood and the bodies? Yeah, that’s me,” Novak said.
The genuinely scary scenes are a result of a natural propensity to go the extra mile in basically everything he does, Novak explained.
“I’ve always been up to hijinks like flying ghosts or 7-foot tall snow sculptures of myself, so if I was gonna do Halloween, it was obvious that it should be hyperreal,” he said. “No lights, fog machine, or camp … something that would really freak people out walking by in the dark. So I whipped up some dummies and slung 20 gallons of blood all over.”
For example, one of the gory scenes shows a dummy lying with a head that’s been completely smashed to bits, while another dummy lies wrapped in a garbage bag. Meanwhile, another dummy’s head has been slammed into the pavement by a safe, with hideous blood splatters completing the awful display.
Meanwhile, a horde of zombies can be seen in the window, raring to spark the zombie apocalypse.
“I’m most proud of the wheelbarrow tipped over by the street full of Hefty bags, looking like a failed attempt to dispose of the dismembered bodies in the middle of the night.” Novak explained. “A kid walked by and asked me what happened to them; I said they ate too many Skittles.”
Despite the inability of some of his neighbors to hold back their disgust, Novak remains self-critical of his inability to go even further beyond the limits of your typical gorefest. “Honestly, though, I think I could’ve used more,” he said. “[My plans] were way worse on paper. Next year though!”
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