West Deer couple, neighbor invite people to come and see their haunted houses - TribLIVE

If you ask Greg McWilliams why his West Deer house looks like a Halloween paradise, he’ll give you a simple answer: It’s for the kids.

“If it was just me and (my wife), we probably wouldn’t do it. It’s all for our kids,” McWilliams said. “We love seeing the smiles, especially on people who drive by. Van loads of kids. It’s awesome.”

McWilliams and his wife, Brandy Stringer, live on Pine Street in the township’s Russellton neighborhood. They’re inviting people to come enjoy their haunted house from the comfort of their vehicle or by parking and walking up to it.

If visitors are unsure which house to look for, the giant ghost on the roof is a good indicator. It periodically turns blue.

There’s also a trio of talking and singing pumpkins, a shrieking phantom taking up residency on the side of their neighbor’s house, an inflatable man-eating shark and an animatronic reaper with glowing red eyes. When he detects motion, he comes alive.

“There’s so much stuff up here that you literally could stand there and see something new … for a half an hour,” McWilliams said.

The family moved to West Deer from Hampton last year. They’ve decorated for Halloween in the past, but this is their biggest setup yet.

“It started with a couple blow-ups. And it grew and grew and grew,” McWilliams said.

The pumpkins and phantom are new this year. They’re controlled by projectors.

“We downloaded a few programs and got to work,” McWilliams said. “Over the past week, we were fine-tuning it and just trying to get it shining right and getting the projector set up right. There’s a lot that goes into it.”

The couple began setting up the house in September because the decorations, which they keep in the basement, got wet. Stringer brought them outside to dry. Their daughters begged them to set them up. They never made it back inside.

Stringer said the girls, ages 3 and 5, love the decorations.

Well, for the most part.

“My youngest does not like the big phantom on the side of the neighbor’s house. She’s a little scared of that,” Stringer said. “But the oldest one, she likes it.”

McWilliams said his wife is the real mastermind behind the decorations. Before they met, he wasn’t really into Halloween.

The couple said more people began to take notice of their house after McWilliams shared a video of the decorations in the West Deer/East Deer Current Events Facebook group. The video had more than 200 likes as of mid-afternoon Wednesday.

“So many of our neighbors stop and (say), ‘We just love looking at your stuff.’ But tonight we had a lot of traffic come through here from his post,” Stringer said Tuesday.

The couple inspired their neighbor to get in on the action.

Shawn Corrie, who lives next door, is using a projector to make it look as though a band of skeletons is performing at his house.

“I love it,” Corrie said. “I don’t usually decorate for holidays, but they do. A lot.”

Corrie’s lived in the neighborhood for about a year. In addition to the projector, there’s a pumpkin with a ghost inside whose head pops out of the top on his porch. Skulls are placed in his hanging planters.

“It brings the kids out,” Corrie said. “It brings neighbors out. It brings people together.”

Madasyn Lee is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Madasyn at 724-226-4702, mlee@triblive.com or via Twitter .

Categories: Local | Valley News Dispatch

Details
Where: 102 & 104 Pine St., West Deer
When: Through Halloween, weather permitting
Hours: Dark until 9 p.m., 9:30 p.m., 10 p.m. (hours will increase as Halloween approaches)
Cost: Free

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West Deer couple, neighbor invite people to come and see their haunted houses - TribLIVE

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