Henry Brean Keith and Jenny Stewart are lucky there’s no homeowners association in their northwest side neighborhood, because their front yard is a total horror show.
They also have about 30 life-size dummies waiting to be positioned along the Terror Trail that twists through the yard. Their displays back then were tiny by comparison — only about a dozen dummies dressed as classic monsters and modern horror characters.Now their collection of Halloween decorations numbers well into the hundreds — way too many to count, Keith says.
The Stewarts creations include a giant ant and a massive tarantula made out of rebar, chicken wire, steel wool and paper mache reinforced with rubberized roof coating. They’ve also made their own full-size versions of Audrey, the murderous plant from “Little Shop of Horrors,” and one of those nasty sand worms from “Tremors.”
The first step is to sketch out a map of the layout, which changes every year. The actual set-up usually begins with Keith transplanting about 30 dead trees from the backyard to the front. “It's good exercise,” he says. The Stewarts try their best to keep things moving, but at times the line to get in can stretch out of their driveway and down the street more than the length of a football field.
After that, they began to promote themselves more widely, turning it into a charitable event benefiting the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona. No one gets paid, including the Stewarts. All the donations they receive go directly to charity. Jenny estimates Tomb Town has contributed more than $30,000 to the Food Bank of South Arizona since the early 2000s.Keith thinks for a minute then says: “Don't scare somebody so much that they poop themselves.”“The mother was saying, ‘My daughter needs to go home and change her pants, but she wants to come back. Will you charge us to go through again?’” Jenny says with a laugh.
Now she’s a devoted hobbyist, just like her husband of 40 years. She trades tips online with other “haunters,” and teaches herself new methods of “corpsing,” which is scary-person lingo for making off-the-shelf Halloween decorations look more authentically dead.“I think everybody likes a little jump-scare. It gets your adrenaline going,” Jenny says. “It's fun. Some people laugh, some people cuss.
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