John Nelson scares up fun
Halloween is usually a chance for people to conjure up their scariest outfit, but one Milton man has managed to turn his whole front yard into “Night of the Living Dead.”
John Nelson has turned his house into a bonafide haunted mansion with grizzly ghouls set to pop out and greet trick-or-treaters.
“At nighttime, everything comes alive in here,” Nelson said.
What makes Nelson’s creation unusual is that almost all of the props involved are handmade. He started creating his perfect scare factory in 2009 with a creepy wrought iron fence that was made entirely with plywood and Styrofoam. From there he started work on the undead souls that make up the bulk of the display, all of whom have been rigged electronically to shake or pop out and create maximum scares.
As for why he started this project, Nelson said.
“When I was a kid growing up, there was a guy in our neighborhood that had a small setup, and I always wanted to do it,” he said. "We moved down here and I thought, ‘I don’t want to put anything out until I have everything built.’ I spent two years building. It’s just a passion. I sit behind a desk all day on the computer, so it’s an outlet.”
That passion comes out when Nelson talks about his creation, excitedly showing how the various props were made. A computer technician by trade, he said he never took art classes but views the Halloween display like an art project, carefully selecting where to put each prop. Nelson is a district manager for Hewlett Packard from Annapolis, Md. who moved to Paynters Mill in Milton six years ago with his wife, Andrea, and their 16-year old son, Christopher.
He spends two weeks in the summer making the props; one of the newest is what Nelson calls a breathing grave, featuring a metal rod with a motor attached. Once Nelson covers it with dirt, it gives the appearance of something trying to rise from the grave.
Nelson uses ordinary household items: spider webs and an old haunted house feel are created using landscape fabric and jute netting. The upstairs interior of the house is also used to effect, with a black-lit ghost in one room and a projection onto another upstairs window to look like a demon trying to get out.
Everything lights up and many of the props are run from a laptop computer. Nelson even has a few props that he controls with a remote to really surprise people. Nelson joked his electric bill for October is what is really scary. Nelson said his family helps him set the display up, although he admitted his wife is already sick of Halloween.
“Every year I try to do something new. There’s only so much yard though,” Nelson said. "I try to do it classic. I really don’t go for the blood and the guts with bodies lying everywhere. I don’t want it to be too kid-friendly, but then I don’t want it to be blood and gore with chainsaws and body parts laying around.”
Nelson is already thinking of next year’s display. He wants to build a prop that has a scissor mechanism to shoot out at passersby and what he called a mourner, which starts with its back turned but when activated will turn and rise up.
“People stop nonstop. Back in the day, everybody used to decorate. You don’t see a lot of it anymore. I thought, ‘Let me carry on the tradition and see what I can do.’ I think any kid that sees this, they’ll never forget this,’ Nelson said.
He said he moved to Delaware in order to escape the increased congestion in Annapolis. Nelson said the family had spent time and had friends in Delaware, so they decided to come down full-time.
While Halloween is his favorite, Nelson said he also does a big display for Christmas.
“I got about two weeks downtime then I start Christmas,” he said.
Nelson’s Halloween display is located at 16476 Howard Millman Lane in Milton and will be up full-time starting Wednesday, Oct. 29, through Halloween.
