House of haunts

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Tim Massie has loved Halloween for as long as he can remember.

“I’m sure my initial attachment had more to do with free candy than ghosts or goblins,” he said.

Since 1996, the Massie home has been an outlet for his passion. With humble beginnings, their haunted house attracts about 150 to 200 people and is filled with things such as a graveyard and moving skeletons.

“[In 1995] I had a dummy hanging from the porch and my wife, Heidi, dressed similarly in a chair with the bowl of candy,” he said. “The kids were so focused on the hanging body, they never suspected the other ‘dummy’ was a real person.”

Just how big is his Halloween collection? Saying it’s difficult to quantify, he typically only uses two-thirds of his stash in the area covering his front lawn and garage.

“The entire front yard will be a graveyard, surrounded by a–hopefully–realistic looking cemetery fence,” he said. “I have a couple dozen tombstones, which I made from construction Styrofoam. I also make a couple of coffins, and of course, several skeletons and stuffed bodies.”

With his kids leaving for college, he began bringing automation into the set-up to keep things interesting. Now, an air compressor and electric motors help keep the timing right for things to “pop up” for the optimal scary fun.

Years of experience has led him to perfect his haunted house approach. One key to a great attraction is flow, where they wind around the property and encounter several of what Massie calls “gotchas.”

“I also try to incorporate some humor,” he said. “Most of the gravestones look realisitic, but the words are really pretty silly. I try to provide a fairly detailed display, so that visitors who take the time to look at everything often find a surprise or two.”

A fan of horror movies of the humorous variety, it even led the Pleasanton resident to write his book, “Death By The Drop” in the same spirit. For Massie, Vampire novels didn’t have relatable characters.

“I figured that if I were somehow to become a vampire with special powers, I would have a blast with it,” he said, adding that he doesn’t actually believe in vampires.

The book came out in March and anyone interested in learning more about the book can visit www.deathbythedrop.com, Amazon.com or Towne Center Books on Main Street.

Visitors are welcome to stop by the Massie’s haunted home, located on Hall Court, on Halloween until about 9 p.m. Children need not worry because when it comes to providing the scares, he said it’s much more fun to frighten parents than kids.