18 | GREENVILLE JOURNAL | 10.30.2015 | COMMUNITY
Cobwebs, fake fog and ‘Haunted Helen’ Frasher family decks their halls with Halloween monsters BENJAMIN JEFFERS | STAFF
bjeffers@communityjournals.com There’s usually that one house in the neighborhood that all the little witches, zombies and princesses love to visit on Halloween – the house where the owners don’t skimp on candy and truly grasp the full essence of the season. Jack Frasher, president of Maserati Lotus Greenville, and his wife Cathy own such a house on the corner of Crescent and Jones Avenue in Greenville. What started out as just a few monsters in the windows dur-
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ing the early 2000s has turned into a full-blown production, the couple admits. At night, 6,000 purple LED lights illuminate the house. More than 20 monsters, some of them animatronic, stand in the front yard or peer out various windows. A laser show, industrial fog machine, copious cobwebs and loud music add to the spooky effect. To top it off, a hearse dubbed “Haunted Helen” is parked in the front driveway. Jack Frasher said about seven or eight years ago he started looking for a hearse to park out front during Halloween and found one that a haunted house used to own in Helen, Ga. (hence the name). The Frashers work with interior designer Ray Dowis, who helps transform the house into a Halloween spectacle. Dowis said the setup takes about a week. He said each year “it’s a little bit bigger and a little bit better.” One night a car stopped in the street and the passengers started clapping and yelling “Bravo,” he said. Since the Frashers began going all out for Halloween they’ve tried to add at least one monster each year. “The more we made Halloween fun, the more kids we had [come trick-ortreating],” Frasher said. He estimates that last year 300 kids showed up at their house Halloween night. People will spend and average of $73.34 this year on Halloween related goods, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF). The organization expects spending for Halloween to reach
Top honors TOP CHILDREN’S COSTUMES THIS YEAR Princess “Batman” character Action/super hero Animal Disney’s “Frozen” character “Star Wars” character Zombie Witch Pumpkin Minion
For others like interior designer Bobbi Harter of Simpsonville, the holiday provides a creative outlet. Harter hosts a Halloween party for 75-100 people each year. “I used to do Christmas parties, but they just don’t satisfy my creative craziness,” Harter said. She said she has to “undecorate” her house during Halloween by taking all the regular accessories down and bringing in dead trees, coffins, scary photos and other items. This year’s party was themed after movie “Ghostbusters.” Green cellophane mimicking slime covered the inside and outside of the WILL CROOKS / CONTRIBUTING house. Ghosts looked like they were passing through the windows, and a large $6.9 billion this year, a little lower than Stay Puft Marshmallow Man stood on the the $7.4 billion spent last year. But NRF roof. spokesperson Treacy Reynolds said Harter said she sets about a $300 spending is essentially the same as last budget each year and saves on costs by year when taking into consideration the creating her own garnishments like cofmargin of error of the organization’s fins and tombstones (one of which has spending surveys. the name of her mother-in-law on it – as People have different reasons for get- a joke). Harter even makes up funny epiting into Halloween. For Frasher, it’s the taphs for many of the tombstones. chance to elicit a reaction from people. “It’s like interior design: It’s the finish“Emotion—that’s the part of life you don’t ing touches that make all the difference want to miss,” he said. in the world,” she said.