They’re seemingly genial Tucsonans, living in comfortable, welcoming homes.
That’s until Halloween, of course.
Come All Hallows’ Eve, these souls make the transition from Joe Neighbor to the Mummy of Main Street — or in the case of the Perez family, Mountain Manor Drive.
They are among local haunters who set up spooky haunts in their homes, celebrating the creepiest time of year.
The Perez family — husband and wife Sean and Robbyn, sons Cody, 21, and Raven, 17, and daughter River, 11 – annually transforms its two-story home on a hill on Tucson’s southeast side into Manor House Haunt.
The haunt, which is open to the public, is not for the faint of heart. “There’s nothing cute about it,” Robbyn Perez said.
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Planning for the haunt is a year-round event, with work starting in earnest Labor Day weekend.
The family makes many of their own props, usually adding new ones every year and repurposing old ones.
Take Frankie, a family favorite who plays a different role every year. This terrifying dummy has undergone costume changes to morph from ambulance victim to butcher to séance participant.
Like many haunts, this one started small.
“We started with a haunted garage eight years ago, when we were living in Rita Ranch, and we always decorated the yard with graves and skeletons,” Robbyn Perez said. “This is our fourth year in this house, and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. This year we are incorporating rooms we have not used before.”
The day after Halloween, plans are laid for the next year’s event, and the Perez family hits the after-Halloween sales. The family does research on blogs of other haunters, and they buy props and costumes at second-hand stores and yard sales throughout the year.
This year the family added computerized lighting to the haunt, which incorporates the garage, side yards, a hallway, living room, dining room and a gazebo that’s converted into a tribal room. Included in the haunt are a museum of creepy artifacts, a graveyard, a blackout room, a morgue and perhaps most terrifying, a clown room, Robbyn Perez said.
Her favorite feature? “A zombie doll I made from a small baby doll that is really quite hideous.”
Manor House Haunt drew about 150 guests last year. “People go through the house, leave and then come back with cars full of people. The Tanque Verde High School kids were talking about it for days after last year,” she said.
The family recruits friends to serve as actors and guides through the haunted house.
Props are stored in the home throughout the year.
“We have a coffin for a coffee table that stays up year round,” Perez said. “It’s a lot of fun.”
She suggests that others wanting to go big on the holiday research blogs by haunters who offer elaborate, economical ideas. When purchasing items, she likes thehorrordome.com or local Halloween shops.
While it’s impossible to guess how much the family has spent over the years in money and time, Perez said she’d rather buy a terrifying Halloween prop than clothes or a piece of jewelry.
“It’s our hobby,” she said. “The kids help all year long. They know it’s mommy’s favorite thing. Nov. 1 is a hard day for us because Halloween is over. It’s a sad day.”
Perez said she loved Halloween as a child and was inspired to create a safe, festive experience for kids and families.
“I think Halloween is an overlooked holiday. Christmas is already in the stores. Let’s enjoy Halloween first.”
In central Tucson, the Morey family hosts its annual Haunted Yard Spooktacular. The family has been scaring friends and neighbors for more than 30 years in this haunt that is also open to the public.
The tradition started when Marti and Wes Morey turned their carport into a haunted house for their children about 34 years ago. At the time, the family lived on the northwest side.
“One year, my husband dressed up like a monster and sat on the front porch with a candy bowl and scared people,” Marti Morey said. The next year, the family mad a haunted house in the carport using black plastic.
“Our kids were little and it was just fun,” Marti recalled.
When the family moved into their central Tucson home — made from Mount Lemmon rock — the haunt got more serious.
Dummies were staged in poses in the front yard, but there was always one live character among them who would jump out and scare guests.
Over the years, the props have gotten more elaborate — and terrifying.
“We have had adults and children wet their pants on the sidewalk,” Marti Morey said.
While it’s many hours of work, the family keeps going year after year. “People start asking me in August if we are doing this again,” she said. “People come here to be scared.”
Her son, Rick Morey-Wolfe, said the family uses what it has and builds a new prop or two every year. The haunt takes up the front yard, the driveway and the enclosed front porch. Visitors get a scare and a free bag of candy. When Halloween falls on a weekend — like this year — they expect 225 or more visitors.
The front yard is spooky but still suitable for kids. The porch? Not so much.
Wes Morey uses an air compressor to find new and creative ways of bringing props to life in the most terrifying of manners.
Some highlights from past years include a jumping spider, a casket with a lifting lid, a big rubber snake that hissed and blew air on guests and an electric chair perched on a shaking floor, powered by a noisy weed-eater motor.
While the props stay in a shed on the property throughout the year, “my mom really liked the electric chair so it’s been sitting on the front porch,” Morey-Wolfe said.
He suggests that fellow haunters keep their ideas simple. “If you overcomplicate it and worry about the little details, you end up wasting time and money.”
Props that move are always a hit, he said.
“It puts everybody in the spirit, and we really have fun with it,” Morey-Wolfe said.