After the screams come the smiles, and because of that, Heather and Maurice Spaulding will be transforming their 508 Flamingo Avenue yard into a half-acre of delightful horror Halloween weekend for the second year in a row.
“It’s a lot of work and a lot of money,” Heather said, “but I get so much joy out of seeing how happy it makes everybody, and it doesn’t hurt that people get scared too.”
Heather has loved Halloween since she was a child, but growing up, she didn’t have much of a yard to decorate.
“I’ve always liked Halloween since I was a kid,” she said. “It was a time of year you could be or do anything. You could be a butterfly, monster, or whatever.
“I never had a big yard until we moved here. I started decorating the front yard with what I had, and it grew and grew.”
Heather said their Halloween display in the front yard drew more and more people each year.
“Traffic got so bad, we decided to move it into the field last year.”
Last year, they utilized a ¼ acre for their Nightmare on Flamingo haunted trail. This year, they plan to use ½ acre for their Carnevil-themed haunted trail.
“It’s going to have clowns in a carnival tent with a maze inside,” Heather said.
Maurice said that clowns creep them out more than anything else.
“Our cousin’s son is terrified of clowns,” he said. “They won’t come out during Halloween.”
Last year, the Spauldings had 616 people go through the haunted trail. In prior years, they had upward of 350 people visit their front yard display.
This year, they plan to add more jump scares to the attraction — which seem to be a crowd favorite.
“We have planned a few more jump scares this year, and a selfie station photo prop station, which will have a jump scare,” Heather said.
Maurice plans to rig a camera at the selfie station, which will capture an image of their guests as they are being scared. There will also be a sinister snack shack, a neon clown tunnel with jump scares, and a wheel of death. Many of the decorations are ones they already have, but some will be built.
Last year’s main attractions on the haunted trail were an intricate built butcher shop and an infinity mausoleum with an evil nun jump-scare actor being played by their son, Carter, 18. Their son, Blake, 15, played the evil butcher.
“We go on Pinterest, Google, ChatGPT and get ideas,” Heather said. “We saw a guy who built a small infinity tunnel. We made it a lot bigger and made it look like a mausoleum, so it kept going and going. It was 12 feet long with the infinity tunnel at the end.
“An evil nun came at you in the tunnel. Some people ran into the plexiglass instead of going left to exit the tunnel. But it was OK. No one got hurt.”
Maurice and Heather, along with their day jobs, flip houses, so they have lots of experience with construction. Maurice is currently a software director and realtor, and is a former Western Kentucky Sheriff and a veteran. He is also involved with the Franklin County Foundation for Public Safety. Heather is an insurance adjuster in the automotive field.
“We have to get the structures to stand up on grass and for it to be safe for people,” Maurice said. “I don’t want anyone getting hurt. I call a construction friend who is a structural engineer, and he gives me tips. They know I have all of the tools I need in my garage.”
After Halloween wraps this year, Maurice wants to try his hand at building animatronics.
“After this season, I’m going to order actuators and metal so I can play with them and see about making animatronics,” Maurice said. “I want to build stuff that comes closer to people. It would be on a track and come toward you, instead of jumping at you.”
Maurice said he and Heather go to Spirit Halloween to look at the animatronics and talk about changes they would make. They submitted an idea to HalloweenCostumes.com of an animatronic of a clown that is trapped in a cannon and then shot out.
Some of their current animatronics are very large, including a 12-foot scarecrow and a 12-foot mummy. Heather said they store their Halloween decorations in a storage unit and a shed in their backyard.
“I bought her a she-shed, and now it’s a scary shed,” Maurice said.
To pull off the Halloween extravaganza, the Spauldings lean on the help of people they trust — friends and family. Last year, they had 11 people helping them. Their helpers directed traffic and were scare actors. With the haunted trail doubling in size, they plan to utilize 10-12 scare actors and three or four helpers this year.
“The walkthrough, we’re hoping, will be 10 minutes,” Heather said. “Last year, it was five minutes. We’ve worked out kinks with respect to foot traffic and how we can manage that.”
Heather said they also plan to identify those who don’t want to be scared. Last year, they offered them a lei that flashed, which let the actors know not to jump out and scare them. The actors are also quick to recognize those who are scared, especially Blake.
“If kids came through and they were too scared, he would let them know that he was a real person and all of the body parts were fake,” Heather said.
Maurice said she did that with Blake when he was young.
“She had Blake help her build the sets so he wasn’t scared,” Maurice said.
Heather followed, “As soon as he saw it wasn’t real, he was fine.”
Aside from the smiles and joy that the haunted trail brings the community, Heather and Maurice are also excited about the relationships they have been able to build with their neighbors through their love of Halloween.
“Through this, we’ve made quite a few friends in the neighborhood,” Heather said. “Last year, we walked around and invited people personally. We opened it up to the neighbors for the first night. We had drinks and snacks.”
Heather said she met a woman with a young son in the neighborhood whose husband passed away in a motorcycle accident.
“She wasn’t into this stuff, but her husband was into Halloween,” Heather said. “We invited her son over to help us with stuff.”
They also helped her set up her Halloween decorations.
“It’s given us such an opportunity to get to know people,” she said.
Maurice loves that many people have made it a tradition.
“Parents make it a tradition for their kids,” he said. “They say our house is the last house they take their kids to.”
Maurice is also proud to offer something free and safe for families to do in Frankfort.
“Some haunted houses charge $20-40 to get in,” he said. “There’s not a lot to do here, and we want to have something for the community to do, and they don’t have to drive to Lexington or Louisville. One family said they had more fun at ours than one they paid for in Louisville.”
Once Halloween is over, the Spauldings get busy tearing it down and setting up 10,000 lights programmed to music in their front yard for their Festive Flamingo Lights show over the holidays.
“I’m like Clark Griswold,” Maurice said.
The Nightmare on Flamingo Avenue haunted trail will be open to the public from 7-10 p.m. Oct. 29-31.
Stay up-to-date with the Spauldings at Nightmare on Flamingo Avenue and Festive Flamingo Lights on Facebook. Reserve your spot for the haunted trail at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/carnvil-at-nightmare-on-flamingo-ave-tickets-1999060589035?aff=oddtdtcreator
