Summer is gone and Christmas is still a long way off. And we all know what that means. It's time for spooks and goblins and unhinged spectres who quietly tap on the window in the middle of the night. It’s time for Halloween.
And if it's time for Halloween, it's time for PentictonNow's Halloween Houses of Penticton, a macabre journey into the creations and the minds of those who go the extra distance to transform their homes into extra special fright fests.
Here in Part I, we start in the north. Indeed, we won't even get to Penticton 'til later in the week.
First, we visit a homeowner in Naramata who began her Halloween House obsession when COVID took hold in 2020. Then we cross the lake to Trout Creek, where an old fiend...er, friend of PentictonNow once again descends into skeletal madness. And we finish on the West Bench, where a giant-sized yard is being ruthlessly transformed into a giant-sized asylum of the absurd.
The Gerlachs
485 Robinson Ave., Naramata
Blaine Gerlach had had enough. Naramata just wasn't Halloweeny enough for her, or for her kids. It didn’t help that it was the first year of the pandemic, when the whole world seemed to slow down.
So she did something about it.
"It actually became a COVID project," she said, "because at the time there really was nothing going on. You could do nothing. So we started with just a couple of skeletons, and then it started to grow. Then last year we added more because people were so excited.
"We just want to do something that's nearby and for families to enjoy and so we have something to celebrate the Halloween season."
Gerlach, along with daughter Lennox and son Lincoln -- she jokes her hubby Jeremy is "just along for the ride" when it comes to Halloween -- have now created quite the scene.
A scene that includes enormous skeletons and other upscale mass-produced stuff but also features multiple projections and a variety of DIY offerings too.
All the cutouts, for example – and there are a lot of them – are digitally designed by Gerlach herself, then cut onto plywood.
And we were particularly impressed by the trio of "ghosts" that stand at the back of the display's graveyard.
Gerlach started with a home projector and a QuickTime "ghost" routine that would normally be shone onto a smooth vertical surface. But that’s where she spiced things up. Rather than a smooth surface, she wanted a three-dimensional effect.
So she constructed ghost-like shapes from "scrap wood from a fence build" (for the bodies), tomato cages (for the heads) and shower curtain liners (for the spooky coverings).
Now when the projector projects and the audio rolls, the result is enormously convincing.
"We were into all the holidays when I was a kid in Ontario," she explained. "For Halloween, my parents did the dry ice thing and everybody got dressed up and it was big. They'd have a Halloween party. My brother's birthday is on Halloween day."
As daughter Lennox flitted about, finding her way into photos, her mom explained that the display is now big enough for pedestrian traffic patterns.
"This year they'll start on one side and go through the Ooogie Boogie House (a garden shack outfitted with a gaggle of illuminated characters), then go through the middle and see the singing pumpkins and the talking Jack (Skellington), then get their candy, then go into the graveyard and see the ghosts singing."
The Gerlach's Halloween House will be fully operational (all lights plus projections) on Oct. 29th and Halloween itself (the 31st) only, so time your visit accordingly.
The Pescadas
6024 Nixon Rd., Trout Creek
Normally at this time of year, Heather Pescada of Trout Creek, the unrivaled queen of Halloween in the South Okanagan, is busy devising and creating magic.
Her 2019 Nightmare at the Doll House at the Summerland Youth Centre was nothing short of stunning. Her 2022 re-arrangement of the Kettle Valley Steam Railway into the Summerland Sorcery Express was even better.
Not to mention that the latter hauled in $10,000 for Summerland High School Dry Grad.
This year, she's taking a break from the big stuff.
But she's still the brains and the creative muscle behind the "Peskellys," an extended family (and friends) of skeletons that live in her front yard for the entire month of October.
With a whole lot of DIY awesomeness, Pescada concocts little scenes for her skeletal associates. Then she changes up those scenes EVERY SINGLE FREAKING DAY.
This week, they visited a family counselor. Then they went skateboarding. Then they dropped by the hospital after one of them fell from their board.
Last week, as you can plainly see in the pics, they had a yee-haw redneck party.
And as Halloween nears, Pescada tells us more goodies are on tap. Really cool goodies.
"The front yard will be spider webs," she said. "Apparently there'll be a nuclear spill over top of a bunch of spiders. And then as the days go on, the spiders will get bigger and bigger. And then they'll be giants."
She's currently building a 15-foot arachnid.
"I do it," she explained, "because it lets me put all my creative juices out there and have fun planning a bunch of scary stuff. And everyone seems to like it. I've said, 'You're welcome' so many times over the years because so many people thank me for doing this."
But the Peskellys aren’t the only worthy frights in Trout Creek. There are generously decorated houses throughout the area, including 6811 Nixon, where a trio of enormous skeletons lurk in a severely haunted driveway.
You'll also find the home of film industry set designer Janice Blackie-Goodine. We featured Blackie-Goodine a few years ago when she did up her entire front yard and patio with sophisticated, unique goodies from the world of props.
These days she's scaled back the display, but it remains both stylish and impressive.
Blackie-Goodine prefers if we leave the actual address a mystery, though we can say it's on one of the main drags through Trout Creek, not far from the Pescadas/Peskellys.
Dallas Almond and Ryan Lochbaum
808 Vedette Dr., West Bench
Featuring enormous properties, plenty of open space and a generally older demographic, the West Bench region of the RDOS, just northwest of Penticton, isn't exactly a trick or treat hot spot.
But that hasn't stopped West Bench residents Ryan Lochbaum and Dallas Almond, who moved there from the lower mainland four years ago, from turning their homestead into one of the showiest Halloween attractions in the South Okanagan.
Indeed, they do the same thing at Christmas too.
"He just loves Halloween," said Almond of his partner's self-admitted obsession. "He's been doing this forever. I'm more for moral support. And fixing things."
The mega-display has not gone unnoticed. Despite being on a quiet side street in a rural neighbourhood, Lochbaum's Halloween mania garners more attention every year.
"Every single night this year we've probably had ten to 15 cars drive by and stop and look," said Almond. "And every year Halloween night has gotten busier. We had 20 (trick or treating kids) when we started, then 40 the year after and last year maybe 80. We ran completely out of candy."
For Lochbaum, the Oct. 31st passion began when he was young.
"I guess it is a bit of an obsession," he laughed. "When I was a kid, my grandparents place was always decked out for Halloween. Decked out for Christmas too. And I Ioved helping with that.
"And when I realized I had the funds to do this myself, then I started doing it too."
The annual process of sorting through the collection of ghoulish goodies and positioning them all around the property begins in mid-September and doesn’t end 'til the day of.
"It gets bigger every year," smiled Lochbaum, pointing to new items like a 12-foot skeleton and a stack of horrifying pumpkins.
"This Halloween sign here," he said, "I bought in a vintage shop in Vernon. It apparently came from Texas originally. And these decorations over here are from my grandpa who passed. He had them for 30 years. And the arches (over the driveway) and the lanterns I made myself."
Lochbaum then took us on a mini-tour of his basement, which even today remains loaded up with even more spooky paraphernalia.
"You know, I do this for myself mostly because it makes me feel happy," he said. "But it makes Dallas happy too and it's great see all the kids and all the adults that stop by to take a look."
And with that, we spirited off into the night. We'll have more Halloween Houses in the days ahead.
