If you’re in Penticton and you're talking Halloween houses, chances are the "K streets" are in the conversation right away. The smallish neighborhood a few blocks north of Penticton Regional Hospital where many of the streets start with the letter K (Kilwinning, Killarney, Kensington) has long been a Halloween (and Christmas) hot spot.
Today we chat with the guy who’s been at the centre of the K street madness all the way along. Then we drop by another house just down the road that’s also been going all out, particularly on Halloween, for a couple decades. We finish off a few blocks away with a newbie display that's technically outside the K streets zone but is certainly there in spirit.
And away we ghoul…
There's nothing in the city quite like the festival of Halloween horrors that awaits at Armand Granger's spook palace in the midst of the K streets.
Like many of the properties in the immediate region, it's not particularly big. But that only intensifies the experience of being there.
The sensations come at you seemingly every second and from every direction. There are maniacal dogs and giant spiders, enormous specters, urinating Buddhas, witches in the sky above, and pitiful wretches that puke radioactive sludge.
Granger has covered the entire yard in a layer of hay, and installed motion triggers and startling animatronics from front to back. Everything seems interconnected.
Even inside the front door, which Granger conveniently leaves open, there's a truly hideous creature watching over an aquarium filled with green liquid and a ravaged human body.
No one is safe, even those simply walking along the sidewalk out front. There, a real truck and a real car are being busted by skeletal traffic cops. Later, the vehicles will start belching pretend smoke and fake flames.
And Granger, a tech nerd who's thrilled to exploit that savvy and his DIY tweaking skills to maximum advantage, loves every minute of it.
"I do it for the kids," he said. "I do it because I'm still a kid. And I just love to see the smiles on their faces.
"It costs a fortune in candy, but it doesn’t matter. It comes once a year. And then the neighbours get going on it. And before you know it, half the block is doing it."
Granger moved to the neighbourhood in 1986. At the time, he maintains, K street homes were seeing two or three dozen kids on Halloween night.
"But the first year we did our Halloween, we had 150," he said. "And the neighbours were kind of shocked.
But that number pales to today's totals. According to Granger, his home pulled in no less than 700 trick or treaters last year.
700.
He shows us the "Gateshaker," a zombified freak who's doomed for eternity to rattle a big panel of chain link fencing. Granger bought the Gateshaker's mask but created the rest of the convincing illusion in his garage.
"Pool noodles go a long way," he smiled, tearing back some of Gateshaker's clothing to reveal the trickery inside. "I buy them 40, 50 at a time. And lots of PVC piping."
He didn’t even mention all the engineering and electronics that make both the Gateshaker and his fence move back and forth. We can only imagine. And it's just one of dozens of terrors spread through the display.
"I start in the third week of August, pulling stuff out and working on things," he said. "And as soon as I take it down, the Christmas decorations begin."
Armand Granger's cacophonous concoction at 1165 Kilwinning St. is open to the public through the 31st. He says it'll be even more impressive on the final night.
Like a great vocalist often has a bevy of solid backup singers, Armand Granger's amazing display is surrounded by several worthy supporting efforts – properties that make the entire "K" area so special.
One particularly ghostly example is directly across the street:
Another, headed by a highly detailed pumpkin farm scene complete with hillbilly band, is next door. And there are others.
By far one of the most notable is the home of Rachel Szoladi and Neil Terry, two blocks north of Granger's setup. It makes a perfect appetizer for the main course.
"We've been doing this more than 20 years for sure," said originator and driving force Szoladi as the couple and their granddaughter Jessie shared a few laughs while fine tuning what is clearly a spooky setup.
And yes, it really is spooky. There are skeletons and other characters scattered about, but it's the homemade lighting and accessorizing and the property's naturally chilling after-dark look that really sells it.
In short, Szoladi has exploited the attributes of her front yard to perfection. The old-ish wooden fence up front, for example, is the perfect spot for the giant spider webs and assorted hobgoblins that now dot it. And the towering deciduous tree that dominates the scene looks straight-up haunted with most of its leaves on the ground and all the lighting and smoke machines underneath its branches.
"We love seeing people's reactions," said Szoladi, who travels with Jessie to a nearby creek every year to gather all the dead branches they can find, then scatters them on the ground.
"And I love seeing the repeat generations, where people who came here as kids are now bringing their own kids."
The effort isn't wasted. After a couple of so-so years, said Terry, a local artist well known in the community for his works and for his display at the Penticton Farmers' Market, Halloween night 2022 was jam-packed.
"For the first time in years I was running out of candy by 7 o'clock," he said. "I called Rachel asking if she could find a store that still had candy. She had to go to five stores, but she did it.
"In the end we had 500 kids."
Not far from the K streets – almost close enough to be a member in absentia -- is the home of Tracy and Jamie Benoit.
It's certainly nowhere near the level of Armand Granger's (above) or the crazy scary Cleland Clown Cemetery at 120 Cleland Dr we profiled here. But few are.
Yet it's new and it's on the way up. And it’s the product of folks who truly seem to do it for all the right reasons.
"There are two reasons we do this," said a smiling Jamie Benoit when we dropped by last week. "One, when I was a little kid I used to go to houses like this and I thought they were just awesome. So when I had a chance I said well, I'm going to give this a shot and see what we can do."
Currently the display would seem to be at a turning point. It's nicely balanced and it doesn’t seem too cramped. But we have a feeling in the years to come Tracy and Jamie are going to ramp it up even further.
"We started with a little less," continued Benoit, "and we got some pretty good attention. So we keep improving it. And when the kids come up and you see their smiling faces, it's pretty special.
"They even re-routed the school bus to check it out during the day. We've had a lot of waves, a lot of hellos, lots of great responses. And that's what it's all about."
The Benoits say they build a display of similar awesomeness for Christmas too. But, they warned, they haven’t yet finished with Halloween.
"On Halloween night," said Benoit, "we do it up in the driveway too and we have a little game the kids play for the trick or treats. It's a lot of fun."
Stay tuned for later today, when we profile a glorious "pixel show" in OK Falls.
