Houses of Horrors

Mix a tombstone, a skull and a severed limb, add a drop of blood and top it off with a cloak of fog and you have a pretty ghoulish scene. Most days the sight would be enough to chill you to the bone.

But one day out of every year, it’s a vision of loveliness.

Halloween lets people try their hand at simulating horror.

Though some adults would just as soon leave it to the kids to celebrate, others enjoy the occasion as much, if not more. For them, the gorier, bloodier and scarier Oct. 31 is, the better.

We have dedicated this week to adults who can’t wait for Halloween. We checked with a few local shops to see what is available in the way of props and special effects that can turn a friendly neighborhood home into a vision of ghastly horrors.

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Given that goal, we started at Pandora’s of Ojai.

“Anything that oozes, pulses, creeps or decays--that’s what we specialize in,” said store owner Gwendolyn Zero.

Pandora’s shelves are lined with beautiful dolls, pillows, toys and other delicate and elegant gift items, but Halloween takes center stage this time of year.

A dungeon created inside the store offers a hint of what is available.

For those planning to create a frontyard Halloween scene, Pandora’s offers a selection of 19th-century gothic tombstones, up to 4 feet tall, made of plastic foam.

They come without epitaphs, so users can create their own. Prices range from $22 to $35.

A cardboard coffin, which Zero vowed will fit most cadavers, is priced at $44. And for that extra special touch, a tower of moving skulls and flashing lights, complete with music, is priced at $54.

Accessories include ghost and goblin books that shimmer, shake and scream ($28), a severed head ($28) and sticky, wriggling, glow-in-the-dark maggots ($6.25, for 144 of the little cutie-pies.)

Fear on Halloween comes from props that are obviously not real, such as a coffin on the lawn, as well as items that are open to debate.

Life-size horror figures, for instance, give one pause.

Gravely The Butler is a good example. The plastic foam figure stands about 5 1/2 feet tall and carries a tray, with a fly atop his grayish head.

“He’s been around the block a couple centuries,” Zero said.

But at least he isn’t lonesome. A life-size maid is also for sale. The butler sells for $274 and the maid for $292.

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The Halloween Shop in Moorpark is another hall of horrors. For folks setting up outdoor Halloween scenes, owner Rick Villata has stocked enough props to fill countless front-lawn graveyards.

A mechanical coffin with a lid that opens and shuts and an animated skeleton inside is priced at $129.

Vultures and gargoyles, built from plastic foam made to look like granite, are priced from $46 to $119, depending on size.

Another plastic foam butler is priced at $219, and a guy known as the Ground Breaker goes for $329.

The late Mr. Breaker is designed to look as if he is breaking through the ground for a return visit to the land of the living.

“People nowadays like to create what they see in the movies or on TV--they want to get more and more realistic,” Villata said.

“There are some props out there that are $3,000, $4,000, $10,000. You can get as graphic as you want, as scary, ugly, gory and unique. But, sometimes, less is more. I set up stuff where we get people to jump and there’s really not much to it.”

The Halloween Shop sells strobe lights, priced from $12.79 to $49.59, and fog machines, also for rent, in a variety of sizes. Some machines are equipped to fog up just a doorway, others to drop a cloud on a whole yard.

“I ask people what they’re looking for, how large their areas are, if they want it to look like London or just a haze,” Villata said.

“A lot of people like to buy the [machines] because they use them year-round, for New Year’s, Christmas, birthday parties.”

Fog machines sell for $129 to $319, depending on their fogging capacity. They rent for $50 a day.

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We also found fog machines at Merlin’s Science & Magic shop in Camarillo. The combination magic shop and pharmacy isn’t really equipped for Halloween, but it offers some special effects.

As with The Halloween Shop, the fog machines at Merlin’s rent for $50 a night.

Other accessories include strobe lights and black lights, which each sell for $30 to $50, and a laser strobe light--a pulsing, colored ball with a strobe inside--which sells for $35.