William Raes (45) from Vught has been living in his own haunted house for weeks. He lives among the scary clowns, skeletons and cobwebs. In previous years he only converted his garden into a scary place for the children in the neighborhood, but now his house also had to suffer. “I often hear children ask if they can go to the Halloweenman’s house again, because that’s what I’m called in Vught,” says William.
Dressed up, wearing a scary mask and make-up, William opens the door to his house: “Welcome to my haunted house The Red Dead West.” For the fourth year in a row he decorates his house for children from the neighborhood.
“It started small with some garden decorations for kids going door-to-door, but every year it got a little crazier,” he says. This year William has converted his living room, kitchen and front and backyard into a haunted house. “I’m a real fan of Halloween. Every year I go to an amusement park with scary haunted houses. But now my best friend and I wanted to build one ourselves.”
“I’ve already spent hundreds of dollars on Halloween stuff.”
William walks past the pumpkins, skeletons and coffins into his house. “Then we now come to the Saloon of the Dead. In other words, my living room”, he says with a laugh. But there is nothing more to see. In front of his walls are wooden walls with red wallpaper, spiders and scary paintings.
His dining table is now replaced by a bar full of beer bottles and rat skeletons, and the ceiling chandelier is covered with cobwebs.
“I don’t know where my fascination for scary things and Halloween comes from. I once bought a few small things for fun to decorate my house,” William says, looking proudly around. “But then you buy something new every year and so my collection grew. I’ve already spent hundreds of dollars on Halloween stuff. In any case, they come in handy now.”
“It is fantastic to see how my ideas are now becoming reality”
So William already had a lot of stuff for his own haunted house, but much more was needed. He bought old chairs and tables on Marktplaats, extra smoke machines and even more scary dolls that move and make sounds.
The conversion of his house has taken at least five weeks and so William has been living in a small corner of his living room all this time. He can only reach it through a wooden cabinet, the back of which has been sawn out. “In these few square meters I have my fridge, a microwave to heat up meals and I watch TV here. I can’t really do more,” says William.
“My haunted house has become even more beautiful than I could have ever dreamed.”
Although it is sometimes difficult, the Halloween man is willing to pay for it. “I think it’s fantastic to see how my ideas are now becoming reality. I have thought long and hard about the story I want to tell and how I can convey it. Every little detail has been thought of,” says William. “My own haunted house has become even more beautiful than I could have ever dreamed.”
Monday evening William shows his house from the outside and inside to anyone who dares. He expects at least 500 to 600 children to attend.