Jeff Breckenridge’s favorite part of Halloween used to be holding his son’s hand as they walked down the street trick-or-treating.
Then one day, as pre-teens do, Ben Breckenridge asked his father to walk a few steps behind him, so he could spend time with his friend.
Breckenridge was crushed. Yet, he remembered doing the same thing with his parents when he was Ben’s age. He realized trick-or-treating with his son would no longer be his Halloween tradition.
So Breckenridge found another way to spend his favorite holiday: He converted his four-car garage in Park Trails into the Brecksville Manor haunted house.
The haunted house at 266 Park Trails Dr., built entirely by Breckenridge, will be open for the seventh year this Thursday Oct. 31 at 5 p.m. — during Granville’s scheduled trick-or-treat hours — and Saturday Nov. 2 at 7 p.m.
Last year, the line ran down the street until 9:30, prompting Breckenridge to open his doors for two nights this year. One of his neighbors — and friend of his son — showed up a half hour early to claim his spot as the first person in line.
“It’s gotten bigger and better every year. And it’s finally where I’ve always wanted it to be,” Breckenridge said.
Breckenridge will have 11 volunteers working inside the haunted house, three door girls and one handling the chaos in the front yard. Jennifer Breckenridge, his wife, will be working as a door girl, though she explained she has never been a big Halloween enthusiast. His son, now a junior at Granville High School, will be working inside the haunted house.
As always, Breckenridge hopes for a big turn-out.
“It’s got a reputation now. I think people would come anyway, especially because it’s two nights. If the weather’s bad one night, you can come the other night,” Breckenridge said.
Breckenridge estimated they had about 500 visitors last year. This year, he will be positioned in his spot — ready for the jump scare — with a clicker in hand, in order to keep a count of all the visitors walking through.
Breckenridge’s haunted house is free. Die-hard Brecksville Manor fans often encourage him to charge a small entry fee.
“I’m never going to charge anything for this. This is for the community. I honestly want to do this for the community. This is my way of volunteering,” Breckenridge said.
On Sept. 1 each year, Breckenridge starts to work on the side garage. By Oct. 1, his wife is no longer allowed to park in the main garage.
The first thing Breckenridge does when he enters his full space is line the floor plan with masking tape. He stands in each room, sits with the space for a minute, and imagines what scares he can fill it with.
The floor plan is different every year. Despite the small space, Breckenridge’s haunted house has six different rooms. He tricks visitors into thinking they are in a much larger space than they actually are.
He sets up walls, blocks crevices to ensure total darkness and adds a hollow pole to discreetly contain the special effect wiring. But his number one priority is safety. Everything he builds, he has the safety of the visiting kids in mind: all exposed bolts or sharp objects are covered with foam, and everything is well-secured.
This year, Breckenridge is particularly fond of the environment details added to fully immerse each visitor. The rooms are distinct from one another. Breckenridge implemented paneling, wallpaper and old photographs.
“I feel like I finally got the environment right this year. Last year was the closest I’d ever been. This year it’s there and next year it’s going to be freaking awesome,” Breckenridge said.
The creativity aspect of his haunted house is what he enjoys most. As the senior motion designer for Abbott, his work also relies on creative practices.
“I don’t want to say it’s a gift. I don’t know if it’s that, but I’m creative. Ideas just come to me,” Breckenridge said.
Breckenridge explains he wouldn’t know what to do without his creative work.
“It’s an outlet for me. If I get stressed out in any way, I do something creative, that’s my outlet. It just washes it away and I just completely get lost in it,” Breckenridge.
The thrill for scares came early for Breckenridge.
When he was a kid, his favorite trick-or-treating spot had a short dark tunnel assembled in their front yard. Visitors would walk through the tunnel and be greeted with a jump-scare at the exit. Breckenridge knew each time the scare was coming, but it was always his favorite.
“I would get butterflies and I loved it. Even as a kid, I wanted to be that special house when I grew up,” Breckenridge said.
Each Halloween, after the sorting of candy was finished. Breckenridge and his aunt would take a walk down to the graveyard. Here, she would tell him ghost stories of all kinds. He was hooked.
Before his son was born, he made a haunted house in his garage. It was minimal and lacked special effects. He stopped when his son was born — he didn’t want him to be afraid of his own home.
“Before it was just sheets and a couple of dudes,” Breckenridge said. “I was much younger at that time. But I have the means now. I have a four car garage and I have the means and I never did before. I have the space and I have a wonderful neighborhood with lots of kids. So why not?”
Breckenridge believes he’s found the necessary level of scariness when creating a haunted house geared towards trick-or-treaters.
Last year, his friend tasked with letting people out filmed visitors’ reactions at the exit.
“That footage is gold. I don’t get to see it because I’m stuck in the house. There’s a lot of screaming, but also a lot of people saying, ‘oh my god, that was awesome,’ or ‘I loved that,’ or ‘that was so cool.’ And hearing people say that is the reward,” Breckenridge said.
He hopes, however, if visitors are not scared then they are amazed by the special effects.
He describes his haunted house as a “magic show.” The mirror with the moving picture inside, the cauldron and the fog machine are just a few of Breckenridge’s tricks.
“It’s just been kind of experimental over the years. It probably has gotten a little bit scarier, but that’s because I’ve been able to gauge how the kids are reacting,” Breckenridge said.
Still, it is impossible to predict how each individual will react.
“I had a five-year-old last year tell me it was weak sauce. But I had a group of high-school girls running out screaming down the street. They didn’t even stop. They just kept going,” Breckenridge said.
Breckenridge prefers not to use the store bought props, even for the Halloween decorations in his front yard. According to him, the store bought decor lacks authenticity. So instead, he makes them out of styrofoam, paper-machine and cardboard.
The headstones in his front yard are all his own creations. Breckenridge could have used fake names. But instead, he used names of real people who passed away. One’s whose stories he learned, such as Licking County Jail inmate Walter B. Robertson, an individual who died in jail in 1935.
“I built them, I might as well make them mean something,” Breckenridge said.
Breckenridge is approaching the grand finale with his haunted house. He has goals for his finale that he’s been working towards since he started this project, which include a morgue room and a flying demon. This will be the second to last year.
“My ghouls and goblins are all graduating, going off to college,” Breckenridge said.
Other neighbors have volunteered to step in with assistance but Breckenridge says the planning and construction have gotten to be too much work.
He is going to miss doing the haunted house each year, but he said he needs someone to build it. He explains he needs a construction guy, his friend will be the business guy and he will take charge of the creative and planning aspects.
“I have had the thought that maybe someday I’ll buy a property with an old house on it and do it up real,” Breckenridge said in reference to creating a more permanent haunted house someday. “At that point, I would charge a ticket price,” he laughs.
But for now, Breckenridge is in his garage, hand-crafting props such as a spinning wheel of a death or painting glow-in-the-dark paint on clown dolls, preparing for what he says is his best haunted house yet.
Ella Diehl writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.