Carpentersville couple goes all out in decorating their scary ‘Blud House’

A clownishly macabre scene awaits visitors this Halloween at the Ogle family home in Carpentersville.

“We’ve been decorating since we lived here, for 13 years. But our display has gained its momentum the past six years with the addition of a 12-foot monster, which we now have,” Sarah Ogle said of their home decorations at the northeast corner of Wisconsin and Carpenter streets. “Our theme is Halloween for all ages, young and old. Hopefully, something here scares you. But we do have a lot of clowns.”

Ogle grew up with a love of Halloween that started in grade school when she and her dad checked out the haunted house attractions set up in the Elgin area. Now she’s decorating for her young visitors, including her own grandchildren, she says.

“My husband, Mike, always enjoyed scary movies, especially ’80s and ’90s classics like ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,’ ‘Poltergeist’ and ‘Killer Klowns from Outer Space,’ which is one of his favorites and which has inspired his collection of ‘Killer Klowns’ in our haunt,” she said.

The elaborately devilish display, monitored by cameras, features hundreds of pieces. In addition to clowns, there are plenty of skeletons, animatronic figures and handmade pieces enveloped in a haze created by fog machines, Ogle said.

The yard’s reputation has grown thanks to a Facebook page and word-of-mouth, she said.

“Our handmade, giant, creepy, slender, 12-foot-tall zombie clown called Cackles is a favorite for many, as is a ticket booth grandpa,” she said. “They’ve been with us for about a decade, as has our dabbing skeleton, which is another crowd favorite.”

Dubbed the “Blud House,” the setup also features handmade, faux-shuttered windows on the family’s actual home, an elaborate clown mural painted by hometown pro MMA fighter Mando Gutierrez and a 25-foot-by-30-foot enclosed haunted maze on the lawn.

This year, the couple also incorporated a backyard koi pond into the presentation, replete with a bridge leading to a trio of frightening figures.

“We try our best to make things fun for all ages, with a less scary display in the front that leads to a more spooky area, then an enclosed haunt where all the animatronics (and sometimes live actor) scares are,” Ogle said of the exhibition, which will be up through Nov. 1.

Because the home has attracted as many as 700 trick-or-treaters on Halloween, the eerie lawn won’t be open for walk-throughs on Saturday, Oct. 31.

“It’s usually just too busy,” she said.

Otherwise, thrill-seekers can visit from 6:30 to 10 p.m. nightly.

As for the most common question they receive, Ogle said it’s always, “Where do we keep all this stuff?”

As with many suburban households, they stash it all in their garage, she said.

Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The (Elgin) Courier-News.