Naperville resident Leo McNamee has been celebrating Halloween for 35 years with his self-made, custom decorations – displayed at Leo’s own personal house of the dead at 535 Delkir Court.
“As I got in to more and more special effects work and a little bit of movie work, I was able to up my game and started making more and more props and I just try to make things as weird as I can so people will stop and go “what is that?” said Leo McNamee, Naperville resident.
Special Effects Create Scaring Affects
Leo is retired but has worked with special effects on movie sets, and uses his knowledge from past jobs, and leftover materials like mannequins, to turn out some truly terrifying custom chills. Including several molds of his own head integrated into the display.
“They completely covered my head, first time it took three hours and forty-five minutes where I was completely encased, couldn’t see anything, breathe through little straws in my nose, and they completely covered my head to make a mold,” said Leo McNamee
Those wanting to come look need not fear – as there are several COVID precautions in place, like a velvet rope to divide coming and going foot traffic, and a social distance custom chute to distribute candy.
“So I can drop candy, it’ll drop down into the bucket, which you can see and there’s an added little bonus to that…” said Leo.
All in Good Frightening Fun
And any trick-or-treater brave enough to venture to the front door of Leo’s House of the Dead will be rewarded with a bag full of different candy treats.
“We don’t want to traumatize people too bad, we want them to enjoy the experience,” said Leo McNamee.
A reminder that even in a pandemic, Halloween can still be full of fun frights for everyone.
“I’ve had fathers come here and say ‘you scared me 20 years ago, 25 years ago’ and now they’re bringing their kids here. So it’s gotten kind of a word-of-mouth,” said Leo.
Even more decorations will be going up until Halloween, so stop by Leo’s House of the Dead on or before Halloween night…if you dare.
Naperville news 17’s Ryan Skryd reports.
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