But here's a bit of comfort: This Halloween, nothing has changed for a bunch of teen-age boys in Fort Thomas.

Josh Wells (left), 17, and Bud Stoss, 15, both of Fort Thomas, pose with some of the characters that inhabit their “yard haunts”. (Patrick Reddy photo) | ZOOM |

        They're still conspiring to scare the beejeebers out of people.

        “We just animated our electric chair this year, so we have the prisoner thrashing back and forth,” says Josh Wells, 17.

        His eyes are probably dancing right now, but I can't tell because they look all weird. A week before the excitement begins, he's already wearing his alien contact lenses.

        “We don't live in fear, we just create it for Halloween,” says Josh's friend, Bud Stross.

Clown-phobic no more

        Bud's basement looks like a junkyard of the damned. Bloody heads consort with dismembered legs, alien pods and the clumpy orange hair of Twisted the Clown.

        “I know a lot of people are clown-phobic, so I play that character a lot,” says Bud, 15.

        He wants to be an actor. Josh likes the production end. With help from friends like Michael Wirtz, 15, they'll creep into action on Oct. 26, staging elaborate “yard haunts” around both of their houses.

IF YOU GO

• Place: “Majestic Nightmare,” 32 Majestic Court, and “Nightmare Manor,” 208 Rosemont Ave., both in Fort Thomas.    • Dates: Oct. 26, 27, 28, 30 and 31 for the Manor and same dates except the 30th for the Majestic.    • Times: The haunts open at dusk and run until late, except on the 31st when they will open at 6 p.m. for young children.    The monsters will hand out candy to kids in costume.    • Web address: www.angelfire.com/ky2/1031productions/

        They love to hear the screams and laughter. They start planning in January. Money earned from odd jobs is plowed into new layers of creepiness.

        “At least we know where they are,” says Bud's mom, Michelle Stross.

        The free haunts are a Fort Thomas tradition started 19 years ago by Josh's father, Jeff, and his friend Phil Gibson. When the torch was passed to the teen-agers, they created a Web site promoting their haunts under the name “1031 Productions.”

        They use 100 masks and about 30 friends. There are live scenes — the mad scientist, the mad doctor, the swamp creature, the evil clown — and vignettes with mechanical dummies.

        This year, Bud's dad, Chuck, is building a UFO out of a satellite dish and a rotating Christmas-tree stand.

        The dummies are made of PVC pipe and wadded-up newspaper. One lies in a coffin, which Josh rigs with an air compressor, cylinder and piston to make him spring up occasionally.

        The boys are also proud of their pukers. These pathetic fellows lean over buckets as hidden pumps send bloody, greenish water out of their mouths.

        “This one we actually wired so it dribbles out of his nose as well,” Bud says.

Shrunken heads check out

        In case you're wondering, I checked with a psychologist. The boys are normal. They may even be on to something.

        “One of the "delicious' things about Halloween is the idea that I can go in there and be scared out of my wits, but I can survive. It's a reassurance,” says Robert Meyers, a clinical psychologist at Widener University near Philadelphia.

        It's also fun. People scream while knowing they are safe, which makes them laugh at themselves.

        “If you never get scared, you can't really enjoy the other things in life,” says Josh. “How could you know what feeling happy and safe is, if you don't know what fear is? They all go together.”

        So here's to conquering our fears, and to the bright young people leading the way.

        On our behalf, they're making monsters dance.

        Karen Samples is the Enquirer's Kentucky columnist. She can be reached at (859) 578-5584 or at ksamples@enquirer.com.

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