Christina Bagg (left) and Elyse Nelson (right) at the butcher's station in the haunted maze at 3121 Archibald Pl.

(BRENDAN KERGIN / iNFOnews.ca)

KAMLOOPS - A home in Westsyde is going full Halloween with decorations, hot chocolate, a maze and, of course, candy.

Elyse Nelson and her mother, Kathy, are putting together their biggest project yet featuring a haunted maze in their front yard which includes body bags, a butcher and Blair Witch references. The duo’s love of Halloween, paired with an appreciation for community relationships, grew the frontyard of horrors over the past decade.

“We started 10 years ago with a small display,” she says. “It just kept getting bigger and bigger.”

This year it’ll be the biggest ever, she says, with a couple firsts as the Nelsons, friends and neighbours built a maze in the front yard on Archibald Place with hanging skulls, a graveyard and animatronics. Right now the mother-daughter team, along with other family and friend Christina Bagg, are putting in an average of five hours a night while others come an help out. The group are setting up spider webs, carving jack-o-laterns and painting signs.

“Because we’re both huge Halloween buffs, my mom and I, we’ve, over the years, collected things,” she says. “We started creating our own ideas and making our own things and then more things get gifted to us.”

(BRENDAN KERGIN / iNFOnews.ca)

While the theme is Halloween, there’s more to it than simply scaring and entertaining kids.

“My mom came from a family of five and there was a huge sense of community when she grew up. She instilled that in my brother and I,” she says. “Growing up we didn’t spend a lot of time inside watching TV, we didn’t spend a lot of time playing video games.

“We were encouraged to go outside and make friends with our neighbours. Not just the friends you make at school, but, like neighbours,” Nelson says, pointing the other houses on Archibald Place.

When the family moved to Westsyde, the neighbourhood wasn’t very tight knit. With the Hallowe’en display, the Nelsons thought it was a way to help engage with those living near them.

“We’re trying to keep the community together with that kind of thing,” she says. “Even when we do things like this we’re seeing less and less trick or treaters over the years.”

However, while local trick or treaters may be on the decline, there are others coming from as far away as Pritchard to see the house. Nelson says they get around 200 people at the house, while Bagg, who lives in the same neighbourhood, gets around 50.

(BRENDAN KERGIN / iNFOnews.ca)

“We’re getting parents who actually want to give their child the experience of Halloween the way it used to be in the 70s or the 80s or the 90s,” she says. “That kind of experience is going out the door, everybody takes their kid to the mall.

“I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, I’m just saying you’re losing connection to your neighbours by doing those things.”

This year neighbourhood children helped build the features.

The front of the house and maze are filled with Halloween decorations, from life-sized skeletons to sound-activated skulls. While kids helped build it, Nelson promises everyone will get a surprise through the maze.

“This one is highly interactive, a few of us will be in the maze, spooking people,” she says. “If you’re going to go through, you’re going to get scared.”

The display is at 3121 Archibald Pl. in Westsyde. Over the weekend Nelson says there are plans for some dry runs, with everything lit up and turned on, but without the actors hiding in the maze. On Halloween night they go full bore, and she expects to keep on going from sunset until 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. that night.

Elyse Nelson (left) and Christina Bagg (right) amongst their witches in the haunted maze at 3121 Archibald Pl.

(BRENDAN KERGIN / iNFOnews.ca)

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