The house at 16525 W. Teel Road looks a lot like the other houses in the area: two stories on a nice patch of land, set back from the street, and it’s still easy to see the Halloween decorations in the front yard.
But when the sun goes down in October, that house looks like nothing else in the area.
For the fifth year in a row, Stacy Grady’s house is a thrilling light show set to music during the Halloween season. Among the attractions are a towering nine-foot-tall werewolf, a ghostly pirate ship rising from the foggy landscape with its skeleton crew, and a series of lights that would surely win awards, if he ever entered a contest.
As it is, Grady just enjoys putting on a show that people can stop by and enjoy. “This is our fifth year doing Halloween, but we started in 2015 with Christmas,” he said.
“We started with just those pumpkins and tombstones in the front,” said Stacy’s girlfriend, Sarah Bailey. “We’ve added to it every year.”
Grady says that all together, this year’s show features more than thirty props, the largest being the 20ft rising pirate ship. They also added a couple of giant props this year: two 12ft skeletons, a 12ft inferno pumpkin, and a 9.5ft werewolf.
The show consists of 8 popular Halloween songs and lasts approximately 14 minutes. The show loops continuously throughout the evening hours.
Some favorite props are the dancing skeletons and Baby Yoda up in the tree. “We use spotlights, led lights, and pixel lights,” Grady says—a total of more than 10,000 lights.
During a surprise behind-the-scenes tour, Grady showed us the inner workings of the show, which turned out to be almost as fascinating as the show itself, all of which is programmatically set and can be partially controlled by his phone. “I’m basically running two different programs to make all this run,” he said. “Some of it is just on and off, but this part—” he says, pointing to a string of large lights affixed to flexible PVC pipe, which are then arranged to form a series of rainbows across the yard. “Each of these bulbs has three IP addresses connected to it; one for red, one for green, and one for blue. I can program them to move and change colors.”
Though it’s a technical response, the actual demonstration is magical. Lights literally “bounce” all around the yard set to the tune of Ghostbusters. Two skeletons made of lights against black plywood look like they’re dancing. Up in the windows are another set of Halloween scenes, which change out depending on the song.
And while all the pieces serve a purpose, not all are meant to be frightening—like the skeleton riding a lawnmower or the other one sitting on a toilet, the bowl illuminated by green and fog. “We call that our ‘spooky dooky,’” Bailey says, laughing.
The Halloween decor will remain through the rest of October, and the music and lights start at sundown until 10 p.m. during the week and 11 p.m. on the weekends. Cars can tune their radio to the station listed on the signs to get the full effect.
Grady asks that all visitors remember that safety is key, so be sure to use your hazards, stay inside your vehicles, and be mindful of the traffic.
See a 2021 show in this video:
