Gory Dallas Halloween Display Prompts Multiple Police Visits, Concern

Ahh, the classic spooky season decorations -- jack-o-lanterns, plastic black cats, cloth ghosts, and mangled, battered and bloody corpses strewn across your front yard in various states of decay? This year, Dallas-based artist, Steven Novak, decided to bring his home's Halloween decor to another level  -- level 11, to be specific -- creating a gory scene on his front lawn complete with multiple fake dead bodies dying gruesome deaths, prompting concern from neighbors and multiple visits from local police. 

"I've always been up to hijinks like flying ghosts or 7-foot tall snow sculptures of myself, so if I was gonna do Halloween, it was obvious that it should be hyperreal," Novak told the Dallas Observer of his display that includes one figure impaled by a chainsaw, another with a head crushed by a safe, and another dismembered and stored in a wheelbarrow. "No lights, fog machine, or camp ... something that would really freak people out walking by in the dark. So I whipped up some dummies and slung 20 gallons of blood all over." I guess that's one way to get into the Halloween spirit. 

Yet not everyone understands Novak's artistic expression. Since the decor went up, some of Novak's fellow Dallasites have called the police to investigate, seemingly unsettled by the fake dead bodies flung around his yard. Furthermore, In order to maintain his decorations', erm, hyperrealistic nature, Novak says he periodically has to go outside and re-bloody his creations, as rain washes them away, drawing concern from passerby's. "Neighbors told me cop cars were in front of my house a lot during the day," he recalled to the publication. "I was only home twice to receive them. They told me they thought it was cool and that they were only there because they were required to reply to complaints from the sergeant." At least someone appreciates his dedication. 

Despite the work put into his seasonal display, there is one item he says he's particularly proud of. "I'm most proud of the wheelbarrow tipped over by the street full of Hefty bags, looking like a failed attempt to dispose of the dismembered bodies in the middle of the night," Novak explained. Yet when a child asked him what happened, he turned the inquiry into an um, important life lesson. "A kid walked by and asked me what happened to them; I said they ate too many Skittles." I guess some people still employ scared straight tactics.  

While uncomfortably bloody, you have to admire Novak's creativity and evident dedication to staying safe amid the Covid-19 pandemic this Halloween -- nothing makes people socially distance faster than a yard full of mutilated corpses! 

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