A family home has been transformed into a spooky Halloween extravaganza - including a giant spider - to raise cash for charity. Kieron King, 37, has packed the outside of the house with massive spiders, demons, holograms and webs, to create a truly spooky and memorable experience.
The Halloween cogs start turning in each summer, when Mr King and his family get started on their display, with most of the decorations being handmade. Mr King, an escalator engineer and carpenter, said: “Basically everything you can see, apart from the black spiders and the inflatable tree, I made.
“Every year I build on the last and it just gets bigger and bigger. This year we have different skeletons which I made, some rotting flesh, the giant spider is new and we’ve added an eight ft demon.”
Mr King, along with his partner Becky Cross, and two children, Scarlett, 3, and Charlie, 4, all joined in to bring the spooky house to life. Mr King has been creating these spooky spectacles for six years.
The scary scene can be found along Lower Rainham Road and Lower Featherby Road in Gillingham, Kent. He added: “I have always enjoyed fancy dress parties and stuff, so I have lots of outfits, so when Halloween came around at the time my kids were at the right sort of age, we all got together and started decorating the house.”
“It’s an activity for the kids. Everything I have made here the kids have helped out with.”
The creation of such an extravaganza does come with some large costs. Mr King said: “The big spider probably cost me about £,1000 to make but I have learnt from my mistakes from last year, as last year I made a smaller spider out of expanding foam, which cost a fortune, so this year I found some polystyrene in a skip and glued it all together to make a big block and I carved the body and the head out of it.
"This made it cheaper and gave me a way to recycle polystyrene that was going to be chucked.”
The idea to raise money for charity came last Halloween when people started offering money to look at the display.
Last year the family raised just under £2,700 in three days for the Children’s Hospice called Demelza. They are now determined to do even better.
He said: "Last year I didn’t have a Just Giving page or anything so that was literally just people giving change. This year we have a page all set up so hopefully we can beat last year's total.
“We had a count up last night and we raised about £600 in less than 24 hours, and we still have the whole weekend to go.”
At Christmas, Mr King also joins his motorbike club on a charity ride, where he visits the hospice dressed as Santa and snowmen and delivers presents. He hopes that the children from Demelza will be able to pay the spooky house a visit this year.
Mr King said: “Last year they were too unwell and it was too close to Covid, but I have spoken to the staff and they are planning on bringing them over. They’re only about 10-15 minutes down the road from us.”
As well as dressing up the house, Mr King also wears a costume each year, opting for the iconic Hagrid for this year’s Halloween celebrations.
He said: “The outfit is 100 per cent handmade. The trousers and the waistcoat are made of curtains I found in the loft. I am also wearing two ft stilts, so I am Hagrid’s height of eight ft two.
"I started practicing walking in the garden over the summer."
He added: “My sister is coming up and is dressing as Bellatrix Lestrange, so all the Harry Potter fans are going to love it.”
The house definitely isn’t for the faint hearted, with Mr King’s nephew on scare duty, hiding in plain sight ready to jump out at unsuspecting visitors.
Mr King said: “We have a cry counter. Last year we had 13 people cry and that includes adults. We are currently up to four and we are hoping for a few more. I think we can definitely beat 13.”
The family hopes that the house can provide some joy, excitement and some screams over the Halloween period. Mr King said: “Everyone has been miserable through Covid because we haven’t been able to go out and do anything, so last year and this year are the first proper Halloweens since then, so we just want to give people something fun to do.
“I really enjoy it. It’s what I look forward to it every year. When I see all the kids come round and my kids helping out its so worth it.”
The family also goes all out for Christmas, covering the house with lights and putting up a nine-foot gingerbread man and Santa in the front garden. Mr King is already thinking about the next gruesome surprise he can come up with for next year, and he is open to suggestions.
