Haunted Yard Displays a Shared Passion

Every year, Joe Buedel outdoes himself with his haunted Halloween yard display at his Huntley home.

He shares his interest with a club, Chicago Haunt Builders, whose 30 or so members build Halloween decorations all year long.

The Chicago Haunt Builders is a bunch of people who live and breathe Halloween, Buedel said. Members live in Illinois and across the country. Locally, Halloween Town, 415 W. Parkview Terrace, Algonquin, and Haunt 31, 340 S. Annandale Drive, Lake in the Hills, are members of the club.

Each location provides visitors with a list of haunted yards to visit in the area, including Arlington Heights and Lake Zurich.

Members of the group get ideas from each other and professional haunted houses. Some ideas just happen by accident, Buedel said. He has a projector he planned to use to create scary images but it would not work. As he adjusted the projector, the images popped up on a neighbor’s fence.

“It literally looks like a ghost at night,” he said.

His neighbors are supportive, Buedel said. The family turns off the spooky music at 8:30 p.m. on weeknights. One neighbor loaned out part of his yard for the display. Other neighbors use black lights to highlight the Buedel’s haunted display.

He finds everyone gets into the fun and people enjoy getting frightened.

“It’s kind of like people going to Great America or going on a thrill ride — they don’t know what is going to happen,” Buedel said. “They are going to see something that will raise their heartbeat a little bit.”