As a child Vicki Bell would cut arm holes in a black bin liner and slap on a plastic mask to go guising.
Now more effort goes into Halloween for her and her family.
Much more.
Every October Vicki, partner Greg Williams and son Travis, 9, spend an entire week turning their semi-detached home in Leven, Fife, into a house of horrors.
Fire burns in the windows and a massive spider’s web stretches from the ground to the roof of the two-storey building which has become known as Leven Halloween House.
Huge skeletons and horror movie characters, including Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers, stand in the garden among gravestones, creepy-crawlies and pumpkins.
This year for the first time a colossal Stay Puft Marshmallow Man brings a Ghostbusters vibe to the party.
Leven Halloween House is an incredible and terrifying sight.
Crowds of people come from near and far to see the nightmare on Linnwood Drive, children shrieking with delight.
Vicki says: “It’s actually quite overwhelming.
“The support we get and and when you hear all the kids outside screaming, it’s just a great feeling. I can’t describe it.”
What inspired Leven Halloween House?
Transforming her home into scary spectacle is the realisation of a childhood dream for Vicki, 39.
She was inspired by a household she remembers going all out for the spooky season.
She says: “I’ve loved Halloween since I was a wee girl. There was always a house in Buckhaven we used to go to when I was wee.
“I used to think I want to be that Halloween house that everyone wants to go to.”
The Halloween costumes Vicki and her friends wore to guise back then were simpler than those children wear now for trick or treating.
Bin liners with holes cut for arms and heads were a common get-up.
From guising in a bin liner to creating a community spectacle
She says: “The thing I remember most is going out with your black bag on, your wee plastic witches’ fingers and your mask that would cut your face!
“I would go out with my friends and it was such fun. When we were young everyone was out and you went to every single door.
“There was a really good sense of fun and I wanted to create that for other kids.”
Leven Halloween House raises money for charity. This is the fifth year it has done so, starting in 2020 shortly after the death of Vicki’s gran Janette Murdoch.
The family had previously put out decorations for Halloween and Vicki explains: “Someone suggested I put a wee box out and see if we can raise some money.
“So we raised just under £3,000 that first year for the ward that my gran was in at the Victoria Hospital.
“It was nothing compared to what it is now, literally just a couple of wee graves in the garden, a couple of skeletons.
“Then it just escalated. Every year it got bigger, there were more plans.
“We made a Facebook page because we were getting so many messages about it.
“It just went crazy!
Some of the larger installations were shipped over from the USA and Canada, including the 12ft skeleton.
“You can’t buy those here,” says Vicki. “You can only get them from The Home Depot and they don’t ship to the UK.”
So a friend in Canada bought the skeleton and sent him to Leven. Vicki is reluctant to admit the shipping spend.
She says: “He only cost $300 but it cost a lot more to get him over here.”
Vicki gets her ideas from online forums based in the USA.
“I’m in all these groups in America because they go crazy for it [Halloween].
“I see things and think ‘I want that’!”
How long does it take to create Halloween House?
Not everything at Leven Halloween House comes with a price tag, fortunately.
“We made the movie characters like Michael Myers, Jason and Freddy Krueger,” says Vicki.
“We’ve got Ghostface from Scream too, we just made him this year.”
But a lot of effort goes into pulling it altogether.
Dog groomer Vicki shut her salon for a week and Greg, a rigger in Rosyth, took a week’s holiday to get everything ready.
“It is a lot of hard work,” says Vicki. “It takes us a whole week to get everything set up.
“The webs have to get attached to the house, then it’s just a case of building everything.
Crowd management and traffic cones
“The amount of times we put things out then we have to move it, because it doesn’t look right there.”
But it’s all worth it to see the joy on the faces of the many children who visit.
From 6.30pm to 9pm every evening the family hand out sweets to kids who have come to see Leven Halloween House and they chat with their parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts.
On weekends there can be hundreds of visitors. There have been times that Vicki and Greg have had to put out cones to prevent traffic congestion!
“There’s a constant flow of people,” says Vicki. “Sometimes people can park awkwardly and this is a bus route so you can be out trying to sort out traffic jams!”
On that note – visitors travelling by car are advised to park and walk from Letham Glen or King George V Park rather than close to the house.
Thankfully, fellow residents in the area are supportive. “We couldn’t ask for better neighbours,” says Vicki.
Halloween itself tends to be slightly quieter, with children too busy guising for more than a quick stop to take in the sight.
When Michael Myers comes to life
But those who do come are in for an extra frightening treat.
“On Halloween night we take Michael Myers [the model] in because then Michael Myers comes to the house and walks about among the crowds.
“It’s really quite creepy but good!”
And when the lights go out on October 31 it’s all over for another year.
“At 9pm my brothers come down and we all strip it down.
“If you go past at 9am the next day, it’s as if it never happened.”
Leven Halloween House raised £18,000 over its first four years and Vicki hopes year five will surpass £20,000.
As well as donating cash, visitors can scan QR codes on the fence which link to the Leven Halloween House GoFundMe page.
This year’s beneficiaries are Fife-based dementia group STAND (Striving Towards A New Day) and Andy’s Man Club for men struggling with mental health issues.
Next year the family intend to take a break but hope Leven Halloween House will return in 2026 even bigger and better.
Conversation