Moncton house receives extra attention after Halloween decorations deemed too scary by neighbour

Neighbourhood watch: Too scary? A Halloween display in Moncton, N.B., was deemed 'too scary' - by at least one resident.

For the last five years, 14-year-old Mason Louie of Moncton, N.B., has poured his heart, soul and his own money into decorating his front lawn every October for Halloween.

“I actually am a referee for hockey, and I’ve been using the money I get from there and some Christmas and birthday money when I get it to expand and just add more stuff,” he said.

It started off with just one simple animatronic.

“I really like the mechanics on how these things work and just the idea of doing it and I also just like bringing memories to the kids who do it,” he said.

Each year he adds more decorations to this walk-through pathway experience.

This year that included two new animatronics: a dog, deemed a man’s best friend and a dealer. He also added a larger-than-life brown creature that towers over the rest of the display and helps mark the entrance.

“There’s a glowing ribcage, it changes colours and the mouth matches with the ribcage and changes colour and the eyes are an LED liquid crystal type of electronic where the eyes actually blink and move,” explained Mason’s father, Terry Louie.

The creature is an addition that one neighbour found too scary to be on display.

Just days before Halloween, the Louie’s received two notes.

The first one read in part “I have taped a large heart to [the creature's] midsection to remove the fear factor slightly so the children may not hold their breath and close their eyes as they pass by.”

When they removed the heart, another note appeared saying in part, “I see you have decided to remove the heart after all. May every sock you wear by slight rotated, just enough to be uncomfortable.”

“[We were] a bit put off by it in that somebody actually felt that way and we’re not here to offend anybody or anything like that. We do it because our son, Mason, loves Halloween and loves to decorate and put on a show for everybody,” said Terry.

He says all the lights and music are turned off by 10 p.m. every night in order to be mindful of his neighbours.

The neighbour has since apologized to the family, but not before dozens of people shared their support for the display and its scare factor online.

Moncton resident Andrea Rozee says, when it comes to Halloween, her entire family likes the scary displays.

“Too gory could be a thing, but the spookier the better,” she said.

“Me and my kids love to go out and look at it all and again, with them, we taught them from a young age that it’s Halloween, it’s the season, it’s all pretend, it’s just a part of the holiday, so they love it since they were like two-years-old,” she added.

Jennifer McMullon agrees.

“That’s what Halloween is about, you can avoid houses,” she said.

“This neighbourhood since I moved here six years, or five years ago, has just like popped. I have friends that have moved away to like Shediac and stuff and they’re like, ‘it sucks, nobody puts up decorations.’”

As for Mason, he says his display is actually designed for people of all ages and even includes a pixel light show to up-beat music that he designed himself.

“Our first zone […] is our graveyard zone, so it’s mostly compiled of the family-friendly areas and most things, so if you’re going to bring your kids and you want some good photos, you can go through the graveyard, but just be warned as soon as you push them over to the carnival area there is stuff that will jump at you and there is people that will jump at you,” he said.

Overall, Mason says he’s received a lot of positive support from his community and it’s something he plans to continue doing, and growing, each year.

“When we first started we had I think 100 people coming around this neighbourhood, but now, last year, we had I think 350 people actually go through the pathway,” he said.

Terry adds, “people are bringing their kids here because their kids want to come down here whenever we have the whole thing going, to walk through and see the lights and take pictures with our big guy here. The traffic here is pretty busy sometimes.”

Mason says his Halloween walkway will be ready for trick-or-treaters on Thursday night.

Adding that from 4 to 4:30 p.m. the jump scare decorations will not be turned on and there won’t be any actors to give young kids a chance to walk through the entire thing without worrying.

Meanwhile, this year’s Halloween takeaway is more than just candy.

“I guess what it is, is people need to be nice to each other and they need to respect other people’s opinions and beliefs and if you have something to say, I guess there’s a better format and a better forum to bring that forward and not doing what has happened to us in the situation,” said Terry.

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