Keeping the Halloween spirit alive in Port Charlotte

Reporter: Haley Zarcone Writer: Elyssa Morataya
Published: Updated:

It’s a Halloween miracle! The owner of a popular haunted house in Port Charlotte thought this year would be its last, but the community isn’t ready to say farewell.

Neighbors on Montrose Avenue are stepping up to keep the tradition alive.

“We never used to get any trick-or-treaters over here. Once I started three, 400 now, easy,” said John Walsh, the owner of the Haunted House. “It takes a day to put most of the decorations out, and another day for the haunted house, and one more day to decorate the haunted house for three days.”

Neighbors were excited to get spooked.

“We’re standing in line right now, I’m feeling excited,” said Reka Balogh “I’m feeling scared,” said her brother Marcel Balogh.

“I’ve got three or four places I pop out. I got a bunch of places to hide,” said Walsh.

“Michael Myers is chasing you,” said Port Charlotte residents Joseph and Jackson Ruiz. “It was like very scary there’s like a bunch of stuff hung up, like chains and a bunch of other stuff. It was scary you should go in there.”

Walsh says he wasn’t sure he’d be able to put up the haunted house this year.

“I got a bad heart, way too much for me this year, and I was like, down and out for a week, and I had so many people volunteer to help me, I just couldn’t do it anymore. So take them up on it next year,” said Walsh.

Animatronics bigger than people line the outside of the scare house. On the Inside, “Michael Myers” is there waiting at each turn for you.

He’s even scared our very own WINK News reporter Haley Zarcone a few times both inside and outside of the house.

Happy Halloween!

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