Frightfully good reason to donate to Healthy Waltham

The goliath jumping spider may not get you, but skeletal hands and bloody, gaping maws might.

You may also want to avoid the sewer grate if you’re afraid of clowns.

However, if you’re brave enough to meet ghouls, ghosts and grotesques galore in the flesh, stop by the hard-to-miss house at 107 Marivista Ave. for an immersive Halloween experience – all for a good cause.

Each year the Gridleys – Billy, Jennifer and their son Charlie, 10 – go all out with their scary and amusing interactive decorations. Although it is free to creep through their cemetery/yard, the family hopes visitors will donate to the local nonprofit, Healthy Waltham, by scanning a QR code located at the ominous arched entryway. All funds go directly to the nonprofit’s Venmo account.

“People are more than welcome to walk through the yard, take pictures and have fun with the kids,” said Billy Gridley, who constantly checks all his animatronic witches, creatures and monsters to be sure they’re hard at work scaring visitors. “It’s so much fun to get that interaction and see the excitement of people. It makes it all worthwhile.”

A mechanic by trade, Gridley said he often adapts and improves his chilling decorations by adding eerie elements or modifying characters with fake blood.

“I try to make everything feel more alive,” he said.

While weaving his way through the tombstones on a recent night, 4-year-old Louis Sholder bravely assured his mother that he was enjoying himself.

“It’s great … I’m not scared,” he said, as a zombie wolf with a wagging tail looked on.

Janet York, who has been visiting the Gridleys’ Halloween extravaganza for a couple of years, brought her 5-year-old granddaughter on a recent evening.

“It’s amazing. It’s obvious [the Gridleys] put a lot of work into it,” said York, who also praised the inclusion of donations to Healthy Waltham. 

Beastly beginnings

Back before the Gridleys turned the exterior of their home into a haunted house, they started off with a few jack-o-lanterns. 

“It slowly just kind of grew from there,” said Billy. After Charlie was born in 2015, “it got a little bit bigger and more elaborate.

During Covid-19 “we decided to up our ante and decided to make our yard more of a walk-through experience,” he said. Children could get a closer look at the yard decorations and exit through the driveway, where bags of treats were waiting for them.

“It was such a big hit,” he recalled.

With the support of neighbors on both sides of their home, the yearly experience grew more elaborate, incorporating eye-catching lighting elements, spooky sounds and macabre surprises.

There also are some “Easter eggs” for grownups throughout the experience. A fan of horror movies, Gridley created the head of George A. Romero, aka the king of the zombie movie genre, to greet people from his (fake) resting place. Visitors should also keep their eyes and ears open for bloodthirsty characters from popular horror films.

Although Jennifer Gridley has not yet chosen her costume for Halloween night, visitors can expect to see Billy disguised as Art the Clown from the “Terrifier” film series and his son as Leatherface from “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” horror movies.

Although they’re looking forward to Oct. 31 itself, the Gridleys begin their spine-tingling preparations long before All Hallows’ Eve. Because of the complexity of all the moving parts, Billy Gridley said they start the decorating process around Labor Day.

“Halloween for us is not just a night, it’s a season,” he said.