The Angel HouseThe angel house is decorated with all kinds of angels scattered across the lawn and in the trees. Some swoop below branches, others are placed in the windows, and the yard is bathed in light. You walk up the walkway, passing little floodlights illuminating additional angel decorations lining the walkway towards a fire pit and chairs for marshmallows. You grab a marshmallow and sit in a chair to toast it, enjoying the warmth of the fire. There’s a small whine from beside you, and you look down to see a small puppy with some of the best puppy dog eyes sitting beside you, begging for a treat. While you can’t give them any of your smores, you do pick the sweet puppy up and place it in your lap, petting it as it slowly falls asleep, how cute! Although, you’re now stuck with a sleeping puppy on your lap, and not sure how to get up… Maybe it’s time for some more smores?
The Anubis HouseA large pyramid dominates the center of the yard, illuminated by spotlights from all sides. There is a definite Egyptian theme here - the walkway is lined with miniature sphinxes and banners painted with hieroglyphics hang from the second story windows of this house. This house seems to have appropriated some of the decorations from last year's mummy house, with a few mummies rising out of sarcophaguses and standing by the walkway with their arms raised. By the front door there are two lit torches beside large dark statues with humanoid bodies and animal heads. As you look around the yard you get the uneasy feeling of being watched, and catch a glimpse of something sitting at the base of one of the statues on the front steps. As you walk up the front steps though, you realize there is nothing there. When you turn around one of the upright mummies is coming closer to you! You manage to jump backwards just in time for the mummy to fall at your feet, and you breathe a sigh of relief until it starts moving. You catch sight of a puppy as it drags the mummy decoration into a dark bush by the side of the Anubis house.
The Candycorn HouseThe Candycorn house is decorated with anything and everything that contains candycorn. You walk past Halloween decorations with skeletons, witches, werewolves, zombies, and other Halloween creatures dressed in candycorn costumes. As you near the house though there's some odd additions to the Halloween decorations, and you spy candycorn lanterns hanging from trees, candycorn traffic cones lining the walkway. Your eyes drift up to the front steps where a wreath made out of candycorn is hung on the front door, and on either side of the door there are two fake trees in candycorn colors. There's a large bowl resting on the front steps decorated with pictures of candycorn, and peering inside, yep, it's all candycorn. You grab a handful and turn around only to see a couple of the candycorn decorations have fallen in the walkway, but as you get closer you see it's a puppy chewing on one of the candycorn decorations! You go to take the decoration so you can set it back up but the puppy gives you a dirty look and shifts so it's back is facing you, unwilling to give up their chew toy.
The Dia de los Muertos HouseThe Dia de los Muertos house is a wonderful splash of color against the other dark and spooky houses - there's flowers everywhere and a small army of skeletons is celebrating in the yard. You hear some upbeat music playing and wander over to a small group of colorfully painted skeletons positioned playing musical instruments before looping back to admire the orange, yellow, and red flowers lining the walkway. As you approach the front steps of the house you notice a number of brown and white decorated skulls placed on the steps, although one seems to have fallen off from it's place. You bend down to pick it up but take a few steps back as it rises up into the air! You quickly realize it's a puppy when it barks at you before trotting off into the colorful decorations, losing them in the flowers. You pick out a sugar skull to take with you as you head back to the street, thinking you see them as you pass in front of multiple colorful skulls that seemed to look almost like them.
The Haunted HouseThe haunted house has its front lawn decorated like a maze, forcing you to walk through all kinds of terrifying props to get to the front door. You pass scary clowns, zombies, werewolves, ghosts, vampires, bats, skeletons, and many more spooky creatures as you work your way through the (admittedly straightforward) maze to the front door. Some of the props have motion sensors that scream or howl as you draw close. You think you hear someone behind you but every time you turn around there’s no one there. After the third time you turn you start to become a little worried, so you focus on getting to the front steps quickly before getting out of there. You round a corner to finally see the front door and the candy sitting next to a small dog statue, but when you reach for a piece the statue comes alive and gives a tiny but fierce bark! After successfully scaring you the puppy runs off and hides in the bushes, leaving you to wonder if you’ll be ambushed again before you make it back out of the maze.
The Hellhound HouseA thick carpet of smoke coats the ground around the hellhound house. You carefully walk up a path lined with tombstones as large, dark canid creatures watch from beyond the tombstone fence. Unnervingly, their eyes seem to follow you as you walk, and the clank of chains behind you makes you pick up the pace. The front door of the house is lit up red, and two large hellhound statues are placed behind two cauldrons of flickering flames, guarding a third cauldron of candy placed on the front steps. As you approach the statues' eyes glow and their jaws drop, revealing rows of sharp teeth and a glowing throat. You quickly grab a few candies before turning around to leave, but find your path blocked by a small puppy who has materialized out of nowhere. The two of you stare at each other for a few moments before the puppy slinks off into the smoke, but you can feel its eyes watching you as you hurriedly leave the yard.
The Nighttime HouseThe nighttime house is placed next to the werewolf house, taking advantage of their full moon decoration, and is covered in strings of glowing lights to look like stars. As you watch the lights change intensity in random patterns, giving the impression of twinkling stars. There’s a few planets hanging from trees as well, and you can clearly see Jupiter hanging from an oak tree from the street. They even set up a telescope this year, so you spend a few moments looking at the craters on the moon before moving towards the house. While looking for the other planets hung from the trees you see a cluster of stars start to move on their own, and you can just make out a limber puppy moving through the strings of lights, hopping over them and crawling under them with ease.
The Werewolf HouseThe werewolf house has managed to take the large moon decoration from last year's full moon house and place it on the front of the house, shining white light across the yard. Various decorations of canine, human, and combinations of the two decorate this yard. One of the decorations moves - transforming from a four-legged canine to a standing werewolf. The decoration throws its head back in a jerky motion and gives an electronic howl, which is then joined by a very real howl from behind you. Spinning around it takes you a moment to see a puppy sitting on the walkway behind you. As soon as the puppy leaves the lit walkway you almost immediately lose it in the dark, but after a few uneasy moments you spot their eyes reflecting from the lights of the full moon decoration as they watch you from the bushes.
The Witches HouseSomeone has made some interesting design choices decorating the witches house, as it seems to feature witches riding around on vacuum cleaners? There are three witches taking a winding, erratic path through the front yard, and as you draw closer you see mannequins carefully placed atop the vacuum cleaners, one with red hair wearing green robes, a second with black hair wearing red robes, and a third with blonde hair wearing pink robes. There’s a large book and candle placed on the front steps, by a bubbling cauldron where you presume the candy is, and three smaller witches guarding the front steps. You walk past a leftover zombie decoration from a few years ago petting a black cat that’s propped against a tombstone as you approach the front steps. When you get closer you realize these small witches are puppies! While you do your best to work your way around them to get at the candy inside the cauldron, these three small puppies move as one to keep you away from the cauldron, or is it the book?
