Fallbrook man's Haunted House stimulates donations not the dead

"Halloween's my thing."

That understatement was delivered by 35-year-old Fallbrook native Jeff Woodrey, who married his wife, Jessica, on Halloween last year and spent this extended Halloween weekend allowing the public to view the Haunted House in which they were wed.

Woodrey has celebrated the ghoulish holiday in grand fashion for 20 years, and this year he used his love of Halloween as a conduit to help local organizations. Woodrey invited Fallbrook residents to his Haunted House at 451 S. Stage Coach Lane, where they were treated to thrills and chills at no cost.

Woodrey merely asked visitors to bring canned food items for the Fallbrook Food Pantry, or to make a donation to either the Fallbrook Animal Sanctuary or Fallbrook Skate Park.

"It's free, and if they want to give or make a donation, it's up to them," said Woodrey, who added that most attendees did make contributions.

Woodrey has invested more than $8,000 in his Halloween motif, and his collection includes a dozen large animatronics props, including his latest addition, a werewolf that showed off glowing eyes and a menacing bite.

Woodrey, in homage to his marriage to Jessica, created a scene featuring a skeleton bride and groom. The skeletons stood in the exact spot the couple occupied the previous Halloween.

Woodrey's Haunted House, which took him two months to put together, had all the staples, including a cemetery with tilted tomb stones and yet-to-be-buried coffins, hanging skeletons, spider webs, zombies, heads that appeared detached from their bodies, witches, a scarecrow who lunged at people if they tried to take candy from the bowl he held, and a many-years deceased grandma sitting in a rocking chair with a cat on her lap and holding a brutally-ugly baby that she would serenade whenever anyone tried to pet the cat.

The Haunted House's residents included classic horror movie characters Dracula and The Mummy, and slasher movie series icons Michael Myers ("Halloween"), Freddie Krueger ("A Nightmare on Elm Street") and Jason ("Friday the 13th").

Woodrey attributes his love for Halloween to family and friends.

“My family always decorated for Halloween – not to the extent I do – and it always intrigued me,” said Woodrey, a supervisor at Rite Aid. “When I was 15 my neighbor gave me my first skeleton and it sparked something. It was a three-foot skeleton. I was like, 'what can I do with this.' It was right before Halloween, so I put a party together.”

Woodrey has been throwing Halloween bashes ever since, but this year marked the first time he opened them to the public. He offered a "scare-free" version of his Haunted House for youngsters on Oct. 28, and an “all scares are on” version to all brave souls on Oct. 30 and Oct. 31. On Oct. 29, the house was reserved for family and friends as Woodrey and his wife hosted a Halloween/first anniversary party.

Woodrey hopes to make a visit to his Haunted House a tradition for Fallbrook residents.

“Down on Reche Road there's a family that does it big for Christmas,” said Woodrey. “People go driving through and it's pretty cool. I'd like this to turn into something like that for Halloween. Maybe next year instead of just having it one weekend, maybe we'll do it a couple of weekends.”

By that time, Woodrey will no doubt have made some additions to his Halloween collection.

"I like to see how creative I can get," said Woodrey. "The big stuff I either buy online or at Spirit the Halloween Super Store. But a lot of this stuff, it's Dollar Tree and the 99 cent store. I take it and make something out of it. I try to be as creative as possible. It's fun."