Wasilla man goes all-out for scary fun on 'Howl-oween'

WASILLA — Most of the year Paul Wood is a pretty typical Valley resident.

He’s got a modest house on Williwaw Way. He breeds St. Bernards and is unmarried, joking that he prefers the company of dogs to that of a wife.

But on Halloween he dons a full fur coat and boots — both of which match his brown-and-white beard — and a hat featuring the head of a wolf resting on his own head. And then he brings out probably the creepiest puppet one can imagine. It’s a werewolf puppy he cradles in his arms like a baby. He uses it to snap at the hands of children who grab too much candy.

“I’m the wolf-man,” he said.

That puppet, he said, is creepy enough he tends to keep it tucked away the rest of the year. It has made quite a splash, especially with one of his neighbors.

“I scared the daylights out of her,” he said.

Wood’s yard is covered in tombstones and animatronic monsters. There’s a maze of dog kennel panels leading up to it and a pumpkin patch off to the side. Dracula is swooping in out of the trees. There are strategically placed strobe lights all over.

Wood said he purchases most of his stuff online. Stores don’t carry enough decorations to satisfy him. His collection grows steadily as he adds new things.

“Each year I try to make it different,” he said.

He’s had to hold himself back a few times.

“I don’t know if I can justify $300 for one night,” Wood said, especially considering what it costs to ship things to Alaska.

Some of the items in the yard are actually things he uses throughout the year, like the dog kennel that holds a King Kong-style gorilla or some of the items in the graveyard.

“You’d be amazed what you have in your yard that you can adapt,” he said.

In a word, he does on Halloween what a lot of people do on Christmas — not that he doesn’t like Christmas. He’s decorated for that holiday, too.

“I used to. I cut way back after my electric bill jumped a couple hundred dollars,” Wood said. “I used to have so much light you could come out here and read.”

Halloween, he said, is a lot of fun. He likens his own yard to yards he used to visit when he was a kid, yards with cobwebs and fog machines that he’d have to work up the courage to step into.

“People don’t even put a pumpkin out anymore,” he said.

“People are kind of losing the spirit of Halloween,” said Kyle Cameron, a neighbor and friend who stood next to wolf-man Wood in a Frankenstein mask, platform boots and a beat up leather duster.

Cameron is one of a handful of folks who help Wood out during trick-or-treat time.

Wood said that when the kids come over he’s going to be sitting there with his latex puppy, insisting the kids say “trick-or-treat” and dropping a handful of gravel into the buckets of kids who don’t comply.

“Friends and the neighbor kids come over and we’re just going to scare the little buggers,” he said.

“I’m going to aim for the adults,” said Charles Davis, another of Wood’s helpers who’s taken on the persona of the werewolf.

“Charles is really good,” Wood said.

After Halloween, he said, it all goes back into his increasingly crowded and increasingly creepy storage shed.

“I fill up the shed,” he said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.