Houses of horrors

You can almost hear The Addams Family theme when you approach the house on West Schuyler Place, snapping fingers and all – especially when the Gaeta family comes out in costumes to join several dozen animatronic ghouls, witches, skeletons, and other beasts they have set up on their front lawn.
A few blocks away at nearby Avenue A and West Fourth Street, the owner of Big Apple Restaurant has put up a competing display – offering trick-or-treaters some scary thrills on Halloween.
Although Stephen Gaeta and his wife Anita have been decorating their home for many years, they really began to pull out all stops about four years ago, filling their front yard and porch as well as the upstairs porch with animatronic characters that cackle and scream, eyes glowing red as they wield knives or axes.

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“We try to add something new every year.” – Stephen Gaeta
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At an operating table, a mad doctor lifts the top of his own head to expose his brain, while nearby a six-foot, six-inch clown lifts his head off his shoulders, and a man with a machete suddenly raises the weapon as you pass near the front door.
“We try to add something new every year,” Gaeta said.
At night, especially during the weekend before the holiday, everything lights up, fog flows out over the graveyard, and, yes, the Gaeta family dresses up, so that it is difficult to tell which creature is human and which is a machine.
People seeking to find the remote location of the house may need to be aware that West Schuyler Place is at the end of North Street just off Avenue A in Bayonne. This is somewhat confusing because the unconnected Schuyler Place is only a block away.
“We also take in many of the things at night,” Stephen Gaeta said. “While we leave the graveyard, most of the expensive features we bring inside later.”
Anita said it takes about an hour to set up the whole display, but once it comes alive and the fog starts, even the neighbors come out to gawk.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.