Terror by the tunnel

Two and a half weeks ago, Maryann Radtich was sprucing up her house on West 19th Street in Weehawken for Halloween when young Chris Devaney stopped by and offered to help. Chris’s enthusiasm spread quickly around the block, and Radtich was soon joined by an army of decorators made up of the kids in the downtown “Shades” neighborhood near the Lincoln Tunnel.
Radtich and her crew ransacked her backyard shed and created a veritable haunted house, replete with moving skeletons and various undead with glowing red eyes, a ghost that flies back and forth above her front porch, a projector that casts eerie pumpkins and ghouls onto the house, and a fog machine.

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“We’re all family in some sort of hillbilly, backwards way.” –Ryan Casey
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But that’s not all. Guests who walk inside her front door are greeted by a sickly-colored plastic baby tacked to the wall, another greyish two-headed baby just in front of the stairs, a melting witchy dead thing that grabs for those who enter, and a wall next to the stairway smeared with bloody handprints.
The “Shades” section of town, near the Hoboken border, contains many Irish families that immigrated to Weehawken decades ago, many of whom are related. As Ryan Casey put it – much to the chagrin of the adults – “We’re all family in some sort of hillbilly, backwards way.”
The show doesn’t stop at Halloween. Radtich and company have big plans in store for Christmas. Be sure to stop by (at your own risk) at night when everything is lit up and moving, but not for too long…
Gennarose Pope may be reached at gpope@hudsonreporter.com/a>