Indulging their inner ghoul in Dunwoody

Neighbors' frightful display started small, then took on 'life of its own'

By SHANDRA HILL SMITH
For the Journal-Constitution
Published on: 10/26/04

In Mark and Sandra Benson's front yard, tombstones bearing each family member's name—including those of the couple's two dogs — line a graveyard.

"We've got various body parts hanging around," Mark Benson said.

Mark Benson decorates his yard for Halloween. 'Victorian neighborhoods and Halloween and spooky stuff sort of go together,' he says.

It's all fake — and all in fun.

The Benson household is one of dozens in a Dunwoody community of Victorian homes near Tilly Mill Road that go all out each year for Halloween.

There are faux graves with body parts breaking through the ground. Ghosts dance from tree limbs, and messages such as "You Should Be Very, Very Afraid" and "Rest in Pieces" greet passers-by.

"Victorian neighborhoods and Halloween and spooky stuff sort of go together," Mark Benson said.

For more than a decade, residents of the Briers North subdivision and surrounding communities have decked out their habitats and lawns in recognition of Halloween.

"It started with one family," said Benson, who, with his wife, will throw an adults-only party at their home the day before Halloween. "It soon became a little competitive."

"It's really kind of taken on a life of its own," Sandra Benson said.

Joe Bowen and his wife, Debra, join in the tradition of "Atlanta's Spookiest Neighborhood," as Briers North residents have dubbed themselves.

They even have their own Web site.

"Everybody just started doing a little decoration, and it just mushroomed from there," said Joe Bowen, who says his household's contribution started out small and safe — not much more than a jack-o'-lantern here and there — before turning "scary" by the time his son, Jay, was 7.

Now that Jay is 11, the scarier elements have been augmented to include spider webs, skeletons, tombstones, bats and rats.

"It's a compliment that tourists will drive through the neighborhood,"Bowen said.

On Halloween, as hundreds of kids go trick-or-treating through the neighborhood, police close off Briers North Drive.

Volunteers help patrol the area.

"It's like Times Square at New Year's," Bowen said.