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Get into Halloween spirit with spooky, not-so-scary events



TRIBUNE PHOTO: ALVARO FONTAN - Davis Grayeyard is a Halloween attraction that has been a labor of love for owners Jeff and Chris Davis.October comes around, and things get busy at the Davis property at Southeast Johnson Creek Boulevard and 43rd Avenue in Milwaukie.

With nice weather, hundreds of people walk the property, which the family turns into the Davis Graveyard, with tombstones, a mausoleum, a hearse and an abbey facade.

“It’s like a big movie,” Chris Davis says. She and her husband, Jeff, have been turning their property into a faux graveyard full of Styrofoam elements — and not dead bodies — for 18 years, and it’s getting more fun every year. About 11 years ago, the Davis duo ramped up their Halloween attraction, going gung-ho about preparing the place, doing television and media promotions, hosting the Home Haunters Video Awards, and volunteering to run the West Coast Haunters Convention. They teach classes on how to build Styrofoam displays.

TRIBUNE PHOTO: ALVARO FONTAN - Members of Independent Dance Project do a zombie dance at Davis Graveyard.Nine dedicated people work at the Davis Graveyard, one of the Portland area’s top sites for Halloween fun in October.

“It’s more creepy and spooky than gory and violent,” Davis says.

Her fascination with Halloween started in her youth, when Davis’ father took her to the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. She rode the ride about six times, and bought the soundtrack from the attraction.

Now, the Davises present one of the nation’s largest and most detailed cemetery-themed yard haunts.

“It’s quite a thrill,” she says, of Halloween.

The Davis Graveyard is open from dusk to 10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, and lights are combined with effects (sound, video, fog, animations) Fridays and Saturdays till 10 p.m. and Sundays till 11 p.m.

For more: www.davisgraveyard.com.

The Portland area features many Halloween attractions and events. Here are some:

TRIBUNE PHOTO: JAIME VALDEZ - Baron Von Goolo, curator of Museum of Horrors and the Basket of Deplorable, stands in the museum of FrightTown at Veterans Memorial Coliseum. • At the Rose Quarter, FrightTown is enjoying its 12th season as Oregon’s largest attraction with three haunted houses in 40,000 square feet. It features the Grimthron Manor, The Witch House and Baron Von Goolo’s Museum of Horrors in the Veterans Memorial Coliseum Exhibition Hall. It’s open at 7 p.m. most nights through Halloween. Grimthorn Manor is new this year. A poor gypsy seeking shelter is shunned and abused by a cruel family. She places a curse on them so they become monsters to match their black souls, turning Grimthorn Manor into a crumbling house of death, ghosts, vampires and werewolves. For more: www.frighttown.com.

• Located at 3855 S.W. Murray Blvd. in Beaverton, the 13th Door Haunted House is a westside favorite. For more: www.13thdoor.com.

• UPDATE: The 13th annual West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta, scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 15, at The Lake of Tualatin Commons, has been cancelled because of the threat or poor weather — mostly high winds. For more: www.tualatinoregon.gov/pumpkinregatta.

• The sixth annual “Fright Night — A Halloween Circus” takes place 8 p.m. Oct. 21 and 22 at Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 N.E. Alberta St., and features circus artists, such as a monster and his bride on straps, a moth caught in a spider’s web, and witches casting spells on aerial silks. For more: www.albertarosetheatre.com.

• A special showing of the 1925 silent picture “The Phantom of the Opera” takes place 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29, at the Hollywood Theatre, 4122 N.E. Sandy Blvd. It’s put on by the Columbia Theatre Organ Society. The film has been deemed “culturally significant” by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry. It’s based on the 1910 novel and stars Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin and Norman Kerry in the story of a deformed man who causes murder and mayhem to make the woman he loves the star. Moviegoers are encouraged to wear “Phantom” or Halloween costumes. For more: www.hollywoodtheatre.org.

TRIBUNE PHOTO: ALVARO FONTAN - Davis Grayeyard is a Halloween attraction that has been a labor of love for owners Jeff and Chris Davis.• Phantom PDX is a popular haunted warehouse costume party, one of the largest Halloween productions in Portland, 8 p.m. Oct. 29 at The North Warehouse, 723 N. Tillamook St. It’s three stages of fun, including the main stage with a 24-foot-wide LED video wall, a graveyard-inspired stage and dance floor, choreographed dance routines and stilt walkers, clowns, swinging performers, go-go dancers and more. There’s also a voodoo tent, back alley and more. Get more info on Facebook.

• Among other haunted houses, there is The Fear PDX, 5413 N.E. Columbia Blvd. For more: www.fearpdx.com.

And, a few other things ...

• Popular corn mazes are The Corn Maize at The Pumpkin Patch, 16511 N.W. Gillihan Road, and Kruger’s Farm Haunted Maze and Corn Cabaret, 17100 N.W. Sauvie Island Road.



• Parties to consider are the ‘80s Video Dance Attack Halloween Party on Oct. 28 at the Crystal Ballroom, and the Portland Erotic Ball, Oct. 29, also at the Crystal Ballroom.

• A couple other attractions: Halloween Fantasy Trail, Oregon City, through Oct. 30, and Pumpkin Fest, Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm/Woodburn, also through Oct. 30.

• Some of the best websites for finding Halloween attractions and events are www.pdxpipeline.com, www.events12.com/portland and www.travelportland.com.

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