'Traumatising': Furious debate over man's gory Halloween display
WARNING - DISTRESSING CONTENT: A man has divided opinion for embracing Halloween with some gory decorations outside his house.
Steven Novak, an artist from Dallas, Texas, has used his artistic flair to create a number of scary decorations for Halloween.
His front lawn features a dummy impaled on a chainsaw with fake blood while another dummy hangs from his roof.
A wheelbarrow full of fake dismembered body parts also greets trick-or-treaters with a body bag next to it.
His decorations are so realistic Facebook actually has graphic content warning on several images of his display.
Mr Novak has added so much realistic detail into his work some people have even called the police, according to the Dallas Observer.
Mr Novak told the paper police visited him and told the artist they thought the decorations “were cool”.
He added he’s most proud of the wheelbarrow.
“A kid walked by and asked me what happened to them; I said they ate too many Skittles,” he told the Observer.
His decorations have divided opinion, with some people claiming he’s taken it “a little too far”.
“I can't unsee this. Neither can the neighbourhood kids. What is wrong with these people?” one woman tweeted.
One man added a child could be “traumatised” by the decorations if they didn’t know they were fake.
Another woman added the decorations are “clever” but if her child saw the display she would be upset.
However, others saw the fun in Mr Novak embracing Halloween.
“The point is to scare people. mission accomplished. I see that anything that could traumatise people should be banned. So should we ban clowns? Ducks? Polka-dots?” one man tweeted.
One woman tweeted she “loved” the display.
“I feel like people don't really go all out for Halloween anymore,” she tweeted.
“It's supposed to be disturbing and scary. I feel like we make Halloween so childish and kiddy that it sucks all the actual scariness out of it. It's actually really impressive what he did with it.”
As for next year, Mr Novak wrote on Facebook he plans to include a wood chipper which will spray fake blood on his display.
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