Saturday night, Joe and Barbara Pfeiffer’s home becomes the nightmare at 6902 River Birch Court.
Their three-car garage becomes a little shop of horrors, tricked out with 45 prop Halloween characters, seven or eight live players that he calls “scare-actors,” a fog machine, black lights, strobe lights and a soundtrack designed to raise goosebumps.
“To say he is obsessed would be an understatement,” said neighbor Lew Valenti.
After all, Joe Pfeiffer has been opening up his Halloween maze to the community for the past eight years.
Children who come knocking at his door will get a candy treat, but they will also have an opportunity to experience the maze, which includes a seance scene, mad dentist and more.
To go through the maze, he requests a donation, whatever the trick or treater wants to drop into the bucket, with proceeds going to UNICEF.
This will be the last year Pfeiffer plans to run the maze at home. Next year, he hopes to partner with a nonprofit.
Wednesday, he was putting his scary cast of characters together in the heat of his garage.
“It takes 65 to 70 hours to set this up,” he said, the sweat dripping off his face.
“People cannot appreciate what it takes to make an inanimate object do what you want it to,” he said as he struggled with one of his prop characters. “You do all this for one night, and then it takes two days to clean up.”
He has collected the pieces of his ensemble over the past decade, spending an estimated $5,000.
Barbara Pfeiffer is a fourth-grade teacher at Gullett Elementary School in Lakewood Ranch. She will be handing out treats and taking UNICEF donations Saturday during the maze’s run, from 6:45 to 9 p.m.
“She never liked it, but she puts up with it,” Joe Pfeiffer said of his wife’s tolerance.
Melanie Batten, the Pfeiffers’ niece and a 10th-grader at Lakewood Ranch High School, will be one of the scare-actors.
“It’s really a lot of fun. I’ve done it for as long as I can remember,” she said.
Outside of his maze, Joe Pfeiffer is a management consultant, cartoonist, children’s book author and storyteller. He has been a guest speaker at Little Bookworms in Lakewood Ranch, and will be a storyteller during the community’s Boofest on Friday.
Valenti calls Pfeiffer a great neighbor.
“Whenever you need something, he is always there,” he said.
The popularity of the maze seems to bring extra trick or treaters to the neighborhood.
Valenti prepares by buying enough candy to stay busy for three hours as trick or treaters swarm through the neighborhood.
For more information on the maze, visit Pfeiffer’s Web site at http://www.broinow.com/.
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