A ghostly love story is playing out on the quiet tree-lined Badgerow Avenue in Toronto’s Leslieville area, where homeowner Brian Astl has collaborated with neighbours on an annual Halloween tradition that stops passersby dead in their tracks year after year.
Astl and his neighbours on Badgerow have developed quite the reputation for going all-in on the spooky season with elaborate Halloween displays that have attracted regular media attention over the years.
For this year’s display, Astl and neighbours have created a ghostly love story set amid a graveyard scene.
He tells blogTO that “The display this year is a story about two lovers in the afterlife, torn apart by the Grim Reaper. Even in the spooky graveyard full of the dead (and not so dead), the lovers’ passion lives on, and not even the Grim Reaper can keep them apart.”
Among the props used to execute this fun neighbourhood attraction, Astl set up a ten-foot-tall hand-made Grim Reaper “lording over his dominion” between two handmade ghost figures paused in a marriage proposal.
A ghostly priest looms in the tree above, ready to wed the two ghosts for eternity.
“We added a little sign explaining that ‘Love is Love, always and forever,'” says Astl, adding, “Even spooky scenes can have an uplifting message, right?”
Other features of this year’s display include handmade skulls, gravestones, and the usual suspects of ghosts and ghouls to give locals a fun fright on their next walk through the neighbourhood.
After dark, the installation boasts mood lighting and a fog machine to help build a foreboding but fun atmosphere.
As with previous years, the display spans a pair of semi-detached homes, which Astl says “is a fun bonding activity” for the next-door neighbours.
“The rest of the neighbourhood is really supportive of what we do. The first question we get after Halloween is over is, ‘What will you do next year?’ and we have lots of people stop and take pictures.”
“On Halloween night, it becomes a sort of gathering place for the neighbours to hang out.”
Astl tells blogTO that “the tradition started with my love for the spooky season and as a creative outlet.”
“I love Halloween because it’s one of the very few times during the year when the entire neighbourhood is out at once,” he says.
“We even kept it going during COVID, where we used some special UV lights that my company created to disinfect the treats as they slid down a long tube from our upper floor to the sidewalk.”
Perhaps the most memorable of recent Halloween displays from Astl was the conversion of the connected pair of semi-detached homes into a monster extending its giant tongue back in 2022.
Aside from the obvious demographic of kids, Astl notes how the holiday brings together the neighbourhood, noting that even empty nesters and young couples are fans of the impressive decorations.
“It’s a chance to see everyone that we only otherwise get at our annual street party. So we see it as a fun thing to do, but also as a community-building activity.”
