Staging haunted houses at home has been a scream, but 14th is the finale

Underneath Anthony Cabrera’s soft voice and quiet demeanor is a man who keeps a box of heads in his basement.

You never know when you might need one, especially if you work 500 hours a year to turn your suburban home into a house of horrors.

By day Cabrera is a buttoned-up corporate attorney, but by night he’s a prop master, builder and evil genius who rigs fog machines, massive animatronics and tight alleyways where there’s no escaping whatever is coming at you.

Since 2012, Cabrera and his family have welcomed thousands of neighbors and strangers into their Vinings Estates home in Smyrna. Each year, Cabrera selects a new theme, and beginning Nov. 1, starts the work that will take him to the following October. In other words, Cabrera’s home life is never normal.

“Halloween has always been my favorite holiday because I never had much growing up, including Christmas presents, and Halloween was the great equalizer. Rich or poor, you’re getting the same candy,” Cabrera said.

Now in its final year as the Cabreras prepare for their haunted house retirement, “House of the Unhappy Pumpkins 14: The Final Chapter” brings back all the favorites from previous years and a few new surprises, including elaborate sets, ethereal projections and horror movie scene re-creations, all set to thundering music.

When Cabrera married Sandi 31 years ago — in October, of course — he discovered that she was a Halloween fanatic as well. So, when they purchased their Vinings Estates residence, their number one criterion was the front porch. It had to be the perfect size for pumpkin and ghoul displays.

Their spooky outdoor decor drew so many trick-or-treaters that the couple’s three kids suggested expanding the displays to the dining room. The haunted house then took on a life of its own, creeping through the living level and into the 840-square-foot garage. That space became a hair-raising maze designed for older kids and the bravehearted who aren’t afraid of what goes bump in the night. (While horror lovers can proceed with caution into the garage, smaller kids should visit the more whimsical attractions throughout the house.)

Cabrera had so many people ask about ticket prices that he placed a plastic pumpkin on the porch for donations. The first year, he collected $34 in change. The family donated it to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, where one of the kids had been treated years before.

When donations grew, Cabrera began a new tradition — using the money to shop for Christmas toys for the kids at Children’s Healthcare. Now family members could visualize what kind of impact they were making.

The motivation drove Cabrera to outdo himself with a new theme each year. He invested in massive installations such as a haunted pipe organ jauntily played by a 6-foot skeleton. It’s so imposing that it is now a permanent fixture in the living room. He added eerie special effects, 30 handmade props, 25 animatronics, and passageways complete with peeling wallpaper and scuttling cockroaches.

At the same time, Sandi suggested that the family kick in a dollar for every person who walked through the door. That was on top of the $100,000 the Cabreras estimate they’ve invested in the haunted house over the past 14 years.

“It’s all worth it, every dollar, every 3 a.m. alarm so I can work on props before heading to work, every October having thousands of people walk through our house,” Cabrera said. “When I think about kids stuck in the hospital and know that, for some, this will be their last Christmas, I just want to make it special. That’s why we’ve kept doing this year after year.”

In 2018, those hospitalized kids included then-10-year-old Jake Kowalzyk, who, diagnosed with leukemia, required chemotherapy treatments over the holidays.

Even with friends visiting Jake, his mom, Brandee Kowalzyk, said, “The hours just drag in a way you can’t imagine until you’ve experienced it.”

Then, on Dec. 23, signs of hope appeared — literally. “We noticed flyers hanging everywhere and announcing a special surprise Christmas party with presents, cookies and cocoa,” she said. “We finally had something to look forward to.”

The next day, families huddled together outside a closed waiting room. When the doors opened, Kowalzyk said, “We were blown away. There were toys everywhere, and since they were unwrapped, kids were able to pick things that would keep them entertained during the length of their hospital stay. Even siblings got to choose gifts.”

But the best part? “Jake was a kid with cancer, and that was impossible to forget,” Kowalzyk said, “but for a few hours on that special day, he was just a kid.”

In 2025, more than 1,800 kids of all ages giggled and screamed their way through the Cabrera haunted house. They donated nearly $35,000, and the family filled 35 Target shopping carts with toys.