Fall is back in Colorado, bringing with it shades of orange and reds, pumpkin pie and Halloween. Halloween is celebrated in many different ways, from dressing up and taking to the streets to gather the loot, to carving up the pumpkins. For one Coronado Cougar, Halloween is something even more special. Michael Petkash, 10, has been making a haunted house in his garage for the past five years. Over time he has built up and astounding collection of props, decorations and animatronics.

“I don’t do the haunted house and all the work that goes into it to show off, I do it because it makes me feel good about what I created and get to share with people,” said Petkash when asked why he does his haunted house every year.

The story of Petkash’s haunted house is truly an amazing one. Petkash started doing his haunted house in 2010. Starting out with five or six props around his huge three-car garage, he slowly started to collect more props and build his haunted house. In 2011 he named the haunted house Fright House Productions. He had been doing the haunted house for two years until a terrible tragedy struck Petkash and his family. The Petkash family was one of the many families who were affected by the Waldo Canyon Fire. His house was located in Mountain Shadows and was totally decimated by the fire. He lost everything including all of his haunted house materials.

Almost immediately he started to rebuild. He bought more props and built animatronics and by Halloween of 2012 he was open. His haunted house was a success and since then he has made amazing progress with it, raising the level of his project to a professional level. He has over 30 life-size animatronics and has many actors signing up to participate. The haunted house is located in his garage and usually features many jump scares, as well as a showcase of all of his props.

The planning for the haunted house begins on November 1 and the work runs all the way up until Halloween. The most amazing feat of the whole endeavor is that Petkash, his co-manager and a team of build crew put up the entire 200 square foot haunted house in under 3 days. They work around the clock, setting up props, building the set and positioning actors.

This is a huge undertaking and it is very impressive that this Coronado Cougar puts all of this work just for fun. Go check out Fright House Productions Haunted House on Halloween at 2255 Yankton Court if you dare. Students can also find dates and times at www.FrightHouseProductions.weebly.com