[MULTIMEDIA NOTE: For an audio slideshow to go along with this story, click here.]

BY DAY THE house at 2616 Wedgewood Drive, Champaign, is your typical, pleasant white-brick affair with a trim lawn and a well-manicured flower bed.

But, as the Halloween moon takes its place in the black night sky, the yard is transformed into a ghoulish lot, complete with zombies, blood, and even a deranged doctor.

Paul Dampier (left) and Grant Loos get started on the haunted house. Gargoyle photo by Andrea Park (click to enlarge)

The haunted house, located on senior Paul Dampier's family lawn and now in its fifth year, will be open for visitors during trick-or-treating hours on Halloween night.

The majority of the setting up will be done that afternoon, but Dampier and fellow seniors Amy Wiltzius, Jake Seeley, and Grant Loos — four of the eight scare-team members — got a head start Saturday with some initial preparation.

As Wiltzius perfected the art of splattering fake blood, Seeley and Loos stuffed old clothes with newspapers to make dummies. Dampier oversaw the operation, helping out here and there, and also brought his Halloween gear out of storage.

Come Wednesday, they will be joined by the rest of the haunted-house ensemble: seniors Sam Imlay, T.J. Bozada, Julian Hartman, and Jacob Olshansky.

STARTING A TRADITION

Dampier, the mastermind behind this frightening operation, has had a love for the Halloween holiday and a fascination with the fiendish ever since he was young.

"Halloween is definitely my favorite holiday," he explained. "The scary kind of creepy stuff, it’s always been something I’ve been interested in. I go to Dallas & Company in spring, just to look at stuff. … In Disney movies, I always thought the bad guys were really, really cool.”

In fact, Dampier draws inspiration for this haunted house from the demonic last act of Disney’s “Fantasia,” “Night on Bald Mountain.”

The idea of transforming Dampier’s lawn into a haunted house was born on Halloween night in 2003. Ever since, it has been a staple of Cherry Hills trick-or-treating for the past five years.

“The first year [we created a haunted house] was subbie year,” Dampier recounted. “It was only with Grant, and we were at the age where we could do trick-or-treating — maybe. It was getting kind of weird.”

“We didn’t know what we were going to do,” Loos echoed. “I just came over, and we didn’t know if we were going to go trick-or-treating or sit there and hand out candy. Paul is the mastermind, with random input from us [co-creators]. I just helped start it subbie year.”

So what would become an elaborate tradition actually had a modest beginning.

Every aspect is meticulously planned. Gargoyle photo by Andrea Park (click to enlarge)

“I had already put stuff in my yard, because I always liked Halloween,” Dampier said. “We decided we would sit in these chairs here and dress up. We were completely covered, with masks on, and we’d move really slowly and watch people go. … They didn’t know if we were real or fake, and then we’d jump at them. That was the first year. It was a lot of fun.”

The terrified reaction of a pair of preteen girls was the highlight of that year’s Halloween.

“These two girls were wearing inflatable fat suits,” Paul recounts. “They were waddling up to the yard, and both of us jumped out at the same time. They then turned, waddled off, one tripped and rolled, and they ran off saying, ‘Sorry! Sorry we stepped on your yard!’”

TERRIFYINGLY CREATIVE

In Dampier’s freshman year, he and his friends expanded on the idea by designing a more elaborate layout. They added more decorations and also incorporated themselves as characters into the haunted scene.

“People walked around the yard doing different things," Dampier said. "I remember one thing we had was Jake, [who] was in a doctor’s outfit covered in blood. He handed candy out and would freak people out. We also had someone roaming in the yard. The next year we did something similar to that.”

Last year, when Dampier was a junior, the haunted house was even more planned, easily becoming their best yet. Despite the slight drizzle on Halloween night, the design — complete with strategically placed points of “scare” — was a big hit.

“We scared people at different points [of the yard]," Dampier said. "There weren’t any overlapping things. We had Jacob dressed up as a zombie, and he’d slowly follow behind people and creep people out. Jake was sitting in a chair, and we had a dummy next to him, so people weren’t sure if he was real or fake. Amy and Sam — Amy was dressed up as a doctor, and Sam was lying there as the ‘patient.’”

A new idea implemented last year was a prop called Candy Guts, invented by Dampier. Candy Guts is a shirt with a bag-like compartment, to be filled with candy, sewn on the inside of it. Of course, the shirt is badly torn and splattered grotesquely with fake blood and guts. A person, disguised as a battered, bloody patient, wears the shirt, while a deranged doctor reaches inside the bag and grabs candy for the trick-or-treater.

Fake blood is a staple of every self-respecting haunted house. Gargoyle photo by Andrea Park (click to enlarge)

“I was the Candy Guts doctor,” Wiltzius affirmed.

“She would reach in and pull the candy out of Sam,” Paul elaborated. “Then he would start screaming and writhing.”

Every new creation must go through at least a couple drafts before reaching perfection. There were a few mishaps last year with Candy Guts, but with the help of Wiltzius, the design has been improved for this year’s Halloween.

Dampier will wear the shirt this time.

“Last year there was this plastic bag that was taped into the shirt, and I was wearing plastic gloves, so I would reach in and it would tear," Wiltzius said. "It broke like four times. This year I sewed a pillowcase around the hole [instead of a plastic bag], so the latex won’t stick to the cloth.”

A couple more character/audience interactions were added to last year’s haunted house, making it much more frightening for the trick-or-treaters, and more amusing for those behind the masks.

“We had these ropes attached to a tree, and I was restrained by the ropes,” Dampier went on to explain. “So, while people were looking at Candy Guts, I would run up and scare them.”

However, by far the favorite addition to last year’s design was the “audience plant,” played by Seeley.

“The audience plant thing is my favorite thing to do,” Seeley said. “I go out and meet up with some kids a few houses down, and I go to a few houses with them, and I talk them up.

"And then we get here, and I taunt one of the characters and push them too far. They then come and maul me, and throw me under a bush. It’s fun doing that play-acting, because they [the audience members] think they’re in danger too.”

Added Dampier: “The group he was with would be terrified and walk off. We’re definitely going to do it this year.”

A FIENDISH FAREWELL

So what other plans does this grisly crew have? Because they are seniors, this is most likely the last Halloween they will spend together. So everyone who has contributed to the haunted house in the past five years will make appearances as characters and props in this year’s scene.

“We’re going to have two people by the sidewalk,” said Loos. “One person in a chair sitting next to a dummy. We’re going to have people prowling around to make sure people go to the right places, where we want them. We have a specific path — we have a person in a tree and Candy Guts all on that path.”

Grant Loos in full costume. Gargoyle photo by Andrea Park (click to enlarge)

Though the rest of the plans are under wraps, these veterans are confident that they will create the best haunted house yet, topping last year's. In fact, the group has even come up with a detailed blueprint of what they have in mind.

How time consuming is the process of getting things ready?

“It takes anywhere from two to 10 hours of wasting time, and one to three hours of realizing we need to get something done and doing it," Dampier said. "There’s always a moment when we’re like, ‘This is ridiculous, we’re not doing anything.’… It’s a rush at the end trying to get thing done.”

Since most of the props and masks are being recycled from previous years, the group is not worried about costs.

“It’s not really expensive,” Wiltzius said. “Good masks cost a lot of money, but Paul has a lot that he has collected over the years, so I don’t think we’re going to even buy one this year. So, you know the clothes, they’re scrap clothes we have — and we stuff it with newspaper.

"A couple of weeks ago Paul and I went Halloween shopping, and we bought some bones and gloves for zombies, and in all it only cost like $20. And the fake blood, we bought a pint last year, and most of it is still left. It’s not that expensive.”

But in case they do need to make a new purchase, Dampier can give a good overview of the best places in town to buy supplies.

"Dallas is always the place that I’ve gone to get my Halloween supplies," Dampier said. "There’s these new monthly chain places that just come for the holiday, and I’ve got some stuff from there. The best quality masks are from Dallas. And you go down to the monthly ones, and they’re OK. Then you go to Wal-Mart and Walgreens — I got a gorilla mask for like 75 cents."

When the evening filled with blood-curdling screams is over, the team members will enjoy each other’s company in the warmth of Dampier's home — "eating food and watching cheesy scary movies,” Wiltzius said.

“We always get food afterwards, so it’s fun,” Seeley agreed.

So how popular will the haunted house be this year? If the reaction of 10-year-old Spencer Hays is any indication, Dampier and his crew will have a busy night ahead of themselves.

“I went to this haunted house last year — it was really scary and I liked it a lot,” Hays recalled. “One year I came here, and I got so freaked out — I ran off back to my house. I looked into the bushes, and there was stuff in the bushes. I ran away and went to my house and I was like, ‘I don’t want to go back, I don’t want to go back!’ I am definitely coming this year to the haunted house.”

MORE PHOTOS: PAUL DAMPIER'S HAUNTED HOUSE

Half of Paul Dampier's scare crew were hard at work Saturday afternoon. From left: seniors Grant Loos, Amy Wiltzius, Dampier, and Jake Seeley. The other members will be there Wednesday: seniors T.J. Bozada, Julian Hartman, Sam Imlay, and Jacob Olshansky. Gargoyle photo by Andrea Park (click to enlarge)

An elaborate layout doesn't happen by accident. Gargoyle photo by Andrea Park (click to enlarge)

Paul Dampier displays one of the masks that visitors will be sure to see Wednesday night. Gargoyle photo by Andrea Park (click to enlarge)

Dummies play a large role in adding to the experience of the haunted house. Gargoyle photo by Andrea Park (click to enlarge)

More grisly sights. Gargoyle photo by Andrea Park (click to enlarge)

The transformation of Amy is complete. Be sure to check out this and other ghoulish happenings Wednesday night at the Dampiers! Gargoyle photo by Andrea Park (click to enlarge)