CLEARWATER, Fla. (WFLA) — A man in Florida has decided to channel his fear of clowns into a creative exercise for his annual Halloween displays.
Jeff Somerville, of Clearwater, first began decorating his home with terrifying clowns in 2019, after relocating from the Midwest several years before, he previously told Nexstar’s WFLA. The inspiration came from his own fear of clowns, he said.
That first year, Somerville spared no expense. He even designed and commissioned the pièce de résistance — a 35-foot clown tunnel, situated right over the driveway — from a company in China.
“It all started out with a hand drawing, and they brought my vision to life,” said Somerville, who previously told WFLA that the company “knew how important this piece was to me and the role it played in our Halloween theme.”
The tunnel, of course, is back again for 2022. But the property also features menacing clowns of all shapes and sizes, including animatronic clowns, miniature clowns in cages, a two-headed clown and multiple clowns riding an electric Ferris wheel or chair swings. One of the display’s newer additions for 2022 is a 12-foot clown with glowing red eyes.
Not surprisingly, Somerville’s “incredible neighbors” have taken to calling his home “the Clown House,” he once said.
Somerville told WFLA it took about two days to set up the display, but acknowledged that it’s still quite time-consuming to operate and maintain on a daily basis.
“I set this up every night,” Somerville said. “That takes me roughly 30 [minutes] to set up and 30 [minutes] to tear down.”
Former WFLA reporter Alexis Pastore contributed to this report.