Home is where the horror is.
Ghoulish decor abounds across New York, but nowhere more so in the five boroughs than Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens. The adjacent Brooklyn neighborhoods have become the city’s de facto Halloween headquarters — with residents going all-out on spooky displays for their brownstones.
“It’s really ugly out there in the world right now and we just thought about the kids,” Carroll Gardens resident Gabriela Palmieri told The Post.
The 48-year-old art adviser and her husband, attorney Scott Harford, 49, selected sporty skeletons as this year’s opportune theme.
“We are huge sports fans and we knew we wanted to do skeletons,” she said. “But I said, ‘We need to up the ante. How about we buy jerseys of all the teams and do this ‘game over’ theme?'”
Trick-or-treaters to the home, which is on Second Place near Clinton Street, will be greeted by jersey-clad skeletons – including dead Yankees and Mets, as well as sidelined Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers strategically placed above a tombstone.
“We wrapped his ankle, near the Achilles heel,” Palmieri said of Rodgers’ likeness. “He’s very happy they’re enjoying the basketball game with his popcorn.”
There’s also an NBA scene with skeletons of New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson and Brooklyn Nets center Nic Claxton posed as spectators in front of a dunking Sabrina Ionescu, a superstar guard for the New York Liberty.
“It’s therapy for all New York sports fans … all of the New York teams are pretty terrible.”
Gabriela Palmieri
“I think it’s therapy for all New York sports fans,” said Palmieri, a hardcore Mets and Jets fan. “It came out of our love of sports and how funny it is that all of the New York teams are pretty terrible.”
Things are less humorous and more haunting on nearby DeGraw Street, where one house features a terrifying, professional-grade showcase starring a skeleton cooking mutilated corpses.
Meanwhile, on Henry Street near Carroll Street, Philip Olivieri has been building his elaborate display for eight years. It’s anchored by a custom-made electric chair and also features a condemned inmate, a convincing “high voltage” sign and several sinister scowling figures.
“It just got bigger and bigger each year,” Olivieri, 46, told The Post of his complex creation,
October 31 marks the third anniversary for Olivieri and his girlfriend, Elizabeth Civiletti, 45, providing yet another reason to celebrate.
“We’re both Halloween freaks, so we love it,” Olivieri said. “We go all over the place to see other people’s decorations; we’ll go see horror shows, too.”
Olivieri, who works in construction and real estate, built the nonfunctional chair with his employees and purchased the dummy from a horror shop a few seasons ago. Adding to the gruesome scene each year brings him immeasurable joy, he said.
“Everybody who saw it said they really liked it,” Olivieri said. “So, we just kept going, as you see.”
The enthusiasm comes with a cost, however, as Olivieri expects “at least 800” trick-or-treaters.
“We end up buying close to a $1,000 in candy,” he said.
But, it’s worth it.
“I dress up, we take pictures with the kids, you name it,” Olivieri added. “Everybody’s happy.”