Rising Star: 'Corner of the Cursed' Offers Realistic Gore

There are some sick people living in Oak Lawn judging by the many macabre Halloween yard displays, but none are sicker than Aaron Dunnett who has created his own corner of hell at 5841 W. 88th Street.

Dunnett’s “Corner of the Cursed” at Mayfield and 88th Street is a rising star that is sure to start making the local haunt lists. He’s only been decorating seriously for the past four years. 

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“I think it all started when I was a kid,” Dunnett, 23, said. “I used to watch all the old-school movies like ‘Nightmare Before Christmas,’ ‘Hocus Pocus,’ ‘Beetlejuice, I wanted to be the person who is actually the one creating it my own liking. As I got older, I decided that decorating was an outlet for that.”

“Corner of the Cursed” wraps around Dunnett’s parents’ house and like any good son, he hopes to eventually fill the entire 3,000-square-foot yard with demented clowns, zombies and garbage cans full of fake intestines.

Dunnett’s pride and joy: a real coffin that he scored off a guy who overheard him saying he liked Halloween. He told Dunnett the coffin was his if he could get it out of his garage attic without scratching his Corvette.

“The inside of it isn’t what you think,” he says. “It’s actually several bands of ¾-inch-wide wire with two big bands going across.”

(I couldn’t tell if it was a real coffin or not, perhaps some of the striking funeral directors in front of Blake-Lamb can weigh in.)

At night, motion-sensored animatronics spring to life, including a headless corpse with blood gushing out of its neck into a cauldron surrounded by clowns.

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The seven-foot-tall, evil jester dancing fiendishly in the front yard was a Christmas present from his girlfriend, Kelly Bandusky, Dunnett’s partner in gore.

“It cost $300, but I bought it after-season for $175,” she says proudly.

Dunnett’s costume this year is prosthetic face that he had made by the makeup artist for the TV show “Face Off.” It takes two-and-a-half hours to apply. He’s waiting for his order of rubber latex to arrive and doesn’t care if it takes off the top layer of his skin.

“Corner of the Cursed” is located at 5841 W. 88th St. (88th Street and Mayfield) in Oak Lawn. It’s lit up on weeknights; on weekends Dunnett’s friends dress up and hide in the yard as part of the display from 6 to 10 p.m.  Last Halloween, Dunnett passed out $250 worth of candy.

VISIT MORE LOCAL HALLOWEEN YARD DISPLAYS:

• Another Year of Fear: Midnight Terror House
  
• 'The Bone Yard': Legendary Local Haunt Offers Bone-Chilling Fun
  

Do you know of a good Halloween yard display? Let us know at Patch, by emailing lorraine.swanson@patch.com.

We’ll stop by and take some photos, but we won’t go through your haunted house.