NORTH END, BOISE — In Boise’s North End – just off Harrison Boulevard, where Halloween is a neighborhood spectacle – one front yard has become a full-blown shipwreck.
A life-sized Titanic has risen from the lawn, complete with skeleton passengers, a band that “plays on,” and nods to many of the film’s most famous scenes.
WATCH: Boise North End couple turns their home into a haunted Titanic
Tyler Bush and Michael Mann spent weeks transforming their home into the haunted ocean liner – turning foam, paint, and 3D design plans into a Halloween display that’s stopping trick-or-treaters in their tracks.
“We actually built it in a 3D environment… all the portholes equally and cutting them, but all the portholes are actually to scale in the location. So you'll notice that the way they're spread out, that's how they actually are on the ship,” Bush said.
Each detail is deliberate – from the couple floating on the door to a skeleton artist recreating the “draw me like one of your French girls” scene.
“You can hear people walk up and they start laughing. And then we always know that they're looking at Jack drawing the girl – the French, ‘draw me like one of your French girls.’ Yeah. And it's just a stick figure that we did. And so people think that that's really funny,” Bush said.
This year, their creativity didn’t stop at their own front yard. Bush and Mann run a prop-building company called PropyProps, and they’re also behind the Beetlejuice display just down the street.
“We made a sign that says ‘Titanic boarding now’… so people see that and then they look down the street and then they're intrigued by it,” Bush said.
That Beetlejuice house belongs to Val, who says the whole neighborhood joins in on the Halloween fun.
“It’s so much fun on Harrison. It’s like the community – come on down, party with us! It’s really fun,” Val said.
What started as one couple’s Halloween hobby has become a North End landmark – a labor of love that’s keeping Boise’s spooky spirit afloat.
Bush and Mann say when the Titanic goes down, they’ll set sail into Christmas, turning their home into a Nightmare Before Christmas scene that’s just as grand.
