![\"One](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/SJM-L-HALLOWEEN-MOS-02.jpg\")
One of the scenes displayed at Ghazawi’s house from “Scream 4” in San Jose, Calif. on Saturday, October 3, 2026. (Eliana Aguilar\/Mosaic)\u00a0<\/p>\nEditor\u2019s Note: This article was written for Mosaic, an independent journalism training program for high school and college students who report and photograph stories under the guidance of professional journalists.<\/p>\n
With Halloween approaching, many San Jose residents have decorated their houses. A few pumpkins here, a few ghosts there. However, one San Jose resident doesn\u2019t stop at that.<\/p>\n
For the past six years, Nick Ghazawi has been creating and collecting elaborate decorations and structures to transform his house into a Halloween spectacle, with a scary-movie twist. Previous themes for the house include \u201cThe Ring,\u201d \u201cThe Texas Chainsaw Massacre,\u201d \u201cTerrifier,\u201d and \u201c Saw.\u201d For this Halloween,\u00a0 the \u201cScream\u201d franchise is being brought to life (or death).<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year was perfect because it\u2019s the 30th anniversary of \u2018Scream,\u2019 and also it\u2019s like the No. 1 horror movie,\u201d Ghazawi said.<\/p>\n
The house, on Chesbro Avenue in Blossom Valley in south San Jose, will feature familiar scenes from across the seven-movie franchise, as well as Ghazawi\u2019s own creative interpretations of less fleshed-out details, such as a scene depicting the room of a \u201cStab\u201d fan. (As aficionados know, \u201cStab\u201d is the movie-within-a-movie featured repeatedly in \u201cScream.\u201d)<\/p>\n
Danny Paulazzo has been visiting Ghazawi\u2019s house and viewing his progress since this began six years ago. \u201d \u2018Scream\u2019 is my era,\u201d Paulazzo said of the franchise, which premiered in 1996. He said that this year\u2019s theme is his favorite.<\/p>\n
Ghazawi started decorating his house Sept. 5, portraying scenes within the movies as accurately as possible. He searches platforms such as Facebook Marketplace and Offer Up to find appropriate decorations, such as books from the \u201880s, \u201890s, and early 2000s to replicate the house from the first movie.<\/p>\n
One of the scenes displayed at Ghazawi’s house from “Scream 4” in San Jose, Calif. on Saturday, October 3, 2026. (Eliana Aguilar\/Mosaic)\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI try to get everything as close as possible to the movie. So I try to go crazy on the details,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ll pick a scene and I\u2019ll pick out all the details\u201d for hardcore fans.<\/p>\n
As soon as decorations went up in early October, spectators came by the house to watch it take shape. On Oct. 1, \u201cA swarm of people just popped up. I\u2019m like \u2018Dang, that was crazy.\u2019 I didn\u2019t expect a bunch of people to come,\u201d Ghazawi said.<\/p>\n
The next day a number of fans came by the house, including one anonymous visitor dressed as Ghostface, the series\u2019 recurrent killer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first time I ever came here was actually last year,\u201d another visitor said. \u201cI was driving around and saw a bunch of people. It was the \u2018Saw\u2019 house. So dope!\u201d<\/p>\n
Ghazawi said the onlookers\u2019 enjoyment and excitement\u00a0 are his favorite part of the entire effort. The experience \u201csort of separates them from being so glued onto their phones,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Over the years, features and interactive opportunities have grown. This year, Ghazawi intends to build and execute a walk-through. He has partnered with local neighbors to help bring to life the movies\u2019 infamous garage scenes.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re gonna be able to walk through and go halfway into the garage, just like \u2018Scream 7,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ghazawi\u2019s cousin Blake Ajlouny, who will be involved on Halloween as an actor on the set, helped build elements of the set.\u00a0 \u201cWe wanted to add more to give to the community,\u201d he said. \u201cMore interactive parts that people can hang around and stick around and stay with the Halloween spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another addition planned for this year is a projector showing \u201cScream\u201d against an outside wall for onlookers to watch.<\/p>\n
\u201cI basically made a really long edit and cut a bunch of stuff to make it feel like you\u2019re actually a part of the movie,\u201d Ghazawi said.<\/p>\n
His goal for all the work is to allow visitors to \u201cappreciate Halloween again. \u2026 It brings people together. People just freak out over it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eliana Aguilar is a member of the class of 2027 at Valley Christian High School in San Jose.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Editor\u2019s Note: This article was written for Mosaic, an independent journalism training program for high school and college…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[585,191436,88,90,89],"class_list":["post-505759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-halloween","tag-haunted-house","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}