Interview: Kenny from The Myers House North Carolina

A couple years ago I happened to read about "this guy" who was building a full-scale replica of "The Myers House" from the classic horror film John Carpenter's Halloween.
When I read it, I couldn't believe it.  My skeptic brain kicked in:  "It's all talk" I thought.  "No way he'll finish it."  I had these thoughts because I didn't want to be let down.  I wanted to believe.
Surely if this were to happen, it would be the coolest shrine to, what many consider to be, the very first (and best) slasher film.

Well, he DID it.

The man's name is Kenny Caperton and he lives in North Carolina in a house that looks just like The Boogeyman's house in Halloween.
The exterior.
The banister.
The stairs.
It's all there.


As a big fan of the movie myself, and a Halloween Addict, I had to talk to this man who is the ultimate Halloween [the film] Addict.
And here we are.


HALLOWEEN ADDICT:  Kenny do you remember when you first saw Halloween?  How old were you and what do you remember?

KENNY CAPERTON:  I don't remember how old I was when I first watched John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN, but I know that I was very very young. My parents for some reason allowed me to watch horror films for as long as I can remember, and every time HALLOWEEN came on late night cable television, I would stay up and watch it. I remember being very scared, yet fascinated by the character of Michael Myers, and the scene that scared me the most is when little Tommy Doyle looks out the window and sees The Boogeyman's silhouette standing across the street looking back at him. SO DAMN SCARY!

HA:  How many visitors have you had to the house so far?

KC:  We get on average around one group of visitors every 1-2 weeks, and of course we get more people wanting to visit during October, as it gets closer to Halloween. On Halloween night 2009 we had over 150 people come out to attend our “1st Annual HALLOWEEN Bash” event. It was so much fun hanging out with everyone and meeting so many other Halloween fans – I can't wait until this Halloween.

HA:  Where has the person who's come the farthest been from?

KC:  We've had people drive from Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio ...all over the east coast, but I think the farthest were 2 guys that drove from New York City to see the house.

HA:  How many times have you been to the original house in Pasadena?

KC:  I've been to the original house in South Pasadena 5 times. The first time was in March 2005—I flew  completely across the country (from Virginia to California) just to see The Spookhouse House in all of its glory! I even got to hang out at the house on Halloween night in 2008 while I was in California attending the “30 Anniversary HALLOWEEN Convention,” which was totally surreal and amazing.

HA:  At what point did this go from pipe-dream to "I'm going to do this?"  What was your moment? 

KC:  When I returned home from Hollywood after attending the world premiere of Rob Zombie's HALLOWEEN at the incredible Chinese Theater, my girlfriend Emily and I were in the middle of house hunting. I was looking through my pictures from the trip and of course I visited the original Myers House while I was in town. I was looking at this very simple, modest sized American four square home and thought to myself, “I wonder how much it would cost to build something like this?” And in the next five minutes I was on the phone with the City of South Pasadena trying to acquire blueprints for the house.

HA:  Did the blueprints exist?  And if not, were they lost or not available?

KC:  No one could locate the blueprints for the original house, so we just all assumed the house is so old (it was built in 1888) that they no longer exist.

HA:  Did you ever have a moment in the middle of the process that was a "what the hell am I doing, this is ridiculous?"

KC:  Haha and yes almost every day while building the house I asked myself what the hell am I doing, and not because I was building a replica house of a fictional serial killer, but because the process was so damn hard and completely overwhelming. There were days that I just wanted to jump off the roof and forget it--

HA:  But then you realized you had to finish the roof.  Ha!

KC:  --Haha!  But after months and months of hard work, blood, sweat and tears, I am living out a complete dream.

HA:  Did you have to convince your wife, Emily, or did she go along with the idea?

KC:  Emily isn't a huge HALLOWEEN fan or horror fan in general, but she's an artist. So the idea of creating a custom home and being able to pick out every single detail of the house - in terms of layout, design, colors, etc. she found very intriguing. She also absolutely loved the look and architectural details of the original house.

HA:  You've shot your own short film "Judith" at the house.  Was that something you had always planned on doing or just realized you had a perfect set to use?

KC:  No, I didn't plan on shooting any sort of film while building the house.  The idea came to me during the first week I moved into the house. My room is Judith's bedroom and I would lay in bed not being able to sleep because I was thinking about all of the horrible things that could happen in this house. I would just sit there for hours in the dark coming up with different scenarios in my head of how I could die... and eventually I started writing them down. That lead to the creation of my HALLOWEEN Tribute Short Film JUDITH.

HA:  How many films have shot there or have been interested in the house for any productions, horror or otherwise?

KC:  Several HALLOWEEN fan films have been shot at the house and a couple more are scheduled to shoot here later this October. Jamie Roberts from Mutantville.com is shooting a short film at the house soon, and Dean Jones, the upcoming director of “Toolbox Murders 2,” is planning to shoot a couple of scenes at the house!

HA:  Does John Carpenter know about your house (or even visited)?   If so what has he said?

KC:  I actually finally got the opportunity to meet John Carpenter in-person at the Monster Mania Convention in New Jersey and got him to autograph a picture of the house. He just sort of laughed and said “Wow, you're the guy.” I believe he's known about the house for awhile now, but it's just a dream come true to have finally met him and to have his autograph hanging in the house.

HA:  How about Trancas International Pictures [the owner of the franchise]?
Trancas has known about the house since the beginning of construction and has posted a couple news blurbs about it on HALLOWEENMOVIES.COM.

HA:  Who's the most famous person who has visited the house so far?

KC:  Well the house is located in the middle of nowhere North Carolina, so it's quite a trip for anyone to come out here. But I guess the most famous person that has visited the house has been Dean Jones, the upcoming director of Toolbox Murders 2.  Dean has been a special FX makeup artist for years and worked on films such as Blue Velvet, Star Trek, Toolbox Murders, and Pirates of the Caribbean just to name a few. I also had Alex Fisher and Peter Clayton-Luce who played the Mormon boys in the horror film The Strangers come out and sign autographs at our “1st Annual Halloween Bash.” (Alex actually plays Michael Myers in JUDITH.) And while hanging out with Dick Warlock (Michael Myers from Halloween 2) at the Monster Mania Convention, he said that he might take a ride out on his motorcycle to see the house sometime.

HA:  Are you a bit of celebrity yourself either in town or otherwise? Get a lot of "Oh you're the guy in the Halloween house!" exclamations?

KC:  Well again, the house isn't located in the middle of town, so it's hard for people to find out about it. I don't get a lot of random people in the community just coming up to me, but the word is definitely spreading. Our local newspaper put us on the cover of the paper and ran a big article about the house during construction, and other local papers have run several articles about the house in October.

...but now in the world of HALLOWEEN it's a completely different story!  EVERYONE seems to know who I am and I've only been living in the house for about a year and a half. At Monster Mania I got a lot of “holy shit, you're that guy!” from my fellow HALLOWEEN fans. People want to take pictures with me and want ME to sign their Halloween memorabilia, which is just incredible! I knew some people would find The Myers House NC interesting, but never thought it would be like this. Even national TV network AandE flew a crew to the house to film an entire day for an upcoming 2-hour retro documentary about the original HALLOWEEN film titled HALLOWEEN: The Inside Story, to be aired on BIO in October.


HA:  Actually HalloweenAddict.com interviewed Phil Nobile, the writer/producer of BIO's HALLOWEEN: The Inside Story, (the post should be up in mid-October) and he mentioned YOU and The Myers House NC.  

HA:  What are you doing for Halloween this year?

KC:  We're having our “2nd Annual Halloween Bash” at the house, and this year’s events include HALLOWEEN memorabilia giveaways, costume contests, a carved pumpkin contest, and outdoor big screen showings of JUDITH, HALLOWEEN H20, TRICK 'R TREAT, and much more.

HA:  Nice line-up.  I really like Halloween:  H20 and feel like it doesn't get mentioned much in the Halloween Fan Community.  Personally, I'm happy watching a marathon of H1, H2 and H20 and closing out the series.  What are your thoughts on H20 and it getting short-changed in the Halloween canon?

KC:  Yeah I decided to show Halloween H20 at this year's Halloween Bash because we showed H1 & H2 last year. And I don't think H20 got short-changed at all in the series! It made something like over 70 million at the box-office and I think for the most part that fans really appreciated what they tried to do with that film ...I know I did! Haha, who didn't love Jamie Lee coming back with a vengeance and welding an ax! It's what happened next in the series that we all hated, but we won't mention the title of that horrible film.

HA:  Do you subscribe to the whole Thorn storyline or just stick to the original Halloween storyline?

KC:  I actually have a tattoo of the “Thorn” symbol on my wrist ...haha so I guess you can say I'm a subscriber. BUT only for that one film - I'm glad they decided to do something a little different in the series, but I'm also happy that they didn't continue with the whole Thorn explanation and moved on to something else. For the most part I like to stick with the original storyline.

HA:  What have been your favorite horror films in the past year or so?

KC:  Hmmmm, not much sticks out in my mind this year as far as horror films go, but I did really like Paranormal Activity and House Of The Devil. I've been watching a lot of old films like Motel Hell and Alice, Sweet Alice lately.


HA:  Do you get many trick or treaters?  Or does being so off-the-beaten-path just allow for the Halloween bashes you do?

KC:  We only have one neighboring house near us and little Bryson comes over and loads up on candy before his parents take him into town to go Trick-or-Treating. On Halloween night we have our big annual “Halloween Bash” to celebrate with everyone. For more info visit our website and look under the “EVENTS” section for all of the details.


HA:  Ok Halloween Addict, let's talk about being a Halloween Addict:  What is a fond Halloween (the holiday) memory?  Best/Favorite costume as a kid?

KC:  My fondest memories from Halloween are just decorating the house and going trick-or-treating with my friends and family. And some of my favorite costumes as a kid were dressing up like Dracula and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.

HA:  Which Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle did you dress up as?

KC:  Leonardo was my man!

HA:  What's your most prized prop or piece of Halloween memorabilia... aside from a full-sized house you built?

KC:  Hmmm that's a hard one, but it's probably my actual prop knife used by Tyler Mane (Michael Myers) in Rob Zombie's HALLOWEEN 2!  Rob and Sheri Moon gave it to me as a Halloween gift in 2009.

HA:  Do you think this is the house you'll live in the rest of your life or will you ever consider selling it and then building a replica of the Psycho or The Amityville Horror house or something?

KC:  Ha ha!  The Psycho house would be amazing, but no I plan on living in this house for the rest of my life.  I will burn it down before someone else lives here.







HALLOWEEN ADDICT:  I just scared myself thinking about the camp fire stories kids will be telling in the year 2099--- the "Legend of Kenny Caperton" who built a lifesize replica of the house from Halloween then it mysteriously burned down the day he died.  
His spirit is said to still haunt these woods..........


Special thanks to Kenny for doing the interview and for building, what I consider to be, the biggest fan prop-- EVER.  If you want to read up on the whole story, see pics, visit, etc. check out MyersHouseNC.com HERE.  
Raise a glass with me and toast: Here's to Kenny, the ultimate Halloween Addict.