Located in West Chicago, the Church Street Cemetery is open again for the season, bringing in guests from all over the suburbs to check out the local haunt. Created by the Santoros, a West Chicago family, the cemetery features handcrafted famous frights.
Kathleen and Arnolfo Santoro’s love for horror decor began in an old Chicago Brownstone in the early 90s. By the end of the decade, the Santoros left the city and moved into their West Chicago home, where the Church Street Cemetery was born.
“Kathleen had the great idea to build a classic horror movie cemetery on our lawn,” Arnolfo Santoro said. “We used the items we saved from our Chicago Halloween events as part of our first cemetery. And every year since we have built upon it.”
The 333 graveyard features dozens of horror movie tropes and characters, including a haunted pumpkin patch inspired by the 1998 horror “Pumpkinhead.” Most of the props themselves are homemade, making for a unique haunt.
At the start of the cemetery build, Arnolfo Santoro began researching haunt rigs on YouTube and haunt forums, settling on basic mechanics like windshield wipers to rig the characters to move. The props can be seen rising in and out of wells and cages, and even jumping forward for jump scares.
“Our cemetery is filled with movement and sound, creating an immersive experience that makes visitors feel like they are in a real place where everything in it exists together,” he said.
Using these simple mechanics to animate their characters, the Santoro’s built, sculpted and painted props to bring their scares to life.
“We built all of our sets and creatures — which include tombstones, crypts, ghosts, zombies, skeletons and a witch,” Arnolfo said, “There are a few tombstones we purchased, but we then repaint or add to it to fit in our cemetery.”
The Santoros meticulously choose what to include in their graveyard to keep the experience consistent for visitors.
“We are careful to keep the style the same so it blends into the classic cemetery theme. The visitor has to feel it’s all one place,” Arnolfo said. “That is why you won’t find the latest absurdly oversized 14 feet thing from the Halloween stores in our cemetery. Those just don’t fit our vibe.”
The local haunt has become a West Chicago staple, with hundreds of visitors each year coming to see the graveyard. Beyond the graveyard, the family even built a haunted house in their garage for visitors to walk through.
“Visitors really enjoy the whole experience of the cemetery and the walk-through haunt,” Arnolfo said, “We hear we are pretty well known throughout the community in October.”
The Santoros do it all for the neighborhood kids, hoping to cement the graveyard in their memories. They enjoy watching kids grow up as they visit the haunt over the years.
“We want to share our love of Halloween and give some kid an everlasting memory of ‘that scary house I went to’ as they remember Halloween as an adult,” he said.
The Church Street Cemetery, located at 333 Church Street in West Chicago, is open every day from dusk until midnight for the Halloween season.
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