It may have been a little bigger than Sophie expected. Photo: Sophie Jenkins.
The custom Halloween prop company in China had sent photos of the manufacturing process along the way and even a walk-around video showing people standing next to it for scale before Sophie Jenkins’ package was readied for shipping to Australia.
But even then, Sophie wasn’t fully prepared for what jumped out of the box last week.
“I did a little unboxing video for my Instagram page, which was really fun, but I didn’t realise how quickly it was going to blow up,” she says.
“It’s got two giant industrial fans in it and within 30 seconds, boom, it just went up.”
It’s a 10-metre-wide inflatable spider, now perched between two gum trees out the front of her Kambah home like it’s crawling out of its nest, and dubbed ‘Mortein’, or ‘Morty’ for short.
“It’s a lot bigger than I was anticipating!”
It’s the centrepiece for arguably Canberra’s biggest Halloween display.
Sophie, on the corner of 31 Gallagher Street and 1 Samson Place, decorated her house for the first time last year, but such was the reaction she decided to “go crazy” for 2024. Since September, she’s been decking out her whole property – inside and out.
“I’ve got gremlins in my bathroom and Pennywise and It in my hallway and toilet. Pretty much every single room!”
Sophie has modified most of the props to make them her own. Photo: Sophie Jenkins.
She says she loves the season as a “really great time to artistically express yourself”.
“I find all the decorations that are provided for you from department stores for Christmas and Easter are very straightforward – you can buy a tree, you can buy a ball, and there’s not really a lot of space there for creativity,” she explains.
“That’s why I like Halloween so much; it can be anything you want. You can do mash-ups. You can do cosplay.”
She’s worked at Canberra’s iSpin Aerial Dance Studio for the last 15 years, teaching variations of hoop and sling and pole dancing. She says this – with its “routines and characters and props” – is a source of inspiration too.
“So in my bathroom, the gremlins aren’t just plonked on the floor, there’s one hanging from the shower with a bleach bottle, and there’s a white one underneath who’s been bleached.
“I want to tell a story with everything.”
Visitors will be able to tour her whole block, and feedback from last year suggests there’s always plenty to see.
“Most of the comments that I got were that it’s the attention to detail that people really notice with my display,” Sophie says.
“They’ve gone around three times, and each time, they see something different, and that’s really nice. But it does take a lot of effort.”
Avoid bright light, don’t get them wet and don’t feed them after midnight … or cover them in bleach. Photo: Sophie Jenkins.
More than 200 visitors queued up to see her Halloween House last year, but based on early expressions of interest, she’s beginning to wonder if the 470 giveaway lolly bags she’s curated will be enough.
The display will only be open on the day itself, from 2 pm to late. And maybe just as well.
“The biggest issue with the spider is that it’s essentially a giant balloon, and we’ve had a lot of wind in Canberra this week, so I’ve been out there every day checking it because the legs are going all over the place,” Sophie says.
“Imagine the headlines if this thing flew away.”
Sophie’s house, on the corner of 31 Gallagher Street and 1 Samson Place, Kambah, will be open to the public from 2 pm to late on Thursday, 31 October.
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