Original subtitles

Downloaded from YTS.MX

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[dramatic music]

[upbeat music]

- [Jonah] When it comes to spending time with family,

the holiday most people think of is Christmas.

Cozying up by the fire, exchanging gifts,

and having big family dinners

is what marks this special time of year.

But when I was a kid,

the most special holiday for me and my family

was a bit different.

Tricks, treats, and haunted houses.

You guessed it, Halloween.

I know it's not conventional,

but Halloween always brought my family together growing up,

more so than any other holiday.

It was a father son thing especially.

And even though we haven't been together

for many Halloweens,

I still think of my dad each year.

Between starting a family,

moving away,

and my career taking over,

life just kind of happened.

- Hi, Daddy! - Hi, sweetheart.

Oh, my God, you are so big!

Hi, buddy.

Hi, JJ.

[bright music]

- Whoa! - What was that for?

- I'm just getting ready for Halloween, bud.

Oh, my queen!

I'm humbled by your presence, oh, great beauty.

[both laughing]

- Well, I just washed those pants.

- Oh, aye-aye.

[bright music continues]

[Rebecca giggles]

- Ugh!

- Oh, now you're interested in the real world.

- These two have been at it all day.

- Well, you can't play just one game of Skelly.

- Yeah, I don't really understand how it's played.

- What?

Rebecca, come on.

You're missing out.

Okay, each player takes their cap

and they place it on the starting point and flips.

All right, now the goal is land on each number in order,

one, two, three, and so on,

eventually getting on the 13th box with the skull mark.

- I didn't realize it was so simple.

- Well, I mean, more or less.

There, you know,

are other rules you can play by if you want.

Grandpa would be pretty proud.

Papa Dave, not so much.

Did you check the mail today?

- Yeah, something came.

- Something came?

- Yes. - Is it your book?

- Well, I don't know.

I haven't opened it.

Did you send your dad a copy?

- Yeah, I think it's supposed to arrive today.

- Are you ready to read it to them?

- Yeah, yeah, I mean, I've put so much into this.

I think it's time.

- Kids.

Lucy.

JJ.

JJ, Charlie.

Let's go inside.

- Come on, buddy.

There you go.

Pep in your step, that's my boy!

[both laughing]

Wait, is that it? - Uh-huh.

- Wait, wait!

- Good.

Kids, come downstairs when you're done!

Your dad has a surprise for you. [laughs]

- Hey, when are we gonna put up the Halloween decorations?

- Well, isn't it a little too early for that?

- Never.

- [laughs] Okay, well go get 'em.

[light music]

- [Lucy] Can we see the surprise now?

- Oh yeah.

Gather around, children.

Your father has accomplished a great feat,

and now you must be subjected to the fruits of his labor.

- Wait, what kind of fruits?

Apples?

- Obviously grapes.

- But, but I don't like grapes!

- Okay, just forget about the fruits, okay?

- So what's the surprise?

- Well,

it's a book that I wrote

just for you guys and Papa Dave.

- We haven't seen Papa Dave in so long.

- Yeah, since last Christmas.

- Yeah, it has been awhile.

Well, maybe before this Christmas arrives,

we can actually start reading the book.

- All right, all right.

Many years ago,

a boy named Jonah was getting excited for Halloween.

- Who's Jonah?

- Jonah is me.

- I thought your name was Daddy.

[Jonah and Rebecca chuckling]

- Yeah, well, before I was called Daddy

I was mostly known as Jonah.

- Oh.

- Every year Jonah, his dad and his grandpa

would make a haunted house

with all the neighborhood kids for Halloween.

This year would be their biggest build yet.

So plans started early in the spring over breakfast.

[light music]

♪ First you break the egg for the omelet ♪

♪ First you break the egg for the omelet ♪

♪ Cheese and peppers

♪ Peppers and onions

♪ Onions and onion

[Grandpa singing]

♪ Jonah, Jonah

♪ Here is your omelet

♪ Jonah, Jonah

♪ Here is your omelet

♪ Eat very slowly, not too fast ♪

Come on.

♪ Jonah, Jonah

♪ Here is your omelet

- Enough about omelets.

Just talk about the haunted house.

- Okay, okay.

Later that year,

those haunted house plans were being put into action

by Jonah and his friends,

with curly haired Nate taking the lead.

[birds chirping]

[uplifting music]

[Nate strumming guitar]

- It won't turn! - Oh, no way.

Is this not gonna go bro? Just leave it alone.

- No, hold on. - It's going towards you.

It's going towards you. [laughs]

- Should we begin?

So first, I just want to say

that I'm really glad

we're doing the haunted house again this year.

The haunted house is seriously, like.

my favorite part of last year.

But that being said,

I feel like we just need to make it a goal

to outdo last year.

- That's gonna be pretty hard.

I mean, remember the car scene?

- Is your guys' dad gonna be helping again?

- I think so.

- Because that would be a lot of help.

- All right, assuming their dad is on board,

we got one idea so far.

The guillotine.

- What's a guillotine?

- It's a machine designed to cut-

- No! - We'll get to that later.

- Which was actually a pretty good idea.

- Naturally.

- But that still leaves us with one idea.

So we need to think of some more.

- Well, look who it is.

[suspenseful music]

- How'd they ever let that guy be an exchange student?

- He probably lied on his application somehow.

- He had to have.

There's no way he's a good student.

The other day he asked me what state were we in?

- What's the foreign exchange student's name?

- Hmm, to be honest, I don't know.

I don't, I don't think any of us knew how to pronounce it.

Vlad? Vilas?

I don't know, it doesn't matter.

- [Kelvin] What's he doing?

Is he gonna smoke a cigarette?

- Of course. [all laughing]

- Whoa, wait a second.

Vlad in the haunted house.

- He is terrifying in real life.

- All we would have to do is put a mask on him

and just let him be his scary Danish self.

- I don't know, what if he beats up a kid?

'Cause he would do that.

- True, he might beat up a kid in the heat of the moment.

- I think that's a risk we're gonna have to take.

- Okay, everyone in favor

for having Vilas in the haunted house?

- All right.

Well, it's official.

Some little kid's gonna have a heart attack this year.

- [Dave] Hey, Vilas?

- [Vilas] Yes, Dave?

- You got Halloween in Denmark?

- We do.

But we have Halloween, we celebrate that.

You know, your traditions spill over to my traditions,

but we also have Fastelavn.

- Festive Lawn?

- [Vlad] Nope, Fastelavn.

- Festive Lawn.

- [Vlad] Not festive, Fastelavn.

- Festive Lawn.

- Fastelavn. - I'll get it.

What do you do for Fastelavn?

- You have bobbing for apples.

We have sort of like bobbing for,

it's called Festive Hollow.

Bob down, you eat it without your hands.

And if you win, you get money, you get candy.

- You get money?

That sounds pretty American.

- We don't get much.

It's not like big prize game, like, you know,

$100,000 like all your game shows, but...

[Dave laughs]

We have fun. It's a good time.

- Do me a favor, hold that.

Now follow me.

- Where are we going?

- We're gonna do some work.

- But I'm smoking.

[birds chirping]

[light music]

[Kelvin knocks on door]

- Vilas? Huh.

Well, he left his door open,

so he can't really blame us if we look around.

Okay, back in Denmark.

I'm sure these posters meant something.

Oh, "Are you finish?

"No, I'm Danish."

I don't get it.

[playful music]

Whoa.

That looks pretty realistic.

And I bet you they mold it from someone's actual face.

- Probably.

- Hey, we could use this for the haunted house.

- Hmm.

- Ah, dude, we could use it for like, a guillotine scene.

- That'd be awesome.

- And I mean, it looks so real.

- Should we ask Vilas if we can use it?

- Well, then he'll know we were in his room.

- I wonder if we can get fake blood.

- I'm working here, guys.

Do you need something?

- We had an idea for the haunted house.

We were in Vilas' room.

He let us go in.

Well, he didn't say we couldn't be there anyway.

He gave us this.

- We are thinking we could use it

for like a guillotine scene.

- You guys are crazy, you know that?

- Could you help us make it?

- I don't know.

Jonah, I'm gonna be really busy this fall.

We'll see, okay?

[telephone ringing]

I gotta take this.

Hello?

[suspenseful music]

- [Jonah] The garage was cold and empty.

Young Jonah had a lot of work to do

without his dad or his grandpa.

- Why did Papa Dave not wanna help?

- Well, he hadn't built anything for awhile.

Not since his last project.

- What was his last project?

- [chuckles] You guys obviously know the game Skelly, right?

- Yeah.

- My favorite game!

- That was a game that my grandpa,

your great-grandpa taught me and your uncle

when we were young.

- Now you have to use a little imagination here.

Picture that you're in the middle

of a narrow Brooklyn street.

Cars parked on either side,

surrounded by huge tenement buildings.

- Yeah, and the year is 1930.

Newspaper costs a nickel,

and there's a crazy new dance

called the foxtrot sweeping the nation.

- I do not need your sarcasm.

- Grandpa, what would you do

when a car came down the street?

- Well, we'd pause the game, of course,

and hope that the car hadn't hit anyone's pieces.

- What's in them?

- Wax and a penny.

- Those regulation, Dad?

- Enough of you.

Right, let me show you how they work, okay?

Not quite like that, but nearly like that.

So let me tell you about the time we was playing the game

and Dutch Schultz came down the street. [chuckles]

You'll never guess how nimble his fingers were.

Gimme the pieces.

[dramatic piano music]

- So let me get this straight.

You took a street game from Brooklyn and the Bronx

and turned it into a parlor game?

- No, not, not a parlor game.

And I was thinking it would be more like

a college dorm room game like foosball.

- Foosball?

This game is nothing like foosball.

Jonah, you've played foosball.

Is this game anything like foosball?

No.

- No, I, I know not, not like foosball,

but just a similar genre of game, Dad.

- Oh, similar genre.

You know?

And what about the bottle caps, huh?

I mean, they'd scuff any smooth surface you've got,

but I suppose you're gonna have them replaced

with something more suitable to your dorm, huh?

- [laughs] Well, first of all, Dad, it's not my dorm room.

I live in a house.

Yeah, but yes,

actually I did think that something smoother

would work a little bit better, so I made, I made those.

- Huh.

- You wanna see?

[Grandpa mumbles]

Show him.

- It's round.

It's, it's all wrong.

It's round, it shouldn't be round.

- Well, I mean, that's the part of the problem

we ran into with the first prototype.

The pieces were getting stuck in the corners,

but now look, you can, you can do this.

- Oh.

Oh, that's, that's neat.

So what do you think, Jonah?

Would you play this game?

- Yeah, it's pretty fun.

- Well, if my grandson likes it

then clearly it has potential. [laughs]

[Grandpa coughing]

- You okay, Dad?

Are you sure?

[Grandpa breathing heavily]

I, um, I even made another set of legs for it.

You can take them off and they're shorter.

You can sit on a table.

- It's wonderful, David.

- I made it for you, Dad.

- Thank you.

- Is that the last time you saw your grandpa?

- Yeah, it was.

That's why my dad or Papa Dave

had such a hard time building things.

It only reminded him of his last gift to Grandpa.

Without the help of his dad,

Jonah and his friends started visiting other haunted houses

to get ideas for their own.

[upbeat music]

- We'll see how this goes. - I'm super excited.

- All right, remember, guys,

this is reconnaissance.

So we wanna see what works

and what doesn't in the haunted house.

- First mistake, fake skeleton missing its head.

- [Nate] I thought it was supposed to be like that.

- Oh, like, uh...

- Ichabod Crane. - Right.

But then why would it be a skeleton?

It's like mixing two different things.

- Maybe the wind blew it off, or somebody bumped into it.

- I think the fact that we don't know

if it's supposed to be that way or not, says it all.

- True.

[upbeat music]

- [Jonah] Halloween was only a few weeks away.

So Jonah got to building on his own.

He couldn't help but worry that without the help of his dad,

the haunted house would be a dud.

After all, everyone was having a hard time without grandpa.

[drill whirring]

Mom was a preacher,

and the stories she told always gave a way of giving us

the comfort and guidance we needed.

- In spiritual experiences in many religions,

the revelation that sweetens life, that brings peace,

is surely that despite our fully recognized limitations,

brokenness, sinfulness, culpability, suffering,

we are yet one, beloved, belonging,

at one with the universe.

Whether we experience this bliss as redemption, salvation,

or as the unifying spirit of life, or as nirvana,

or however, this experience of oneness

is joyful transformations

that reconnect us with our spiritual path.

Now, we extinguish this flame, but not the light of truth,

the warmth of community or the fire of commitment.

These we carry in our hearts until we are together again.

- That was nice. - Yeah.

- Now, you know me.

I would never smoke cigarettes.

You know, I mean, think about it.

Cigarettes, it's the time of the name.

I'm just gonna smoke cigars.

[chuckles] Now that is pizza dough.

How we looking? Is the sauce ready?

- Just about.

- Oh, oh, no.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Not so much, a little.

- I only put a little.

- You always put too much, here.

- No, I don't. - Sorry, okay, come on.

Here we go.

That, that's something.

All right, here we go.

Pizza time.

Ready?

- Mm-hmm. - Let's do this.

Okay.

Start with the sauce.

- You do that. - Yeah, go ahead.

All right, get the toppings.

Start with the cheese.

Look at this.

Here you go.

Oh, wait, hold on.

Wait! [laughs]

Don't put the cheese on yet.

Let me do this.

Let me do my sauce work.

Let me do my sauce work really quick.

All right, oh, cheese.

Wait for the cheese.

You're the cheese, man.

Crazy for cheese.

You gotta hold on for a second.

Let me get this going, all right?

I know what I'm doing.

I've made, I've done this before.

You're, you're a little rookie-ish,

if I do say so myself. [laughs]

All right, hold on.

You know, just on one, you one half, one half.

Okay, sausage freak. [laughs]

This is, [laughs] it's gonna get crazy up in here, so.

- This is sausage?

- Yes, that is sausage.

And you know that I don't like sausage.

So let's, let's be easy with it. [laughs]

[light piano music]

Do you ever wonder what would be like

to just live in the woods?

You know, like if you didn't have

a house to stay in or anything,

and you had to survive on your own in the wilderness.

Do you ever wonder stuff like that?

- Yeah.

- Like, we're so used to living in houses

and getting our food from the grocery store

that you never even think about it.

But you know, it could happen.

- You'd have to catch your own food for one thing.

- Yeah, exactly.

So it'd probably be important not to accidentally step on

your sister's fishing pole,

ruining your only chance of-

- That was you!

- [laughs] How many times have we been through this?

I was 15 feet away when I heard that.

- I was 15 feet away when I heard it!

I was untangling my line from the tree, I remember!

- Oh, wow!

You heard it because it was right under your feet.

Think about it.

How could you have heard it if you were 15 feet away?

- Yes, and that's what you said too.

- Fine, fine.

It's clear that we're not gonna settle this tonight,

so let's just agree to disagree.

- Fine.

- You broke your sister's fishing pole.

[both laughing]

Stop! [laughs]

- Fine! Fine! Fine!

Truce, truce, truce.

[both sigh]

You know, 25 years from now,

we're still gonna be arguing about this.

- Yep.

- Goodnight.

- Goodnight.

[birds chirping]

Do you ever think about death?

[light piano music]

- [Rebecca] Kids, dinner's ready.

- Dino nuggies!

- What? - I'll get them.

- I don't know, Jonah.

Do you think this is all a little heavy for them?

- Hmm, kids are smart. - Yeah.

- You'd be surprised what they pick up on.

After all, I learned my mother's teachings,

and even if they don't, the doctor said that I need this.

- Your doctor?

You've only seen a dermatologist this year.

- Largest organ in your body and mine was calling for help.

- Oh yeah? Yeah?

[both laughing]

Oh, I think it'll be fine.

- Yeah.

- Hey.

- Hey.

Long day?

- Yeah.

Just this project deadline.

There was a miscommunication early on,

and now we're all scrambling to find out where it started.

But that's life.

How was the sermon?

- It's coming along, yeah.

- Remind me what it's about again.

- Grief, but it's gonna be uplifting.

- Sounds like a real crowd pleaser.

- Well, I think the mistake that people make

is thinking that we get through grief, right?

Like, we move beyond it,

and it's behind us when really

we're always kind of going through grief.

- I already feel uplifted.

- This doesn't have to be so depressing, you know?

It's like, yes,

we are always experiencing loss from the day we're born.

And at times that loss can feel greater than others.

As you're experiencing right now with your father's passing.

[light piano music]

And though we can't avoid loss or the pain it causes,

you know, if we're open to the possibility,

we can experience an equally strong,

though more elusive emotion, catharsis.

[Dave sobbing]

Unfortunately, one cannot be experienced without the other.

Oh, Dave.

[Dave sobbing]

[crickets chirping]

- Dad, I thought you said

this was a Halloween story about a haunted house.

- [Jonah] Well, don't forget, it's about love and loss too.

Mom's next sermon was very special.

- A man is on his deathbed

and his family is gathered around.

His son says, "Papa, is there anything I can do

"to make you more comfortable?"

I stole this from Billy Crystal, by the way.

"I wanna taste mom's chopped liver

"just once more before I die," the father replies.

"Please, some chopped liver."

"Okay, Pop," the son says, and he goes into the kitchen.

A few moments later, he comes back.

"Do you have the liver?" The dad asks.

"No, Mom said it's for after."

[group laughing]

Death and life are so intertwined in our experience,

but the good stuff doesn't have to only be for after.

In Ecclesiastes, Solomon asked the big question,

what is the point of life under the sun?

Now, he was kind of in an existential funk at the time.

In fact, he begins Ecclesiastes

by repeating the word meaningless over and over.

Everything is meaningless.

What is the point of life?

He wonders, when we are at the mercy of circumstance,

when tragedy and hardship can come unexpectedly,

when so much of what we do seems so futile.

Solomon did not shy away

from asking these challenging questions.

And he urged others not to shy away from them either.

But instead to embrace the fact

that life can be frustrating at times,

confusing, unfair, and downright painful.

He was a realist.

But in the face of this chaos,

what does he suggest? To enjoy life.

Yes, Solomon said

and he said it many times, enjoy life.

What an audacious suggestion.

Have that chopped liver now, don't save it for later.

Enjoy that sunset

instead of continuing to work into the evening.

Go out dancing, laugh, eat good food.

All within moderation, of course,

he wasn't advocating gluttony or hedonism

or laziness or anything like that, just enjoyment.

Now he does acknowledge that this way of living,

holding such a large contradiction can pose as a challenge

to know that you will face tragedy in your life.

That you will lose loved ones.

That everything you create will one day be destroyed.

To accept all of this and still choose simply to enjoy life,

it is a challenge.

But in the end, it's a challenge worth taking.

- [Charlie] Is this where the story gets happier?

- Although the kids

were still missing dad's help and advice,

they could always count

on Uncle Glenn's quirky philosophies.

- Well, maybe if we, I don't know.

I don't, I don't know, I don't.

- This is impossible.

- It's just, if I got nothing.

It's, yeah, it's impossible.

- Hello, boys.

What's going on?

Little meeting of the minds?

- We're trying to hit the hoop.

So the marker cap falls in the bottle.

- It's impossible.

I don't know how we did it.

- Vilas showed it to us.

- Can I see?

Can I try?

- Sure.

- So what are you guys doing up so late on a school night?

Isn't this a little late?

- Well, we have tomorrow off for parent meetings.

- Parent meetings. What's that about?

It sounds lame.

Where the teachers all go to Six Flags?

- I ain't complaining.

- Yeah, I wouldn't complain either.

Now you gotta understand about this

is that you are being deceived by your own perceptions.

Okay, your mind is telling you one thing,

but reality is slightly different.

What you need to do

is turn off your caveman brain, huh?

And start to see what is actually in front of you.

[marker clangs]

Good day, gentlemen.

- Oh, Uncle Glenn.

He's always giving the most interesting yet random advice.

[both chuckling]

- He is known for that.

- Uncle Glenn is so smart.

- Do you even understand what he meant?

- Yeah, he meant that you can't view your life

and the universe through a narrow lens.

To accomplish your goals,

you have to think outside of the box,

rather than being clouded in a superficiality.

At least it's what he told me on 4th of July,

before he lit his pants on fire with fireworks.

[all laughing]

- That's Uncle Glenn for you.

Anyways, although Jonah appreciated his uncle's insight,

it still couldn't replace his dad's guidance.

No offense to Uncle Glenn,

but Jonah needed more than bottle tricks

to lift up his spirits.

Meanwhile, Dad was starting to realize that it's important

to cherish the time you have with the people you love,

especially in difficult times.

So, Dad got to work once again.

♪ You in the big leagues now

♪ You in the big leagues now

♪ You in the big leagues now

♪ You in the big leagues now

- Personally I think it should be Ned's head.

It looks the most like the dummy's.

- Oh, thanks.

- Let's see.

I can see it.

- Yeah, the only problem is the hair.

- Could you shave your head, dude?

- Oh, what if they were both wearing a bandana?

- Hey Dave. - Hey Dave.

- Hey guys.

Oh, how's the board working?

- It's really nice, really smooth.

- Good, yeah.

I put an extra layer of oil on it.

I think that really helped.

- Definitely.

- So I was, you know,

I was thinking last night about that guillotine scene,

how you guys could do it.

- Hey, we were just talking about that.

- Oh, oh, okay.

I mean, if you guys already have an idea, that's-

- No, no, no.

We wanna hear your idea.

- Can I draw here?

- Go ahead. - Okay.

So what I was thinking is,

we're gonna make a guillotine, right?

It's gonna look just like any other guillotine, right?

But then what we're gonna do is we're gonna take a door.

We're gonna put six inches in front of the guillotine.

That way whoever's head

is actually sticking out of the guillotine.

- Ned. - Ned.

Ned can pull his head out before the blade falls.

- And there's gonna be an actual blade?

- Well, it's gonna be luan, but we're gonna spray paint it.

I mean, it's gonna look just like real metal.

- So we actually wanna show the blade falling?

- Yeah, right, but you are gonna hear it.

I mean, it's gonna be loud.

Like, really loud.

And then what I was thinking is, you know,

when the door opens and closes, when you open it,

the head's gonna fall out.

So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take that head,

you guys stole from Vilas.

I'm gonna hollow it out.

Fill it up with concrete.

That way when it hits the ground,

it's gonna make a huge thud.

- Yes. - That's pretty good.

- Only your dad would think about

filling a fake head with concrete for a haunted house.

- Yeah.

- Now, I can't start it like right away,

but I think I should get some time next week.

- In the meantime,

we gotta start thinking of some other ideas.

- We should start meeting

at least twice a week going forward now.

I'll make a schedule.

- Oh, you guys are crazy.

You know that?

- Yeah, but you love it.

- I think this is gonna work.

I can see it.

[upbeat music]

[tools whirring]

- Well, where were you guys while he was building?

- We were busy brainstorming.

- What's a brainstorm?

- It's when brains fall from the sky.

- No, no. - Yes, it is.

- Charlie, it is not. - Yes, it is.

- Brainstorming is when-

- [Charlie] Is when brains fall from the sky.

- Is when you think really hard

with a group of people using your brains. [laughs]

- Oh, okay.

- Anyways, while Dad was outside building things,

the kids were inside brainstorming

after visiting other haunted houses.

[playful music]

- I just feel like, yes.

We could create the same illusions

that that haunted house had

if we had hundreds of dollars to work with.

But we don't, so it's not a fair comparison.

- Whatever, I'm glad we don't.

Everything in theirs was so store bought.

It wasn't even original.

- Exactly.

We're building our scenes from scratch.

- Well, Dave's doing a lot of the actual building.

- Yeah, but we're coming up with the ideas

and making them unique.

- But true, we owe a lot to Dave.

- I just feel like there's so many haunted houses out there

that aren't even worth the price of admission.

You know what I mean?

They're not scary, they're not original.

They're just this cliche experience and we just accept that.

No one questions it.

Oh, another haunted house.

I wonder what's gonna happen when they pop open the crypt.

Is a dummy gonna pop out?

Oh, didn't see that one coming.

- They're all made by adults.

- Exactly, and who should be making the haunted houses?

Guys, this is the perfect opportunity

to do something that hasn't been done before.

Build a haunted house that's actually scary.

That's actually gonna make kids

pee their pants.

We can't mess this up.

- Have you guys ever thought about

doing something with snakes?

I always thought that would make a good scene.

You know, I don't know how it would work really.

Maybe you could like have the snakes

fall down from the ceiling on top of everyone.

- That's actually a good idea, Suzanne.

- Hey, I got ideas.

- Hey guys, you guys wanna see something?

Come on, I wanna show you something!

Come on.

- Let's go, let's go. - Alrighty.

- All right, this could be good.

- In there? - That's crazy.

[bright playful music]

- Come on, check it out.

- Whoa. - Okay.

- The blade looks awesome.

- Oh, thanks, yeah.

It's got a nice metallic sheen to it.

Oh, but check this out.

Now, it was a little touch and go at first,

but I was able to hollow out this head.

Fill it with concrete.

Here, careful.

- Whoa. [laughs] - Pass it around.

- Jeez. - That's awesome.

[Nate laughs]

- Here.

- Wow. - Yeah?

What do you think?

- That's got some weight to it.

- Yeah, try dropping it.

Not too high.

Yeah.

[head thuds]

- Whoa! [laughs]

- It's crazy. - Yeah.

So you guys, you wanna see the guillotine?

- [Group] Yeah!

- Alright, come on.

[all chattering excitedly]

- Whoa. - All right, all right.

Listen up.

I want you guys to understand something.

If you are not very careful with this thing,

it can actually hurt you.

Got it?

- Mm-hmm. - Okay.

Now, obviously I haven't put the door on yet,

and I'm thinking we're gonna get a basket

down there to catch the head.

But this is the basic structure.

- How long did this take you?

- I don't know.

Most of the time was spent up here,

but I'd say about four or five hours to actually build it

plus getting materials.

- Where'd you get the wood?

- Don't worry about that, Nate.

Now I was having a lot of trouble with this blade.

It wasn't falling straight 'cause luan likes to warp,

especially this time of year.

So I was able to offset that by attaching this strip here.

Plus it gives us a nice ledge to lift it when we reset it.

This is the safety, okay?

You have to engage this when we're resetting, got it?

Safety's on and the blade actually gets held in place

by a peg that's in the back.

That's if it winds up.

Got it.

Now turn the safety off.

Now this thing is live, okay?

You guys ready?

- Yeah.

[blade thuds]

Whoa!

- That's so cool, bro. - What?

- Now I was thinking it would be awesome

if we could actually show that

but I don't think it's possible

with somebody's head actually sticking out, right?

That is where the door comes in.

- I have a question. - Yeah.

- And this, this is awesome.

This is so much cooler than I was even picturing.

- [Dave] Thank you.

- But why is the hole in the middle

shaped like a puzzle piece?

- Yeah, I was wondering about that too.

- Oh.

Oh, you guys wanna know how it's actually gonna work?

Okay, that's a fair question.

Let me get the collar and I'll show you.

- Your dad's insane. - Yeah.

- This is gonna be cool though.

- Yep.

- Yes, I'm in.

I'm totally in.

I'm honored they thought of me at all.

It's exactly the kind of thing

I used to be into when I was a little kid.

Beat it.

Yeah.

Alright.

Yeah, I'll see what I have lying around.

Actually, you know what?

I got a costume designer friend at Shakespeare and Company.

I'm just gonna,

oh no, the executioner has gotta have the right costume!

Alright.

Okay, Bubba.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I look forward to it.

See you then.

Bye!

- Push, push, push. - Good job, boys.

- All right. - Hold it there.

[all chattering]

- Dude, that's enough. [laughs]

- So wait, the dummy's gonna be wearing

the same outfit as Vilas?

- Yeah.

Then it's like, which one's the real one?

- Got it now.

[upbeat rock music]

- Push, push, push, push!

- [Nate] Oh, Vilas, Vilas, come here!

- Is that a realistic amount of blood?

- You know, I think we could add a little bit more.

[all grunting]

- Stop, stop. - Oh.

- Phew.

All right, what is this thing being used for again?

- We didn't exactly think of a specific idea.

- Oh, Nate!

After the group sees the snakes,

they're still gonna get by, right?

So, and that screw stops it from falling off.

- That's pretty cool. - Yeah, yeah.

Now we just need to get some snakes.

- Oh, and a branch.

- And a branch.

[birds chirping]

[light music]

That's the one.

- Yeah, but how are we gonna get to it?

- What are you talking about?

There's only one thing to do.

- You're not gonna swim, are you?

- [Dave] Yeah, come on.

- We should've just brought bathing suits.

It'd be so much easier.

- No, we don't need bathing suits.

It's gonna be fine.

- Hmm, I don't know.

- It's gonna be easy.

- That looks cold.

- Yeah!

Woo, yeah!

Come on in, guys.

The water's nice.

- No way, that's cold.

- Woo!

[saw whirring]

[Dave laughing]

Come on, get in the water!

Okay, well one of you guys can cut this.

Cut that part.

Oh, nice.

Okay.

Okay.

Staple gun?

Thank you.

[light music]

Okay, now we go through here.

[all laughing]

All right, I think we're ready for a test drive.

- Wow. - Oh man.

- That's so cool. - Yeah? Does it look good?

- Yeah. - It looks really good.

- Good, okay.

So then what we would do is we would turn the lights off

and then we will.

- Oh, that's so. - Wow, wait, it moves?

- [Dave] Yeah, yeah, I put in a track.

- I just got an idea.

What if something happens after the lights go out?

- Like what?

- Like, oh, I don't know.

Maybe if there was some way to make it feel

like there were snakes on the floor, for instance.

- Oh my God. - Yeah.

- If I felt snakes on the floor at the scene,

I would piss my pants.

- No, that'd be awesome though

'cause it's like they see the branch

and then the lights go out and then they think it's over.

And then that's when we hit them with.

- Real snakes. - Yeah!

- What? No.

We're not bringing real snakes in here.

- Come on, just like gardener snakes.

- [Dave] No chance.

- Fine.

- But we still need something

to happen after the lights go out.

- Why isn't the branch enough on its own?

- You gotta hit 'em when they're most vulnerable.

- [Group] Yeah.

- Oh, so your plan is just

to torture your audience to death?

- Yep. - Yeah.

- Basically. - That's the idea, yeah.

- We're gonna have to put up a disclaimer

or I'm gonna get sued.

That's pretty good though, right?

- I want a pet snake.

- [Jonah] You'll have to ask your mother about that one.

[Rebecca laughs]

- Oh, no, no, no.

No snakes.

- Alright buddy, we're gonna go to four and a half.

- [Jonah] Jonah and his dad

were finally spending time together again.

- Okay, good enough.

Earmuffs.

Nice line, buddy.

Okay, now we can talk about making another one of those.

Well, hold on.

Let's think about this.

People are gonna be coming in,

what groups of like five or six, right?

- Yeah, that's what they were last year.

- Okay, five or six people in a narrow hallway.

They're gonna be grouped into twos,

but they're gonna be bunched together

'cause they're gonna be scared, right?

So maybe we'll do two dowels

and I'll just put 'em this far apart.

- Let's do it.

- All right.

Into the Croix.

He chests it down.

He shoots! Goal!

Grab it, pass.

Nice one.

It goes to the forward. The forward passes back.

Come on!

He gets it.

Oh, are you all right, bud?

- I'm worn out. - Oh.

We can take a break. [groans]

You know, you played a really good game on Sunday.

I think you're really coming into your own in the midfield.

- Thanks.

- No, midfield's not an easy position, buddy.

I mean, you gotta see the whole field at the same time.

- How can I see behind me?

- [laughs] That's a good point.

No, it's just, you know, your team's,

they're really thrilling to watch.

I mean, you guys are playing like a much older team.

- Like 14 year olds?

- [laughs] Yeah, I guess so.

If you need me to put a number on it, 14 year olds.

No, but it's just that,

you know what makes soccer such a beautiful game

is that it doesn't matter

if you have a team that plays together

and they play in sync

and they play intelligently the way you guys are playing

and they're gonna beat a team

with better individuals hands down.

I mean, that's what makes it so beautiful.

It's just such a,

such a collective sport.

- [Jonah] Teamwork really does make the dream work

and if this haunted house was to be a success,

they'd need a lot of it.

- Wait, when is this haunted house gonna be?

- We decided on next Thursday.

- You mean Halloween?

- Yeah, Halloween.

- It starts at 8:00,

but there's probably gonna be a line.

So you might want to get here a little early.

- Is this like, actually gonna be scary?

- Yep.

- We're actually thinking of putting a disclaimer.

- Oh, is that right?

- And yeah, it's all about the kids having a good time

and we just wanna make sure everyone feels safe.

- All right, thanks man.

We'll get it back to you after school tomorrow.

- Yeah, no problem.

- So you think you guys can make it?

- We'll see.

[car engine revs]

- Well, remember next Thursday.

- Eight o'clock.

[group laughing]

[group chattering]

At seven there's a line. - Yes.

- They'll be there early. - Yes.

- It'll be fine. - There's the kids.

- Did you guys make announcements in your classes yet?

- Yeah, man, everybody's talking about it.

It's gonna be a really big turnout.

- Dude, it's definitely gonna be a big turnout.

- Is it just me or does the haunted house feel

so much more substantial this year?

- No, I know what you mean.

- We made a real haunted house.

- [Jonah] Time flies when you're building a haunted house

and quicker than a game of Skelly.

Halloween was just one day away.

- Oh, you know, this is the easy part.

Getting Nate up in that thing tomorrow,

that's gonna be a challenge.

- Yeah. - Oh.

All right. We should test it, huh?

Yeah, I think that's gonna hold him.

Oh, you think,

you think we're ready?

Yep, that pretty much says it.

Well, we can't reschedule.

Halloween's tomorrow.

- It'll be good.

- Yeah, I think so too.

As long as nobody loses their head.

- Well also, that kind of needs to happen.

- [laughs] Right, you're right.

We are kind of depending on it, aren't we?

- No, it's gonna be good.

You guys came up with a lot of good illusions this year.

Ah, I wish your grandpa was here to see it.

He always loved these haunted houses.

[light acoustic music]

You coming?

- Yeah, I'll be in soon. - Okay.

- [Jonah] The haunted house had come a long way

from the cold empty garage it was just a few weeks ago,

but it still wasn't done yet.

Part of Jonah was a bit worried

they wouldn't finish on time.

Either way, he still wished Grandpa was there to see it.

After all, it was impressive

what the group had accomplished.

- Well, were you guys able to finish?

- Be patient and you'll find out.

It was the day of Halloween.

- [Asher] Dude, this has to be perfect.

You don't understand this is last one.

- [Nate] If we stick to the plan,

everything should be okay, I'm not.

- Listen, everybody's supposed to be on their Ps and Qs and-

- Hi, girls.

- You ready for tonight, Vilas?

- Yeah, but I think I lost my crown.

- Seriously?

- I'll look for it, don't worry.

- Alright, well, can you be ready

in the barn in an hour for rehearsal?

- Sure, sure.

Hey.

Pretty good, right?

[all laughing]

- All right, let's head inside, guys.

- Let's go.

[bright music]

- All right, guys, this is it.

We only have a few hours until trick or treating begins.

And we have a lot of work to do.

First and foremost, we need to...

[garage door whirring]

- We decided you guys probably need our help.

- Yeah, you'll definitely need our help.

- Oh, I hope you don't mind.

I brought some of my mom's paramedic supplies.

- I don't mind.

- I don't mind either.

- [Nate] Where have you guys been?

- We've been here.

- Alright, well, welcome aboard.

[bright music]

[garage door squeaks]

Alright, we only have an hour

and we still have a lot of things to do.

Ned, you and Ian are practicing the guillotine scene.

- All right.

- Just do it as many times as possible.

You want it to be like second nature by tonight.

Jonah and Kelvin, you guys are recording the snake sounds.

Nice.

- Make sure the audio sounds good.

Not like the tape we recorded last year.

- Right.

Brendan and Alex, you guys are setting up the torture room.

- Affirmative.

- And then Kyle and Asher, Liza, Caitlin, and Abby,

you guys are gonna set up the hospital scene.

- Got it.

- The challenge is ours.

The way I see it,

this is gonna be a pretty cool haunted house no matter what.

But I'm not satisfied with pretty cool.

We stand together on the precipice.

Now, if you're not up for the challenge, speak up now.

No one will think any less of you.

All right, let's be ready in an hour. [claps]

- Hey Dave. - Oh, just a sec, guys.

- Ah. - Oh my God.

- Yeah, you like it?

All coming together, right?

- It looks great.

- Yeah, we'll see if it actually works tonight.

- Um, I was just gonna see about-

- Oh, oh yeah, the collar.

So I put a hinge in the collar and it opens and closes

and I even dated in a biscuit so that it locks.

Check it out.

- What?

- Okay, so let me get this straight.

This is a surgery scene.

The surgeons are aliens who are eviscerating their patient.

- Eviscerating sounds so harsh.

- That's the actual term

for taking organs out of someone's body.

- Shouldn't there at least be some blood on the walls then?

- Check this out.

[machine beeping] [voices whispering]

- Oh my God, that's so creepy.

- That's gonna be awesome.

- It's all about the details.

- Speaking of which, anybody seen the butcher knife?

- Butcher's knife?

[upbeat funky music]

- So I pull my head out?

- Yeah.

- Then the executioner closes the door,

and then I drop the blade.

- You're gonna pull your head out

as the executioner closes the door.

You guys wanna try it?

It's really finicky.

- All right. - Good, perfect.

Okay, now as he closes the door, pull your head.

Good, he's gonna lock the door.

Then I guess you guys are gonna wanna go one one thousand,

two one thousand, three one thousand in your head.

You're gonna close that.

Lock it.

- That's awesome. - When did you do the neck?

- Yeah, you like that?

I just did it the other day.

I cut the bottom off of another head.

- Oh, you bought another head?

- Yeah, two heads are better than one.

Hey guys.

- That's awesome!

- Man, oh man.

- So what's going on guys?

- Right, so we were thinking,

since the hospital scene is so bright,

do you think it'll affect the snake scene,

which needs to be really dark?

- That is a good point.

Let me just take the collar off of Ned

and I'll come help you out.

[upbeat music]

- Get on the other side.

- Oh! [laughs]

Oh, that's so cool, dude! [laughs]

Oh, I would be scared to death.

I would be scared to death.

Wait, does it come back in?

Oh, that's so cool.

How it just goes back in the wall like that.

Wait, what are these for?

- Let me show you.

So when this is out.

- Okay.

- And it comes back out. - All right.

- They think the scene is over, but it's not.

- [Kelvin] Okay, all right.

- So they're here and then the lights go out.

- Oh.

Oh, [laughs] wow!

Your dad really has thought of everything.

- [Suzanne] Dave, it's Allison on the phone.

She wants to know how you're gonna make sure

that the guillotine doesn't accidentally

fall on her son's neck.

- [Dave] I'll be right there!

[both snickering]

- That sounds like a lot of work.

Did you guys even get to go trick or treating?

- You can't have a Halloween without candy.

- [laughs] As a matter of fact, we did go trick or treating.

- All right, Lake, then up to Magnolia?

- As long as we stop by the house

with the three chimneys first.

- The one down Summer? - Yep.

- But there aren't as many houses down there.

- Yeah, but that house gives a ton of candy.

- Yeah, but we lose time walking there.

- But you know, we might get less candy elsewhere,

but we'd make better use of our time.

- That actually makes sense.

- Hey guys, are we getting too old for trick or treating?

[Kelvin laughs]

- [Both] Nope.

- I'm Vilas.

You wanna see my pumpkin?

- Very nice, very nice. - Yeah.

- I mean, this is like a woodworking marvel, you know?

- Thanks.

Well, I certainly spend enough time on it.

- Yeah, you're not even a woodworker.

- No, no, not by trade. - Right.

Well, now you got something to fall back on.

- [laughs] Yeah, we'll see.

- What inspired you?

- Oh, it was a gift for my dad.

- Nice. - Actually, yeah.

I, you know, when he got sick, I just,

I wanted to make him something.

- Nice. - You know,

Skelly was a game that he'd grown up playing in the Bronx,

and, you know, he made a version of it

for the kids last year

and we talked about making a tabletop version of it,

but then, and then he got sick and...

- And you did it? - And I did it, yeah.

- Did he like it? - Yeah, he saw it.

It's funny, I, I spent all this time making this for him,

and now I just,

I kind of wish I would've spent

that time with him, you know?

- Well, I'm sure he really appreciated it.

- Yeah, I think so.

- [Children] Trick or treat!

- Oh. - An army descends.

- Yeah, we'd better help 'em.

You guys wanna bring it in?

Yeah, let's bring it in just for a second.

I just wanna say,

it's been so fun working on this with you guys.

I mean, you guys have, you've done amazing work and it's-

- You too, Dave.

- [Group] Yeah, Dave!

[group cheering] [group clapping]

- [Dave] Okay, all right, all right.

- [Group] Dave! Dave! Dave!

- Okay, okay, look, no.

Okay, okay, look, it wasn't just me guys.

It really, it was all of us.

- Let's make this something to remember, guys!

[all cheering] [all clapping]

- Yeah, yeah!

Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!

[bright music]

- Through, perfect.

Good, okay.

All right, now you just wanna get your arms through.

Great.

Alright.

- Nice. - That's great.

- Here we go, woo! - Let's do it. Ready?

- [Nate] Yeah.

[bright music]

- Chains, since-

- We'll just move 'em over.

- Yeah, she'll come in, she'll see them.

So we have to move it.

- All right, lemme move the axes.

- Okay, yeah, anything in the middle.

Anything that she can see one coming through the door.

- Now should that one go on there or there?

Well, what was the like when it was over?

- Okay. - Put it in the middle.

- Yeah, yeah, okay.

Do that, okay.

- That should work. - Okay.

Yeah, that should be it.

- Okay, alright.

So you're gonna drop the blade, right?

- No, I drop the head and flip the trap door.

- Oh, so I drop the blade?

- No, I drop the blade.

- You drop the blade?

Yeah, that makes sense 'cause, yeah.

So do you remember your lines?

[playful music]

- I don't say anything. - You don't?

I wonder if I should say something.

- Um, maybe?

- I know a guillotine joke.

A priest, a vagabond, and an engineer,

were gonna go to the guillotine

and they all get led to the public square.

And the priest goes first

and he lays down and he looks up at this guy and he says,

"God, please save me, please."

The executioner says, "Is that all you gotta say?"

And he goes, "Yes."

He pulls the cord and the blade comes down

and it just stops just an inch away from his neck

and the crowd goes crazy.

He says, "That's a miracle.

"You gotta let him go."

So he gets up and he walks away,

and then vagabond comes in,

the vagabond lays down, he looks up.

The executioner goes, "Do you got any last words?"

He's a vagabond.

He's like you guys.

He didn't go to school or anything like that.

So he doesn't have any words.

And he pulls the cord and the blade comes down and stops,

just like, an inch away from his neck

and the crowd's like apoplectic.

They're like, "This is the day of miracles!

"You gotta let him go!"

And so he goes away

and the engineer comes and he lays down very stoic,

and he looks up and the engineer says,

"You got any last words?"

The engineer goes, "I think I see what the problem is."

- [laughs] Maybe don't say that though.

- I could sell it, yeah?

- Well, I like it but it's not scary, I dunno.

- [Glenn] A little long.

- Well, no one's come running out screaming yet.

- Give it time, the night is young.

- You think you'll miss these haunted houses

when they're grown up

and actually celebrating your birthday yesterday?

- You know, who knows?

I mean, with Dave,

he might be doing these for years to come.

- So be honest, who comes up with the ideas?

- It's a mix, you know?

The boys normally come with this idea

that's not yet fully formed.

- To say it politely.

- And Dave then takes the idea a step further

and then the boys take it another step further.

And then before you know it, you've got-

- A live guillotine. - Exactly.

- I'll never forget that car scene last year.

I'll never figure out how he got it to stop

in exactly the same spot in front of the group each time.

- Bungees.

- And the sound effects, everything was timed just right.

- I'll never forget the year

they had Jonah under the candy bowl.

At the end,

[laughs] kids would reach in to get candy

thinking it was over,

and then a hand would grab them

from inside the candy bowl. [laughs]

I thought we were gonna have to call an ambulance.

- Right, and when Alex came out of the refrigerator.

Who puts a 10 year old

in a refrigerator for a haunted house?

- Your husband.

- Hey, at least it was unplugged.

- Well, he's done some amazing work on these things.

- Yeah, he really does.

And I think, you know, especially this year,

he really needed to be doing this

during this time, you know?

- Should we get the next group ready?

- Sounds like they're wrapping up.

- Let's go.

[children chattering]

[dramatic music]

- [Group] Let's go!

- Hey, don't forget to shut this door.

- Everyone ready? - Yeah!

- Ready! - Yeah, ready.

- We're ready, Suzanne!

[dramatic music]

[children chattering] [children laughing]

[machine beeping]

[upbeat synth music]

- Things were going wrong, but it wasn't over just yet.

[door rumbles]

- Did you hear that?

- The tape?

- I had no idea it was taped over something.

- Yeah, we had a few troubles of our own.

It's okay.

It's the first run, there's always kinks to be worked out.

- [Glenn] How'd it go?

- There were a few glitches.

- I think the guillotine was all right.

Tough crowd though.

- Yeah.

- The night is young.

Let's consider it a practice run, huh?

- Yeah.

Okay.

- Young Jonah was overcome with so many bottled up emotions

about the haunted house, about his dad, about grandpa.

That's when he realized he needed to let it all out.

[energetic rock music]

- Jonah?

[Jonah screams]

- Yeah, let's go! Woo!

Yeah!

[all screaming and shouting]

- Yeah, let's go! - Woo!

[suspenseful music]

[door thuds]

[dramatic spooky music]

[children screaming]

[machines beeping]

- Help me!

Someone help me! Please help me!

Help me!

Help me, please!

[children screaming]

- So cold.

Oh, here it comes again.

Oh, close the door, it blasts me.

Stay illusion.

Your thou hast any sound, use the voice, speak to me.

If there be any good thing that can be done

that may do easterly or grace to me.

Speak to me.

[children screaming]

[suspenseful music]

[children screaming]

[children continue screaming]

[suspenseful music]

- Watch out!

[children screaming]

- Someone hold my blade.

Are you ready for blood, huh? [laughs]

Oh, I love blood.

There we go!

[children screaming]

Oh, this is so much blood!

[children screaming]

Hey guys!

- Let's go! - We did it!

- That was great! That was great!

- Hey, how'd it go?

- It was terrifying!

- Great, I think we're in our groove now.

- Yeah, it's gonna be a great night.

- Great work, guys.

[suspenseful music]

[all screaming]

- Help me, please!

Please, help me!

[suspenseful music]

[children screaming]

- [Suzanne] All right, that was the last one.

- All right.

Good job, guys.

[light acoustic music]

All right, that was the last one.

- We did it.

- Good job, guys.

- That snake scene when the ropes fell.

- Got 'em every time. [laughs]

Come on.

[door creaks]

- How'd the guillotine go?

- It went well, it went really well.

- Yeah, it went well.

- Oh man, that was...

- Yeah, you guys did it. - Yep.

- We all did it.

- Come on, let's go see how everyone's doing.

[all cheering and clapping]

- We did it.

[group chattering excitedly]

[light acoustic music]

- Success felt great,

but what was even greater was the warmth of friends, family,

and the beauty of teamwork.

Jonah and his dad especially learned

that when life gets tough,

the most important thing is cherishing the time

you have with the ones you love.

[light acoustic music]

- Oh, nice job. - I love you guys.

[Lucy screams]

- [Rebecca] What was that?

- I'm letting out

all of my bottles up emotions like Daddy did.

[Jonah laughs]

- That's a really good idea.

- Yeah? - Get up. Get up.

Ready?

[all screaming]

[all laughing]

Oh my gosh, look at the time.

Lucy, Charlie, JJ.

- Oh yeah. - Go brush your teeth.

Get ready for bed, no Xbox, okay?

- Sorry about that.

- I think they understood.

- Hmm, I told you they would.

- And you know who's gonna love that book?

Papa Dave.

- Uh, Mom and Dad, sorry to interrupt.

- What is it, JJ?

- I was just thinking maybe we could

build a haunted house this Halloween.

That'll be a good way to keep the family tradition going.

- I think that's a great idea, Son.

- Haunted house! Haunted house!

- [All] Haunted house! Haunted house!

Haunted house! Haunted house!

Haunted house! Haunted house!

- Oh wait, we should ask Papa Dave if he wants to join.

I don't know if he'll be able to come all this way,

but you know.

[cellphone buzzing]

Uh? [laughs]

- Yeah, I think you should answer that.

- Dad, did you read the book?

What'd you think?

Yeah, yeah, I think, I think the kids would love that.

Okay, yeah, speak soon.

All right.

Yeah, I think it might work! [laughs]

- [All] Haunted house! Haunted house!

Haunted house! Haunted house!

Haunted house! Haunted house!

[bright acoustic music]

[dramatic music]