BY SCOTT STIFFLER | Haunting images caught the eyes and captured the imagination once again this year, along the 400 blocks of West 21st and 22nd Streets, where going all-out is the “in” thing when the last week of October rolls around. That’s when a cordial-yet-competetive house decorating contest awakes the creative spirit of residents. In an October 31 email sent mere hours before the clock would strike midnight and see an official end to Halloween’s spirited reign, the organizing body of West Chelsea’s annual Halloween Decorating Contest dished some details concerning the contest’s bloody good standouts.

The winner, declared the West 400 Block Association, was The Deadly Disco at 449 West 21st Street. “Full-sized and mini disco balls adorn the home and the front yard trees, a bloodied neon Studio 21 sign (in Studio 54 logo style) and a disco strobe machine lights up half the block,” noted the smitten judges, who also singled out the Studio staff and celebrants, represented as “skeletons with mirror-tiled skulls and lit-up eyes wearing lame dresses, capes, & boas … all while holding their cocktails. Disco made them do it!”

Residents appearing as the drop-dead likenesses of Freddie Mercury, Elton John, and Cher were on hand, and the whole shebang accumulated “extra points for synching up” with the house next door, whose denizens were decked out in shiny, disco-appropriate silver.

Also singled out for decorative concepts that proved “original, clever, & creative” were the Ghost-gosian Art Gallery at 448 W. 22nd “with its creepy original works of art signed by none other than Vincent Van Bone. The family @ 448 likes a good play on words; last year, they won the contest with their Griste-death’s creepy meat counter.” The effort of 444 W. 22nd were also honored for their original/clever/creative “ghostly homage to our neighborhood’s famous founding father, Clement Clarke Moore. Ethereal ghosts in period garb listen while Clement reads ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.”

A fun, impressive “candy delivery system of tubing & lights from the 4th floor of 411 W. 22nd also demanded recognition and respect, as did “the Giant at 437 W. 22nd.”

With over a dozen addresses taking part in the dressing-up of their domiciles, all participants deserve admiring applause loud enough to wake the dead, as the cumulative effect of walking West 400 21st & 22nd Streets was more than enough to put one in the Halloween state of mind. The real winners, however, were the trick-or-treaters, whose trip up and down the blocks (and back again, for some) saw their treat bags weighed way, way, down thanks to the steady stream of delicious stuff dished out by the righteous residents–many of whom insisted each costumed kid grab more than one wrapped piece of candy before stepping off from their stoop and onto the next nicely decorated sugar distribution stop. And with that, please enjoy some additional images from Halloween on the 400 blocks of West 21st & 22nd Streets. (All photos by Scott Stiffler unless otherwise noted.)

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