Ghastly Gadgets began with a Halloween party, a high schooler named Chris, and a dad who couldn’t say no to a challenge. When Chris asked his father Dave to help decorate for a spooky night with friends, something clicked—literally. What started with homemade props, duct tape, and trial-and-error turned into a full-blown obsession with mechanical scares.

Dave, a self-taught tinkerer with a love for problem-solving, built his first “popping head” prop in 2012 after spotting a gap in the haunt market: repeatable, durable scares that didn’t require actors. Over six months, he taught himself pneumatics, electronics, lighting, and audio—testing prototypes in his garage and swapping ideas with other makers in online forums and trade shows.

He wasn’t into horror lore—he was into motion, precision, and the mental puzzle of getting a scare to land just right. That drive became the foundation of Ghastly Gadgets: a haunt-tech company dedicated to creating plug-and-play animatronic props that are built to survive the season—and make people scream every single time.