What’s It Like Living in a Place Frequented by Fans of the Undead?

PHOTO COURTESY OF KRISTY GRAVER

Every July 16, Jason and Heidi Beam put a jack-o’-lantern in their front room window.

They aren’t jumping the gun on the Halloween season, but celebrating their home’s place in horror movie history.

The exterior of the Monroeville abode was featured in 1982’s “Creepshow,” a frightful anthology by late director George Romero and author Stephen King.

The Beams didn’t realize their house was famous until the day they closed on it in July 2012. That evening, in the empty living room, they set up folding chairs and a laptop and watched the old film that put their new place on the map.

The neighborhood is located three miles east of Monroeville Mall and abuts the former Pittsburgh-Monroeville Airport, filming locations for Romero’s 1978 classic “Dawn of the Dead.”

The shopping center (which was recently acquired by Walmart and is rumored to have a date with a wrecking ball) hosts the semiannual Living Dead Weekend, a festival celebrating Romero’s cinematic legacy. The next bash is slated for Oct. 16-18.

During the event, many attendees take a detour to the “Creepshow” house for photo ops. One year, two busloads of zombie enthusiasts shuffled out into the street.

Jason says visiting ghouls have always been on their best behavior. If you plan to make the pilgrimage this fall, please respect the residents’ privacy and property and allow them to rest in peace.

Heidi admits she wasn’t thrilled about inhabiting an undead destination — until the day she found herself fangirling outside of Stephen King’s mansion in Bangor, Maine. That’s when she truly understood the power of pop culture.

The Beams now run a “Creepshow” House Facebook page, display “Creepshow” memorabilia on their walls and wear “Creepshow” shirts with pride. They were spinning the “Creepshow” soundtrack on vinyl when I arrived for our interview in my “Creepshow” shirt.

PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

During each Living Dead Weekend (which often coincides with their wedding anniversary), they decorate their domicile as it appears in the flick, complete with a pumpkin in the window, flint corn on the door and a metal garbage can by the curb that contains a prop comic book and guest log.

Giddy gorehounds line up to pay their respects, snap selfies and act out pivotal scenes.

PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

In the movie, two trash collectors salvage a “Creepshow” comic book that an angry father confiscated from his kid and discarded. Obsessive-compulsive viewers will recognize the young actor as King’s son and New York Times best-selling author Joe Hill.

Other performers include Pittsburghers Tom Atkins, Marty Schiff and Tom Savini, whose Bloomfield home was recently damaged in a fire. A GoFundMe page set up to help Savini’s family deal with the real-life nightmare has raised more than $95,000.

Horror fans have a lot of heart.

TOM SAVINI AND ARTIST JEREMY RAYMER POSE INSIDE OF A TOM SAVINI MURAL IN LAWRENCEVILLE / PHOTO BY KRISTY GRAVER

The Beams plan to beef up the creepiness of their “Creepshow” display for Halloween and add a QR code to the garbage can so they can better track the influx of visitors. Over a three-day period in June, 244 fans from all over the world signed the guest log.

I was one of those monster nerds, so, of course, I had a blast interviewing the Beams.

They graciously invited me into their home, answered all of my ridiculous questions, then took me on a twilight tour of the barren airport property so I could geek out over “Dawn of the Dead”-era gravel.

For this diehard creep, the 2026 Halloween season has officially taken flight.