Atco Couple Hoping to Lure ‘Dexter’ Cast Members to Their Halloween Display

If you’re a fan of any of the shows in the Dexter television franchise, and you live in the South Jersey area, you’re going to want to take a trip out into the woods of Atco sometime during the month of October.

It’ll be worth dodging the Jersey Devil, and the ghosts that frequent the area – and possibly even Bigfoot – so that you can find an unassuming young couple, lurking there in the darkness, just waiting for their next vict, uh, visitor to stop by. If you find them, they might even show you the kill room they’ve created in a rented red shipping container in their front yard.

They’re hoping you’ll come along, and they’re really hoping some of the folks behind their favorite TV show might come by to join in the fun too.

If you’ve never seen any of the Dexter shows, this might all sound a little strange to you.

Here’s a (very) brief primer: Dexter is a character featured in a growing franchise of TV shows, where the titular hero is a serial killer, who has been taught to focus his unavoidable homicidal urges on those who truly deserve it – often other serial killers. A kill room is, well, a kill room is exactly what it sounds like, and that’s what Kami and Jeremy Spahn have created (a replica of) at their home.

Now that we’re all caught up, let’s meet the Spahns!

“We used to do Friday the 13th,” said Kami Spahn, of the Halloween displays they created in their yard prior to last year. “People liked it, but we love Dexter so much. So we just said, ‘how cool would it be if we could do an actual Dexter kill room?’”
So last Halloween that’s what they set out to do, though their initial attempt, built out of PVC and plastic sheeting, hit just one little snag.

“It blew away the day after we built it,” Kami said. “So we’re like, okay, the backup plan is the shipping container.”

Again, for the uninitiated, a shipping container factors as a plot point in the original show, but we’ll avoid dropping any nearly-20-year-old spoilers here and just leave it at that.

But once they rented that first container last year, one might say a couple of Dexter-display-loving monsters were created.

Cut to this year, and the Spahns knew there was no going back and if they were going to keep going, they might as well go bigger. So now they have an even larger shipping container in their front yard. And since the Dexter-verse keeps expanding, they now have the room to let their display grow as well.

“We probably watched ‘Resurrection’ like 10 times already – studying for certain things and then taking notes, and of course we just love it,” Kami said of the latest Dexter series, which provided inspiration for this year’s addition.

The Spahn’s said the actual installation of the display took about three weeks, with the couple, plus Kami’s mother and father helping to put it all together, but they said they’ve been planning the attraction since the summer.

Now that it’s up the Spahns will be open through Halloween, sitting beside the display, waiting for die-hard Dexter fans, or curious passers-by to stop and check it out.

They’re also hoping to draw out some cast members from the shows to visit the attraction, specifically on the night of October 25, when the couple has an event planned at the site.

Kami said the main goal now is the cast – getting someone, anyone, associated with Dexter to come and check out their work and the community of fans that love it and the shows. They’ve launched a campaign on Instagram trying to make it happen.
“This year, we’re really trying to get the cast out, Kami said. “We have some attention from a couple of them – no definites yet, but we’re still kind of begging to get them out, so, fingers are crossed.”

Aside from the hopes for a cast member appearance, the couple said the event is a way for Dexter fans to just come together and take it all in.

“Last year, we did a screening – we had a couple episodes on a projector outside,” Kami said. “We had a bonfire, we had donuts (Dexter reference) and then we all just hung out.”

She said Jeremy even dressed up like Dexter to oblige visitors with photo ops.
“People got on the table,” she said. “It was really cool.”

The couple played it cool regarding any surprise additions to this year’s planned event, but it seemed as though they may have something in the works.
“There could be some neat things that pop up,” Jeremy said.

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IF YOU GO:
In all seriousness, please be cautious. The property is on a dark road – the couple suggests using a flashlight while navigating from your vehicle to the attraction. The display is available completely free of charge. The Spahn’s have been somewhat reluctant to publicly list their address, so your best bet is to follow them on Instagram to find out further details about where, how and when to visit.