Matthew and Bryce Inman didn't realize the horror they were unleashing until it was too late.
For the past six weeks, the two brothers had been working on a 14-foot-tall animatronic Grimothy," an evil version of the beloved Seattle raccoon with short spine syndrome, known as Jimothy. On Saturday morning, they posted some videos of Grimothy online, inviting people to visit the monster where he currently resides as a Halloween decoration on Bryce's lawn.
They couldn't have fathomed just how many people would end up traveling to their quiet street on Bainbridge Island to catch a glimpse of their creation.
By the early afternoon, there was a quarter-mile of traffic backed up along Cherry Avenue, the main street leading up to Bryce's driveway.
"We should have bought more candy," wrote Matthew, in a text message. He's the artist behind the quirky comics website The Oatmeal, as well as popular card games like Exploding Kittens.
The brothers have a history of constructing elaborate Halloween decorations, which usually involve a dark twist on local trends. Last year, they made a pickleball-themed clown. The year before that, there was "Rogg Frock," which they described as a monstrous alter ego of the popular Bainbridge landmark Frog Rock.
To create Grimothy, the pair started with blueprints based on Matthew's previous drawings of Jimothy, sketched when the raccoon first went viral in July.
For Grimothy's frame, Bryce bent and welded iron rods together to form steel rings of different sizes. He then attached them together to create a metal sphere, on top of which the brothers stapled fake fur.
"It's not made with real mammal," quipped Bryce.
Matthew painted Grimothy's teeth rabid shades of red and orange, bringing out the demonic glow of his eyes at night.
Bryce's kids love Grimothy. Matthew's 4-year-old son, not so much. He'll purposely walk away from the haunted statue when they pass it on the street.
Grimothy is animated from the inside, which contains computer chips that can sense movement, play sound effects and activate motorized parts that make him move.
Troubleshooting Grimothy is a sight of its own. When he glitches, Bryce has to crawl up what is essentially the monster's butt to fix the problems, then extract himself the same way. Despite this level of commitment, the two brothers look forward to creating a new monster every year.
"I just do it because I really like Halloween," said Matthew.
Unlike Thanksgiving or Christmas, there's no stress around travel or presents.
"It's just candy and creativity," he said.
In fact, the spirit of holiday actually affords them more liberty to be ambitious and make mistakes.
"I can be a sloppy artist," said Bryce. "If you get the eyes in the wrong place, it's even better.
Everyone asks the brothers what they'll do with Grimothy when Halloween is over. They haven't thought that far ahead. They already have three storage units for all of their Halloween decorations. Maybe they'll get a fourth. Or maybe Grimothy will be gone by the end of the night.
As evening fell, their candy supplies were dwindling fast. They couldn't keep up with the number of kids that had shown up. So they started cutting off pieces of Grimothy's fur to hand out instead.
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