A butcher with a pig head wields a cleaver while roaming the yard of Royal Scare littered with headstones and the exterior of a castle.
Like Pennywise from Stephen King’s “It,” “on the 4th year [Royal Scare] rose again” in 2024 returning to Padua Drive to haunt the residents of North Royalton. Now in its second year since its awakening, the haunted house has conjured new frights and delights for visitors.
Owner Paul Tylicki Jr. created the haunted backyard adorned with an assortment of spooky decorations and live actors lurking behind every corner in 2000 while living in Garfield Heights.
“A lot of people decorate when their kids are little, so I started 30 years ago, and then it just finally grew and grew,” Tylicki said, “and eventually, you always want to do better the next year, so that’s how it came.”
With its rapid growth, he installed a fence around his Garfield Heights residency, officially marking the beginnings of Royal Scare.
When Tylicki and his family moved to North Royalton in 2004, they decided to continue the tradition at 12043 Padua Drive.
His ghoulish creations were not the only festivities drawing children’s attention. To get neighborhood children in the spirit, he invented Scare Games, where participants have three lives but can either lose one if Tylicki scares them or they can earn back a life from scaring him.
“They couldn’t kill me because you can’t kill monsters,” he said. “So, we played that for several years, but it was anywhere in this development that you can get scared. So, every time I’d walk my dog, they’d be hiding around bushes or whatever, and try to jump out and scare me.”
When operating Royal Scare became too much for Tylicki in 2020, he decided to quit the haunted backyard.
After receiving encouragement from his children to prevent his grandchildren from missing out, Tylicki revived the Royal Scare in 2024, and now lurks the haunted house alongside his grandson, scaring unsuspecting visitors.
Following his retirement this year, he made the haunted house even bigger than previous iterations.
He added an additional building in his backyard and changed his Scrooge and Marley scene from Charles Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol” to an aquatic nightmare featuring a shark, a sea creature skeleton and jellyfish, rivaling the terrors from “Jaws.”
“I retired in May, so now I had all the time in the world to do this. I kind of dragged my feet, but I started in July, early August setting up here,” Tylicki said.
Understanding the amount of work a five star-rated haunted house entails, people have encouraged him to accept donations, because of his decision to not charge for admission.
Tylicki eventually took their advice but first decided to give those donations to his wife’s special needs gymnastic team. Because his wife has since retired, whatever donations they receive goes toward Royal Scare’s operations.
“I love the idea that I can offer something to the community that’s free,” he said. “I mean not many places you could go to, unless it’s the park or something, you could actually get stuff and go and do it with the family for free.”
Hours for Royal Scare are Monday through Thursday 7-10 p.m., and weekends 7 p.m. to Midnight. Admission is free.
By ADRIANA GASIEWSKI
Reporter
