Five minutes with the man behind the handmade ‘Zombie House’ in Hawthorne, New Jersey

Antonio Rodrigues, a 55-year-old Portuguese immigrant, has been the creative genius behind the legendary “Zombie House” in Hawthorne, New Jersey, for the last 21 years.

A blue-collar jack-of-all-trades who specializes in upholstery work, Rodrigues began his blood-chilling menagerie with just 27 handmade pieces back in 2004. Now, the married father of four spends weeks preparing to resurrect the Halloween spirit each year with an array of nearly 200 gruesome ghouls, menacing mummies, and spine-tingling skeletons that he plants in his Lafayette Avenue yard.

But visitors to his dreadful display should beware. A masked Rodrigues often lurks among the undead, waiting to dish out silent scares to unwitting observers.

Q: What inspired you to first create this display so many years ago?

A: Because of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” I love Michael Jackson, honestly, and “Thriller” made me go, “Wow! This is different!” And I love Carnival in Portugal.

But when I came to this country, for the first 10 years, I said, “Where is my Carnival?” And my wife said, “There is only Halloween.” And I say, “I don’t like Halloween.” But I changed my mind 10 years later because Halloween is the same, just a little different style.

But I want to be unique. People appreciate you if you build unique things because everything else is commercial. You go here, you go there, you go to the next state, everything is the same. And you don’t go back again. But here, every year is different. And when I scare somebody, I don’t need to say a word, I don’t need to scream, I don’t use music. It’s about how you move. You never know where I will pop out. People think I’m crazy!

Q: What do you do with all the zombies between seasons? And how do you build them?

A: Every year I destroy everything because I don’t have storage. So it’s a new display every year. I save the clothes in containers, and I put the wood in a pile behind my shed. Everything is wood. It’s screwed together. Then I stick them in the ground 10 or 12 inches so they can go through any bad weather. During Hurricane Sandy, no one moved because everything was in the ground. The commercial stuff with the little anchors, they don’t work.

Q: How long does it take to build?

A: Normally, I start Sept. 1 or Sept. 2. This year I started Sept. 5 because I was in Portugal.

In the beginning, it took five or six weeks because I build everything and nobody taught me. But I have different techniques today, and it’s three weeks. But it’s three weeks of 13-hour days, including Saturday and Sunday. If not, this wouldn’t happen so fast.

Q: How do people react to this?

A: I like when they walk inside and they’re already so afraid. Everybody’s so afraid! (A few wide-eyed kids walk up during the interview and are in awe of the display, and he points to them.) But this is what makes me happy: the smiles. I love smiles, but this is a real smile.

Q: When did you realize you had such an intense creative streak?

A: When I was about 9, my father didn’t buy me toys. My neighbors, they had toys, but my father didn’t buy for me. He told me, “If I give you the things, you never be a fighter when you grow up! I want you to fight for it, and you’ll have an amazing life.”

But I saw my friends had little trucks. So I picked up wood and went to my basement. I had saws and nails, and I built one exactly the same. I built a truck like you see on the road, and I painted everything. It took me about two weeks. And when I came outside, my friends freaked out!

When we played cowboys and Indians, my friends had plastic guns. But my neighbor in Portugal was a hunter, and I played with his son all the time. So one day I said, “Is your father home? Go pick up his shotgun, I want to copy the wood and the design.” I went into my shop, designed the gun and made a replica out of mahogany. I made the pipes, drilled it out and painted it black. But when we were playing, my 80-year-old neighbor was in the window. I got my gun and go, “Boom, boom, boom!” And he came out and said, “He has a real gun!” And he kicked me and punched me and took the gun, even though my friends said it’s fake. He brought the gun inside the house and said, “I go show your daddy. Just because your father is a police officer doesn’t mean you can have a real gun.” But my father came and said, “This is fake!” And he said, “I’m sorry, I’m confused because it looks real, it was a mistake.” I was maybe 12 years old. But if I see something, I build it.

Q: What does your wife think about all this?

A: She was raised here and knows Halloween, American-style. She knows I’m crazy, but she never thought I’d go to this level. But she knows if I do Halloween … (laughs). In the beginning, she was shy because there were too many people. She wasn’t prepared for the impact. But after a couple years, she started saying, “Oh my God, this is beautiful!”

You know, little by little she loved it. Now she’s at the same level. And if I’m not outside, she says, “Why aren’t you outside?” Because everyone texts her if I’m not!

Q: What’s your favorite scary movie?

A: I don’t like scary movies! Because sometimes you’re watching the movie and (there’s a jump scare) and my heart goes like, “What the f—k!” I don’t like it. I don’t say they’re doing it wrong, but it’s just me. Like the Chucky movies! I said, “Wow, I don’t want to see another one because I don’t know … it bothers me.” Not because he’s ugly. He’s beautiful, and what they’re doing is amazing. But for two or three days, I stayed a little f—ked up. Me? I do this for fun. I do this for smiles. I don’t do this for business or money. I make this for fun. When I scare people, it’s for fun. They’re laughing. They scream. We take pictures after. I do this for the kids.