Bring Out The Ghouls

DAYTON - People like to be scared is what it comes

down to.

They must, said Dayton's Rick Suchodolski, or why would horror films be so popular?

Certainly nobody in the Touchet Valley could be more fascinated by horror than Rick and Clara Suchodolski.

"I'm a huge creature fan," Suchodolski said. And he always has been.

His father introduced Suchodolski to classic horror and monster movies as a young kid of probably no more than 6 or 7 years. He bought his first model of the Creature from the Black Lagoon when he was five, though at the time he just thought it was a cool action figure.

"I was shocked when I got home and opened the box to have all these pieces fall out," he said.

Now Suchodolski is practically a monster model expert. His collection has grown to such gargantuan proportions that he and his wife have had to rent storage space outside of their Dayton home to contain the horde.

From relatively tame movie posters and autographed photos of famous horror-film actors to giant, grotesque models of the grim reaper, the Suchodolskis' ghoulish collection has raised more than a few eyebrows over the years.

"People ask me all the time how I can live with all of it around, but the stuff just doesn't bother me," he said. "I mean, we have some pretty creepy stuff, but it's like family."

His daughter and two granddaughters, "like it a lot," he said. And his wife, Clara?

"We celebrate Halloween 365 days a year," she said.

Dracula Bride ofDracula

Clara and Rick Suchodolski collect together.

Though Rick started collecting a bit as a kid, he didn't get serious until after he and Clara were married in 1979.

Both Rick and Clara Suchodolski graduated from Dayton High School in the late 1970s. Clara has lived in Columbia County her whole life, while Rick's family, "moved around a lot," when he was young. He was born in New Hampshire, but his family moved to the Walla Walla Valley when his dad got a job as a chemist for the city's wastewater treatment plant.

They moved to Dayton when he was about 15.

Now the monster man stays up all night, perhaps a fitting job for a guy so passionate about creatures of the night.

For near ly 23 year s Suchodolski, who many may know as the guy who always seems to be wearing a horror movie monster t-shirt, was a custodian at the Walla Walla Community College. Now he is the night custodian for the Prescott School District.

At home, Suchodolski is the model builder while Clara is the collection caretaker. She keeps their collection organized, categorized and written up in an inventory. Some of Suchodolski's models have earned him recognition in national modelers' magazines.

Their collection now represents a nearly $100,000 investment, Suchodolski said. One rare item the couple owns is a 1963 Creature from the Black Lagoon board game. Suchodolski bought it from an antique store in Lincoln City, Ore., for $120, but they've seen others in col­lector magazines and online sell for between $300 and $1,800. A Creature board game still in its original box was recently auctioned for $6,000, he said. The Suchodolskis are holding on to theirs. And another rare item they're not giving up is ac­tually two models they've combined: Dracula and Bride of Dracula. Rick bought the bride for $800, but he's seen similar models go for over $1,000.

The Monster Man Although Suchodolski says the "scary monsters" don't get to him, he remem­bers one 1950s horror filmthat gave him a turn: "The Blob," starring Steve Mc­Queen. "As a child, the blob scared me the most," he said.

As a kid of maybe 7 or 8, Suchodolski was terrified of the giant, viscous creature that ate away at any flesh it touched as though it were a gooey ball of sticky acid. "There was no place that thing couldn't go," he said. "A lot of monsters you could keep out, but that's one you couldn't." He would often sit up in bed, he recalls, and check to make sure the blob wasn't coming into his room through the vent next to his bed. Some of Suchodolski's best memories involve scary movies. As a child, he would stay up late and watch old horror films on TV with his father and his younger broth­ers. His father also like old detective shows. "The acting in those old movies was just so good," Suchodolski said. "They didn't have computers and special effects to make up for poor acting like they do now."

Like his father, Suchodol­ski especially enjoys films like Bela Lugosi's 1931 black and white rendition of Dracula, or Lon Chaney's silent, 1925 Phantom of the Opera.

"That was one of Dad's favorites," Suchodolski said. "I never got to see it until he passed away, but now I've fallen in love with it." Suchodolski's love for horror memorabilia has grown into quite a hobby for him. His models of Ben, the torn-up military zombie from the old horror classic "House," has won first prize at two model shows. For that model Suchodolski used a kit and added his own twists like perfect little metal gun shell casings. His collection continues to grow, but it's slowed way down, he said. "I spend too much time on other people's projects now," he said. He paints and creates models for friends and oth­ers in his spare time now, but he hopes to focus on his own collection again someday.

"I'd love to be able to dis­play all of it someday - for others to see," he said.