Angela's Halloween house of horrors...
It takes her all week to decorate her home - so it is no wonder that Angela Taplin's annual Halloween bash is the highlight of the family social calendar.
The walls of her living room and kitchen of her Wednesbury home are blacked out with bin liners and she hangs up ghosts that light up, a mystic woman that can be heard 'breathing' amongst other creepy creatures.
She has a machine that makes smoke and another that creates thunder and lightning effects. She has bought mannequins online and painted them up to create 'corpses', some of them with missing body parts.
A friend who makes garden panels knocked her up three coffins - adult, child and baby-sized. The outside toilet is splattered in 'blood' and the garden is transformed into a graveyard.
She says: "It's my favourite time of year - even better than Christmas."
The latest contraption to wow her guests has been the addition of a projector that throws out images of zombies coming out of the walls and ghosts rising up through the floorboards.
Around 20 friends and family attend the themed party in Handley Street - and it they are not dressed up, they are not allowed in. The guests tuck in to a pot of homemade chicken curry and drink wine - red, naturally.
Angela, grandmother-of-five, who dressed up as a vampire, said: "I've been holding them for 15 years now and I'll never grow out of it. I just love Halloween. My mum has always had parties but nothing like this - I like to go over the top.
"The children are a bit scared but they get used to it. Whenever I buy something new, I show it to them first so they know it's not real, just an effect," said the 49-year-old housekeeper.
"I'm going to carry on giving the parties for as long as I can, then I hope my eldest daughter will take over the tradition. My family and friends think I'm a bit mad, they call me La-la, but they never want to go home."
