HOWARD COUNTY, Md. — A Howard County man is hoping to turn Halloween into a month-long family tradition — and it all started with a doll designed to scare his partner.
Gilbert Sotero, a Navy veteran and Halloween enthusiast, created Deadra, a doll he describes as "that balance between creepy and cute."
"I wanted her to be at the end of the hall, and someone sees it and it's like oh! What's that?" Sotero said.
The concept, which Sotero is calling "Doll in the Hall," works like this: every morning, Deadra escapes from her box, and kids have until bedtime to find her and lock her back up.
"If they can't find Deadra and lock her up, she's allowed to roam your house at night to do what she wants to do. If they do find her, kids can grab Deadra and the battle's won until the next morning, when she's allowed to escape again," Sotero said.
And she has local ties.
"So the Savage Mill house, the manor I always saw that house and was like, 'That house looks spooky!' And that helped me create the genesis of Deadra's backstory," Sotero said.
When the idea struck, he did his research, made sketches, and got started — but then COVID-19 hit, and Deadra sat on the shelf for a few years.
He eventually found Azhelle Wade, known as the Toy Coach, who helped him develop the concept further.
Sotero acknowledged the similarity to the popular Elf on the Shelf, but says the two can coexist.
"I take it as, you have Coca-Cola, you have Pepsi. You can have both! They can have Christmas, we can have Halloween. While there are similarities, we are different," Sotero said.
He says the experience is designed to be fun for parents and that it's not something that has to be elaborate or done each day. For children, he wants it to be rewarding.
"The gameplay teaches kids not only do they have nothing to fear, but they have the courage to face their fears," Sotero said.
Children who complete all 31 days earn a Certificate of Courage and each year they'll have collector pins. The doll also comes with a storybook.
Sotero says they are currently waiting on a prototype and are more than 90% of the way to their fundraising goal, with hopes of getting Deadra into homes before Halloween 2027.
"To see it now where people want the doll, they talk about the doll, to see that the roots are taking place in becoming a Halloween tradition, I'm enjoying the ride, there's a world already created, I'm just excited to see how far I'll go," Sotero said.
He hopes this universe becomes the next generation's Halloween characters.
To support the Kickstarter campaign and buy a Doll in the Hall, click here.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
