A month before the ghosts and ghouls come out seeking tricks or treats, 17-year-old Matt Sobel leads a coordinated effort that includes friends and his parents, David and Judy, in an annual Halloween tradition—converting their home into the movie Jurassic Park.

This interactive Sobel family fright night adventure began when Matt was in the second grade. The first year was pretty basic. Judy designed two dinosaur costumes for Matt and his friend, and the boys hid in the front-yard ferns scaring passersby.

"I started doing this because I just like to entertain," Matt says.

But now, Jurassic Park at the Sobel residence has become a neighborhood tradition. And people line up outside the home as the sun goes down, some waiting for more than an hour to participate in the 15-minute Jurassic Park-inspired Halloween tour.

Groups of 15 enter the home through the front porch, which the family calls "the visitors' center." The group is then treated to a video, very similar to the beginning of the first Jurassic Park movie, which features a live raptor attack. Then one of Sobel's friends, dressed as Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin, comes out of the house, asking the group if they are ready to go into the jungle to save a tour guide in the Jurassic Park.

This is where the high jinks begin. Soon, people are shockingly greeted by a five-foot Tyrannosaurus rex with a movable jaw, which attacks the tour from a tree. Sobel, smiling, says everyone always screams at this, especially the younger children. And, music from the film, including the dinosaur shrieks, is timed perfectly with T. rex's entrance.

The famed dinosaur was crafted by Sobel in third grade, using PVC piping, chicken wire and paper mache covering. He also spray painted the face and textured it. The dinosaur's teeth were made out of bedding foam.

Next, the tour guide leads the unsuspecting people to an electronic fence, which is quickly pushed toward the group by a costumed dinosaur. But it is the finale that leaves the Willow Glen group running for the hills, Sobel says.

A 125-pound tour vehicle, built by Sobel, is pushed off the home's second-story roof, falling and turning upside down into a tree just above the heads of the trick-or-treaters.

Last year, the free-of-charge tour drew nearly 400 people to the Glenn Avenue home. This year Sobel spread the word by placing signs on telephone poles around Willow Glen. Word has also spread at his school, Bellarmine College Preparatory.

Even though the tour has been operating for several years, this is the first year Sobel's school friend, Garrett Wilson, has helped him. Wilson, who was at the house on Halloween Eve, says he was especially looking forward to scaring the children with the dropping tour vehicle.

"I think this is all pretty neat," he says.

Over the years, Sobel has had several friends either participate in or set up the Jurassic tour. Usually about 10 friends help with the event that begins around 6:30 p.m. and ends at 10 p.m.

"I think this is a terrific family tradition," Judy says. "I've made the dinosaur costumes for years; Matt has been fascinated with dinosaurs since he was little. The first book he ever read was Jurassic Park."

But she hopes that this year she won't have to be a dinosaur herself. Last year, she dressed up in the costume, and she says she would prefer to just hang out with the neighbors and pass out candy to those waiting in line.

David says his favorite part of the family ritual is hanging out with his sons and friends, watching them solve design problems before Halloween night.

But for those Willow Glen residents who have never experienced the interactive Sobel-style Jurassic Park, there is only one year left.

Next year, Sobel will be a senior, and then he plans to attend college and hopefully become a filmmaker, forcing him to relinquish the annual Halloween tradition. But with one more year to go, Sobel says it will be the best yet.

"We are going to have to break out the pyrotechnics or something," he says. "It is going to be crazy. I don't do this unless I know it will be spectacular."