Balboa Island’s in the scream

You can barely walk around Balboa Island this time of year without bumping into a skeleton — let alone a ghost or goblin.

It’s not uncommon around Halloween time to come upon skeletons engaged in everyday island behavior, such as relaxing in a front porch wicker swing, or playing a hand of cards on the patio, cocktail in hand.

Then there’s the showstopper: ghoulish vignettes that cover every square inch of yard on the North Bay Front and Emerald Avenue.

Under a banana tree are fencing skeleton “knights.” A wicked witch with red, painted fingernails and lipstick stands upright in a wooden coffin. There’s also a haunted hill asylum with a “Bates Motel” sign and a demonic girl dressed in white sitting on a swing with an equally scary doll on her lap.

On a recent afternoon, a little girl and her grandfather stopped long enough so that she could take a turn petting one of the large fake spiders scattered throughout the display.