SAN RAFAEL, Calif. -- A Marin County neighborhood was abuzz with a controversy Tuesday morning sparked by a homeowner’s front-yard display celebrating the macabre side of Halloween.

For a second year, John Diego has decked out his San Rafael yard with the standard headstones, spiders and hanging skeletons. But he’s also added dismembered arms and legs painted with fake blood and a salute to well-known Hollywood slasher movie figures Jason from the “Friday the 13th” films, Leatherface from “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and Freddy Krueger.

The display has raised the ire of Glenwood Homeowners Association president Sandra Sellinger.

“This is not what’s normal for Halloween,” Sellinger told the Marin Independent Journal. “When you see chainsaws and you see heads sticking out of aprons that are bloody and you see heads on stakes – this is a form of mutilation.”

But Diego told KTVU on Tuesday he was not about to alter or remove his decorations.

“I’m pretty set in my ways,” he said. “I’ve gotten such an overwhelming response from people it’s not going anywhere. This is a small group of haters who are trying to bring me down.”

As Diego spoke, a steady stream of residents drove and walked by the home, lured there by a front page newspaper story and a television transmission truck.

“I live down the street and when he moved in I thought it was the coolest thing ever,” said Lindsay Ragghianti. “I have a child who goes to preschool down the street and he’s 4 ½. When we drive by, I say ‘Look at all the pretend scary stuff’ and he says ‘Yea, the pretend scary stuff.’ He was here on Halloween last year and he thought it was cool.”

But neighbor MaryAnne Thiede does not like the display.

“I don’t like it,” she said. “I don’t like what it represents – it represents death… But he has a right to do this.”

City officials say they will not step into the dispute.

“We can certainly sympathize with the concerns of these parents,” city spokeswoman Terri Hardesty told the Martin IJ.”However, this really comes down to neighbors communicating with one another and working these issues out.”