West Midlands dad spends £20k turning his property into 'UK's scariest Halloween house'

A couple have spent £20,000 creating ‘Britain's scariest Halloween house’.

Dad-of-four Darren Mackenzie, 56, has transformed his property into a scream-filled haunted walkthrough packed with zombies, jump scares and screaming corpses.

With the help of his partner Karen Pearce, 54, the pair spent six weeks decking out the family home in Yardley, Birmingham, with 12ft tall skeletons and 50 animatronics.

The couple have even recruited actors to give people a fright by leaping out at them as they make their way through a haunted asylum and spooky church alongside decorations of werewolves, skeletons and clowns.

The illuminated horror show attraction - which stretches across a 100ft garden - has already drawn more than 1,100 visitors in just two nights and raised around £1,000 for charity.

Halloween-mad Darren, who run a garden centre, said: "This is only the second year but I've gone a bit mad this time and decided to go all out.

“We actually weren’t big Halloween fans until a couple of years ago.

"We used to be the sort of people who closed the curtains and turned off the lights so nobody would knock on the door for trick-or-treating.

"Now we love Halloween.

"We think our neighbours are ok with it, we've not had any complaints. But the parking can get a bit crazy.

“You wouldn’t believe how much equipment we’ve got. We fill a 50ft shipping container when we pack it away.

"Fortunately, we own the shop next door and have plenty of storage space, otherwise we’d never be able to do something on this scale.

“Our daughter loves it and gets heavily involved because she works at the shop. The boys have all moved out now, and they just think it’s madness really. They roll their eyes at it all.

“This year we’ve added an eight-foot pirate ship, we also got a 12-foot skeleton, and an eight-foot dragon on the garage roof because who doesn't have a dragon on their roof?

“But I thought if you’re going to go big, you’ve got to go big.

"It cost a small fortune but only costs £1 to run for three hours and it's all for a good cause.

“We’ve even got Michael Myers staring out of the bedroom window where I’m supposed to sleep. You get used to it eventually

“The response from the community has been incredible.

"There's about 35 people involved and my colleague Ashley Letts puts most of it up, so I have to thank him".

Visitors brave a chilling route through Darren's garage and garden, where they're confronted by Dracula, a sinister nun, a woman trapped inside a coffin and swarms of flying bats before entering an asylum-themed nightmare.

Inside, zombies, severed heads and animatronic bodies rock backwards and forwards while letting out blood-curdling screams.

The horror continues outdoors with skeletons, witches, gargoyles, giant spiders, a life-sized Frankenstein and a Headless Horseman standing guard over a pumpkin patch.

Darren's partner Karen, a florist, added: "It has grown massively since last year.

"The response has been incredible. We had more than 700 visitors on Saturday and around 400 to 500 the previous night.

"The queues were huge.

"A lot of the scares come from animatronics with motion sensors, but we also have people dressed up and hiding away to surprise visitors.

"We have severed heads and animatronic bodies that rock backwards and forwards and scream.

"Ultimately it's up to parents whether they think it's suitable for their children.

"Every night we've opened, people have come out to support us. We can have 100 to 200 people just standing out front in the week.

"When Darren first started talking about doing this, I did think it sounded a bit crazy, but once it started coming together I could see how amazing it was going to look.

"Families come along and children are welcome, although we do warn people that some parts are quite scary and we've had some children in tears.

"I do the door and can hear the kid's screaming inside but it's all part of the fun."

The money raised is going to CALM, a mental health and suicide prevention charity.

Karen added: "We've raised around £1,000 for charity so far, which we're really pleased about.

"The more visitors we get, the better, because it's all about raising money for charity and giving people a good Halloween experience."

Posting on social media, residents said the attraction had to be the "scariest in the UK."

One said: "It's the best around. He goes above and beyond."

Another said: "The whole area loves Darren.

"He has the best display, season after season, year after year."

A third said: "Seen plenty of these across the UK but this looks to be the scariest I've seen. Top work."

The garden is open every Friday and Saturday, between 7pm and 9pm, in the lead-up to Halloween.