Yardley couple's haunted house draws queues for mental health charity

As the sun sets on Hob Moor Road in Yardley, the monsters, skeletons, vampires and werewolves wake up, and a long queue starts to form outside one family home.

Darren Mackenzie and Karen Pearce have turned their semi-detached house into a Halloween haunted house that is drawing hundreds of visitors, and raising money for the mental health charity Campaign Against Living Miserably, known as CALM.

"It's gone crazy"

Karen said it all started last October, when Darren decorated the outside of the house, and "it's gone crazy ever since". This year the attraction fills their front drive, the garage, the downstairs toilet and the whole of the back garden, with dozens of spooky animatronic figures, decorations and live actors.

The family started decorating six weeks ago, in August, and Darren has paid for everything himself. There is no entry fee, just an optional donation to CALM.

"Everybody asks, what does it cost? It doesn't matter what it costs," he said. "It's all my own money, but it doesn't matter to me, as long as everybody smiles and gives a little to charity, that's all we care about."

"I suffer a lot with my mental health"

Darren said the cause was close to his heart. "It's all for CALM. I suffer a lot with my mental health, as a lot of people do," he said. "I thought it's a great charity to raise money for, and for everyone to just dig deep, put a few pounds, 50 pence, whatever you can afford, and just support the charity."

"The happiness we get, everybody supporting it, we feel so good. Everybody comes out all smiling and screaming, all for a good reason, and it just makes us feel that we've really achieved something."

Freddy Krueger comes to life

Friends have volunteered as actors. Mark Rotherham, dressed as Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street, said most people think he is a statue, until they pose for a photograph and he comes to life. "They want to be scared, but they don't want to be petrified, so after I've scared them, I give them a fist pump so they leave happy."

Another family friend, Tia Smith, welcomes visitors and keeps the queue moving. "It's obviously quite crazy, but you just remember you are doing it for the cause," she said. "Just seeing all the live actors and everyone come to help is really amazing, and even seeing the adults get scared as well, it's quite thrilling."

Visitors said it was a great way for children to enjoy Halloween without the cost of a day out. "It's really expensive if you go to another place, but it's nice that you can just give a good contribution to do something like this," said one mum who had brought her young daughter. Another called it "absolutely insane, it's brilliant".

When to go

The haunted house on Hob Moor Road is open every Friday and Saturday night from 7pm to 9pm until 31 October. Queues start forming at about 6.30pm.

CALM runs a free, confidential helpline and webchat for anyone who is struggling or in crisis, open from 5pm to midnight every day of the year. It can be reached on 0800 58 58 58.