Couple spend £20,000 converting their home into 'Britain's scariest Halloween house' fitted with 'zombies, 12ft skeletons and screaming corpses' - with children 'leaving in tears'

A couple have spent £20,000 converting their home into 'Britain's scariest Halloween house' - fitted with an array of zombies, 12ft skeletons and screaming corpses. 

Darren Mackenzie, 56, has unveiled the results of his remarkable scream-filled haunted walkthrough at his semi-detached home in Yardley, Birmingham.

Over the span of six weeks, Darren and his partner Karen Pearce, 54, got to work on crafting their ideal Halloween spectacular, and even recruited actors to give people a fright as they passed through a haunted asylum and spooky church. 

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, though Karen revealed that some children have already 'left in tears'.

Darren, who runs 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.'

Darren explained that the couple now own enough Halloween 'equipment' to fill a '50ft shipping container' when they face the gruelling task of taking down the decorations at the end of the spooky season. 

'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,' he added. 

'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.'

The father-of-four explained that this year they have added an 'eight-foot pirate ship' the operation, alongside 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,' he quipped. 

'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.'

Fortunately, while it is certainly an unconventional venture, Darren revealed that the local community have responded 'incredibly', with 35 local volunteers and his colleague Ashley Letts helping to construct the remarkable house of horror.  

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

'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.'

She added that while Darren's plans to create the Halloween house had initially sounded 'crazy', she now adores the chaos of it all, and warns that it may not be suitable for youngsters.  

'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.'

All money raised from the event is going to  CALM, a mental health and suicide prevention charity. So far, the couple have 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.'

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