Enter, if you dare, the ‘Old Haunt’ in Murrayville, where a couple are scaring up donations for the Langley Food Bank and JRfm’s Basics for Babies.
Barry Brinkworth and his wife Tammy have a haunted house at 22260 48 Ave. (across the street from the IGA and Dollarama) that they have been building onto over the past three years.
With an opening date of Friday the 13th, Brinkworth Dungeons Mansion of Monsters (www.brinkworthdungeon.com) now encompasses more than 3,500 square feet full of chilling props and figures.
Brinkworth, 54, draws inspiration from his love of horror and monster movies and wax museums — an entire section of the haunted house is an ode to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
He also has 38 years of professional model building experience, and his affinity for the macabre is what motivates him to create haunted attractions.
He’s celebrating 17 years of creating scares, starting Richmond.
“Even going back as far as… my ninth birthday party, I remember being so excited because mom and dad let me create a haunted house in our basement for my friends,” Brinkworth recalled.
The haunted house is “very much a family effort,” he noted.
“I love sculpting and creating monsters and setting them each in their own unique backdrop scene, much like a wax museum, all from raw materials,” Brinkworth said.
Tammy works alongside him when she can each year – last year they jointly built “Boris,” a 10-foot diameter roof tarantula.
“We are now known as the Spider House of Murrayville,” Brinkworth said.
Brinkworth’s parents take care of all the computer promotion art such as the couple’s website and all their graphic signage, and his kid brother Bill sculpted a couple of well known characters in the mansion such as Chucky, Exorcist, and Stripe from the movie Gremlins.
He would love to have the same kind of following that he did in Richmond, when four Chevy vans were “boxed to the ceiling with canned goods for the Richmond Food Bank.”
“We were actually awarded a certificate by the City of congratulations for collecting more food than any private endeavour to date,” Brinkworth recalled. “These generous donations were collected in only 10 nights of being open to the public.”
The Nights for the Squeamish are Mondays through Thursdays, 7 to 10 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays from 6 to 8 p.m.
The all-new ‘Trapped and Terrified Nights’ are Fridays and Saturdays – Oct. 13 and 14, 20 and 21, and 28 and 28, from 8 to 11 p.m.
Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for kids 10 and under. Children under the age of five are admitted free. A non-perishable Food item for the Langley Food Bank is welcome. As well, donations for Basics for Babies are being collected.
