Tillsonburg BIA haunted house gets rave reviews

It wasn’t the first haunted house for Chip ‘The Wolfman’ Barkhouse, Scott ‘Scarecrow’ Foster and Bruce ‘Cleaver’ Bennett.

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The Tillsonburg trio created the haunted house at 164 Broadway, one of the scarier activities in Downtown Tillsonburg BIA’s first Halloweekend Spooky Trail on Saturday.

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Barkhouse (Barkhouse Productions) and Foster (Coffin Man Inc.), neighbors in Tillsonburg, have been creating outdoor Halloween extravaganzas for the last three decades. Twice, the ‘Halloween maestros’ teamed up to help create the Haunted Lake Lisgar Water Park.

“It’s awesome,” Bennett said. “It’s great to be able to do it in an indoor space. We’ve been doing it for… how many years out in the cold and rain. This is definitely better.”

“We appreciate being given a space and an opportunity to play,” said Foster.

“People are loving it, they’re impressed,” said Barkhouse. “People are saying ‘better than I thought’ and ‘great job.’ This is 4,000 square feet, it’s huge.”

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The idea this year was to keep it traditional – a Michael Myers, chain saw, werewolves, a graveyard, spider lairs, corn field, and “a couple jump scares”… literally jump scares.

“The majority of the props were handmade,” said Barkhouse. “This is what I want to do when I retire – I want to tinker, I want to make stuff.”

The BIA Haunted House, sponsored by Crompton Home Hardware, Oxford Pallets, and the Bowen family, opened Friday with about 120 visitors getting a preview scare, and re-opened Saturday afternoon for the younger children with a static presentation, some lights left on, and no major jump scares.

“More people than we could have imagined,” said Vanessa Fortner, Tillsonburg BIA Events and Marketing Coordinator.

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Other activities on the Spooky Trail included a costume contest, and trick or treating in participating downtown businesses. There was a sensory station near the fountain. The apple cider station ran out of cider early, and they had to make six-seven trips back to Sobeys for more pumpkins for the pumpkin carving, organized by the Tillsonburg and Area Optimist Club. Station Arts Center presented Art in the Dark, a Halloween art walk.

“We had a pile of kids, it was absolutely awesome, amazing,” said Foster in the haunted house. “We had a couple that cried but most were happy with it.”

“More laughs than tears, but some kids were terrified,” Barkhouse smiled. “And the moms, they were all laughing… so it’s all worth it. They had so much fun.”

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Another main haunted house show Saturday evening was open to older children, teens and adults.

“We’ve got about 20 actors in here,” said Barkhouse, who helped organize the teen volunteers. “I believe if you’re a part of this community, you should volunteer and be part of it. And this is a great way to do it.”

Money generated by admission ($2 per person) and food items were donated to the Helping Hand Food Bank.

“The reality is more and more people need the food bank.”

Barkhouse said the BIA plans to give them space to do the Haunted House again next year – and a budget.

“Every year we’ll add more props, more items and every year we’re going to make it even better. This is going to become a yearly thing with the BIA and I’m on board with it.”

“It’s a good partnership,” said Foster.

“They are great partners,” Barkhouse agreed.

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