Dr. Giggles House of Pain Haunted House is preparing to frighten anyone who dares to enter the annual haunted house on Oct. 18, 19, 25, 30, and 31.
“It’s Dr. Giggles Dead Army. It’s zombies, but with our own twist on it,” said Mike Koroll.
“People can expect a lot of twists and turns. We got a few tricks up our sleeves. Every year we try to bring a couple more tricks and keep people engaged,” he added.
This year, a ceiling is being added to the haunted house to ensure anyone walking through will lose where they are.
“That’s something new for us, we’re pretty excited about it,” Koroll said.
On Halloween night, families with young children are encouraged to walk through Dr. Giggles House of Pain during the low scare, enjoy food trucks along the street, and warm up beside fire pits.
However, this year, Koroll wants to install a large screen outside the haunted house, so everyone waiting on the street can watch the jump scares happening inside.
“Wherever we’re expecting a jump scare, we’re going to have the camera focused on that. We’ll get your shock and aw,” Koroll said.
Anyone walking through the haunted house is encouraged to bring a food donation for the Chestermere Regional Food Bank, or a cash donation for Christmas with Dignity now Gifts of Kindness and Making Heroes in Forest Lawn, which supports underprivileged youth in Forest Lawn.
“It’s very far-reaching, it’s not just the haunted house, it’s not just the food we collect for the food bank or the money that we raise for other local charities, it’s about everybody working together, everybody having a great time and building something special that they can be proud of,” Koroll said.
“We try to really promote local business, people shopping locally and supporting the businesses that have supported the haunted house, which is an event that everybody loves,” he said.
“We’re on the Calgary Haunted Tour this year. It just means more people, and more awareness for what we do, for local charities, and everything that this encompasses, community, sharing, and doing something cool,” he added.
Continuing this year, youth can pick up a free pumpkin on Oct. 27, carve it, and return it Oct. 30 with their name and phone number on the bottom in sharpie for a chance to win prizes.
Without the ongoing support and help from Koroll’s friends and neighbours, the annual haunted house wouldn’t be possible.
“It’s getting to be so much work now if we didn’t have a huge group of people just working on it owning certain jobs it just couldn’t possibly get done. Everyone does what their best at, and it just keeps getting better every year,” Koroll said.
“Thank you to everyone that’s involved. Everybody that’s involved now, this is as much theirs as it is mine now. It just happens to be on my driveway,” he said.
Adding, “They all bust their humps, they are very charitable with it, and they help out whenever they can. It’s a collaboration of everybody’s ideas.”
For additional information on Dr. Giggles House of Pain, please visit the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/DRGIGGLESHOUSE/.
