Category: Family Friendly

Last year, we learned about a home haunt in West Des Moines called Scream Team’s Haunted Garage. Here is the video from last year:

They did a Wild West ghost town theme, and it was quite elaborate with so many twists and turns it was hard to believe it was contained in a garage.

This year, their theme is Widow’s Manor haunted house. We visited last night and were, once again, blown away by the level of detail they crammed in to every scene.

Admission is free, but they accept donations — a portion of which will go to the New Dawning Children’s Home in Mexico. In the video interview from this year, haunt operator Lisa Conard mentioned they were able to donate $1000 last year.

The haunted house is staffed by mostly kids – ages ranging from 6 to college age. Many of the tight scenes contain multiple actors that either try to scare you, or just let you through, depending on what you request. They describe the haunt as a “choose your own adventure” style, where you can request “no scare” if you prefer — making this a great started haunted house for young children – or “full scare”. And, full scare it was. We jumped a number of times during our 2:30 walk through the various scenes — actually, more times than we have at some of the much larger and longer commercial haunted houses in the area.

The Widow’s Manor

When you enter the “manor” you are in a highly detailed foyer or living room type space, complete with wallpaper, candles, and Victorian-style decorations. The route through the house passes through scenes such as a bathroom (pay attention to the toilet ;), “up” to the attic (our favorite scene), and several others.

Their style, when trying to be scary, is typical jump scares from banging on walls and screams, to more creepy scratches on the walls, or things moving that clearly shouldn’t move. Most actors are completely “invisible” — until you see a pair of arms reaching out towards you, or something that might have been a large doll in a display that turns out to be a creepy child 😉

At two points in the haunt, it becomes a minor “escape room” experience. I am ashamed to admit I had to get help from the actor to figure out how to exit the first room. Very clever stuff.

There are a few steps up and down, and a place where you can go down a ramp, or walk down steps to the side if you prefer. I suspect the ramp is designed to be a sort slide for children, since it was quite squishy and ended I a very padded area.

As adults, we both went through separately and had no problem navigating the small, tight places. While they design the haunt so even a pre-schooler could go through it (you’d probably want to ask for the “no scare” walk through version), we both found it a fun short experience as brave adults.

Crafts and Treats, too.

In addition to the walk through haunted house, there is a room next door full of tables with crafts for kids to do.

They also provide snacks and treats, including hot cocoa and cider. Friends and neighbors contribute labor and product for this, but free-will donations are accepted, of course.

There is also outside seating by a fire pit. This is a great spot to sit for a few minutes while waiting for your kids to go through (if you are too chicken to go with them), or for them to wait with a designated chicken while you go through 😉

We had a wonderful time during our visit, and found everyone we interacted with super nice. (With the exception of the actors inside who did their best to terrorize us, of course!)

This year’s Haunted Garage is open for six nights, one of which has already passed:

• October 25-26-27, 2024 – 6pm to 9pm
• October 30-31-Nov 1, 2024 – 6pm to 8pm

The address is 836 15th street , West Des Moines, IA. It is a residential area, but we had no problem finding a parking spot and walking up the block to the house. Please be respectful to the neighbors and don’t block any driveways. We are told the neighbors are all wonderful and supportive, so let’s all try to keep that way.

With some haunted houses costing $30 or more these days, taking the kids out for some Halloween fun can be quite the investment. Home haunts are a great way to get some scary fun without breaking the bank… But if you go, consider dropping in a donation in to the manor’s mail box, or sending Lisa Conard a donation via Venmo:

We can’t wait to see what they do next year. Our only clue is that it might involve knights and a draw bridge.

Here is the video from this year:

Maybe we’ll see you there!