As the month of October comes to a start, one of Grosse Pointe’s most familiar attractions brings together the people from all around town. The Haunted Garage, an event that has been going on since 2007, is filled with many haunted scenes and actors and has evolved overtime.
This haunted sight is only made possible by the actors—people dressed up in costumes and camouflage in hay, whether it’s a pirate, or a clown chasing you. This event is run by its actors, Like Alex Robinson ’25 from Grosse Pointe North, who’s been acting there for six years.
“I decided to do the Haunted Garage because it seemed really fun and I enjoy horror,” Robinson said. “It really appealed to me at the time (and) I’ve been doing it ever since.”
While many actors have done this gig for a while as a tradition, it also welcomes new younger actors in the community. Jimmy Ruff, a first-year actor said he is excited to see what the Haunted Garage is all about and ready to scare.
“I love this job and I definitely recommend it,” Ruff said. “It’s very fun, and probably the most fun part about it is scaring everyone.”
This whole event would not be possible without the brains and ideas of the owner himself, Glen Williams, a passionate worker and huge Halloween enthusiast. He runs the entire event, going around all day making sure
everything runs smoothly.
“For us, the off-season starts October 30,” Williams said. “I’m trying to organize all the actors, so first I was trying to get all my actors back in their spots, giving them a uniform, trying to get everything turned on because I help with the appeal.”
While Williams organizes the event, actors go back to their spots and get ready to do what they do best: scare. Actors at
the Haunted Garage have changed their tactics over time, creating many ways to scare. They still however are considerate of the children and keep it family-friendly.
“We can either act like we’re animatronics or any sort of statue,” Robinson said. “We can suddenly move, but we are not allowed to get close to anyone, because it’s highly frowned on.”
Overall, the Haunted Garage has been a huge event for these past years and upcoming ones for the communities. It gets kids in the Halloween mood and brings the community together to donate money towards a good cause.
“(The Haunted Garage) does so much for the schools,” Williams said. “We’re able to get some funds into the PTO accounts earlier here. Maybe there’s a playscape they put up but there was just nothing left. So now they actually know that they have an event, something that will start putting some funds in their account.”
