Creepy carnival clowns, howling werewolves, zombie apocalypse scene and a mad scientist’s lab lies in one Lowes Island family’s garage during Halloween season. 11 years ago a local family started the Deepwater Terror Haunted Garage, but have since moved to 20412 Tappahannock Place in Lowes Island hosting the annual Tappahannock Terror on October 31st and November 1st from 6 to 8pm and is free for everyone.
The inspiration to start a haunted garage comes from “a joy of spooky holidays and bringing it to life for the neighborhood kids. Now I have my own kids and they’ve become a part of it,” Dave Ickowski said.
With current elementary aged children, they understand Halloween can be a scary time for little ones. For those interested in attending, Ickowski said, “It’s meant to really just be a fun opportunity. If people have young kids who [aren’t] sure, they [can come] test it out when it’s light out. They can kind of see that it’s all meant to be silly and goofy. We can walk them through it and show them where things are going to move. Then, if they want a more intense experience, come when it’s dark out. Other than that, everyone’s welcome!”
While some of the haunted items come from garage sales or are homemade, each year one new large character is added. Inside of the walk through in previous years, family friends of the Icowski’s have stood and been a prop scaring people. They put this on out of pure love for Halloween with no outside funding and all work done themselves.
After recently adopting three cats from the Loudoun County Humane Society, this year they will accept donations on behalf of the Society via a QR code at the entrance. In previous years they have supported other local groups, such as Sterling Volunteer Fire Company, Wolf Trap Animal Rescue, and Mobile Hope.
In 2021, the family raised $231 and collected clothing items for Mobile Hope and following that 2022 they more than doubled their donations for Mobile Hope collecting $476.
