Doug and Connie Wetzel work on one of the haunted rooms at the Whippo Asylum, a free haunted house they are putting on at their Whippo Avenue home on Halloween night.

In the southeastern most corner of Butler, in a neighborhood where all the streets mysteriously start with “W,” there lives a family whose mission it is to terrorize their neighbors.

And they do it for free.

Doug and Connie Wetzel will offer the Whippo Asylum for the fourth and creepiest time from 6 to 9 p.m. on Oct. 31 at their dreadful digs at 106 Whippo Ave.

Connie said the “asylum” is set up in their two-stall garage using various themed scary scenes as well as costumed actors who plague patrons young and old.

She said the asylum always includes a dark maze that takes just a few minutes to traverse.

A bonfire in the yard allows neighbors and friends to gather and listen to the screams of those brave enough to enter the asylum.

Connie said she was not a fan of Halloween until she married Doug, who adores the calendar's creepiest holiday.

At first, the family decorated their front yard for the season. The next year, the spooky features oozed onto other parts of the property.

The third year, the couple decided to move the spook-tacular displays into the garage on Trick or Treat night so neighbors could enjoy them inside.

The friends and family who serve as costumed ghouls and other characters lurch about the entire property, providing scares in the asylum, yard and even on the sidewalk.

“They'll follow you down the street, come up to your car or scare you inside the asylum,” Connie said. “It's a lot of fun.”

The asylum is open only on trick or treat night because it's too difficult to recruit actors to perform on multiple nights for free.

“We don't do it for money, we do it for fun,” Connie said. “And the neighborhood is expecting it.”

She said the Whippo Asylum has averaged 70 to 100 brave participants in its past three years, and candy is always available.

The family works each year for a month to prepare.

“We always say each year 'This is a lot of hard work,' but as soon as the neighbors start asking, my husband says 'We'll see what we can do,'” Connie said.Marc Bush, the son of Connie and stepson of Doug, normally dresses up as a clown, sometimes creepy and sometimes friendly.But this year, due to the remake of the movie “It,” Bush thinks he has decided on a character.“I'm thinking Pennywise,” said Bush, who travels from his home in Erie each year to scare his former neighbors, “but there has been some talk of a superhero for the littler kids.”Bush credits Doug for devising the asylum.“My stepdad is really big into the ghoulie and scary things, and he's very creative with his hands in creating props,” Bush said.Bush said he and Doug built a sink complete with a pump that cycled “blood” from the faucet to the drain.“There are a lot of hand-built things (in the asylum) that we have done,” he said.A favorite schtick of Bush's is to ask patrons to push the horn on the steering wheel of a toy truck, at which time he sounds an air horn hidden in his pocket.“We just like to see families happy, and to go through and get a little spooked,” he said.Last year's Whippo Asylum was canceled because Bush was serving in the Army National Guard in Texas on Trick or Treat.“This year, we wanted to bring it back better than ever,” Bush said. “If you scream once, we did our job.”

Doug Wetzel, dressed as a scarecrow, is ready to scare visitors to the Whippo Asylum, a free haunted house he and his wife, Connie, will offer at their home on Halloween.