‘Come face your fears’ at this downtown Pocatello haunted house

POCATELLO – A haunted house near downtown Pocatello says it offers attendees an opportunity to face their fears.

Delirium Haunted Attraction, a haunted house in the basement of the former call center building at 805 North Main Street, officially opened its doors on the first weekend of October. The attraction operates from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. every Friday and Saturday throughout the month, as well as Thursday on Oct. 22 and Oct. 29.

And while the crew intends to scare people as they walk through the haunted house, those people also get to walk away from it having faced what frightens them, one of the attraction’s co-owners said.

“I like to joke that we’re really just therapists. We’re giving you an opportunity to come face your fears,” said owner Pamela Domitz.

In its first year, Delirium was a fundraiser aimed at raising money for playground equipment at Greenacres Elementary School, where Domitz is a teacher.

“It started out with crawling, having kids crawl under desks, and it was very, very small … (as) just a fun crawl through,” Domitz said.

But after the fundraiser was over, the haunted house kept growing, so Domitz and the rest of the crew decided to keep it going.

“We all just were really passionate about different aspects of it, and it was outgrowing the school as far as space … (and) if we wanted to continue it, we were going to need to look at making it into a business,” Domitz said.

Now, Delirium has grown into a haunted house with around 70 volunteers throughout the season, setting up and acting in 38 distinct spaces spread throughout the basement of the building, which they rent from the building’s owner, Housing Alliance and Community Partnerships. And while the house operates as a business, the proceeds go back into maintaining and improving it.

Attendees enter through the front doors of the building, before they descend down into its basement and progress through rooms themed after a graveyard, a toxic waste area, a dungeon and more.

And the way Domitz sees it, when it comes to scares, “less is more.” People who attend the haunted house can expect genuine scares from actors who get to slip into their roles.

“We give the actors a lot of guidance about what role we want them to play, but we also give them a lot of liberty to be themselves,” Domitz said.

But for attendees who aren’t ready for the full haunted house, Delirium offers a family-friendly experience, called the No Scare Walk Through, which takes place on Oct. 24 and Oct. 31, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

For a ticket offering the full-scare experience, admission is $16 for ages 11 and up, and $10 for children aged ten or younger. For a No Scare Walk Through, admission is $5 and free for children 4 and under.

And returning visitors with a wristband get $2 off admission on the following night or the next weekend.

But for people who have been to Delirium in previous years, Domitz said it’s worth coming again because they won’t know exactly what to expect.

“We’re never the same. So if you come back to Delirium next year, there may be a swamp, or there may be a forest, but the route to get to it will be different, and the setup and organization of it will be different. … (the haunted house) changes every year,” Domitz said.