TORONTO — If you stop by Dyanna Zimmer’s property, soak in the decor and ambience and find yourself leaving a little more spooked than when you arrived, she’ll consider the visit a success.
That’s hardly a surprise when you discover the furnishings consist of a cannibal cage, crematorium, cobwebs, coffins and corpses.
In what has become an annual tradition leading up to the spookiest day on the calendar, Zimmer invites Halloween enthusiasts and fright fans alike to visit her South Surrey, B.C., residence to tour the Haunted Barn attraction steps from her home.
But Zimmer’s efforts go well beyond sticking up a couple of store-bought banners. In addition to the vast majority of props used to decorate the old wooden barn being homemade, she enlists the help of high-school volunteers to turn her home haunt into a full-scale scary production.
Students from the theatre department at Earl Marriott Secondary School are featured in ghastly starring roles, decked out in full makeup and costume as creepy characters, including zombies, ghouls, clowns and mad scientists.
The actors lurk and amble about in the shadows, scaring visitors touring through the darkened barn, which houses a mortuary, spider hallway and crematorium complete with fake flames.
An average of 30 students a night help keep the attraction running, some serving as stage managers, while others man the concession and admission booths and patrol the parking lot.
The first year she enlisted high-school students in 2006, 27 kids signed up. This time around, the tally has surged to about 70.
“This qualifies for their volunteer hours, which is great for them because they can have fun while they do it, and there have been kids who in one season have gotten enough volunteer hours for their whole portfolio, but they keep coming back anyway,” Zimmer said.
“We even have kids who have graduated and … they still come to help.”
Her efforts also appear to be paying off in attracting visitors, with Zimmer estimating between 200 to 300 people a night visit the attraction, open on select evenings until Nov. 1.
Those who bring a food bank donation receive $1 off the $7 admission, and a portion of the proceeds from the attraction also go toward the Earl Marriott theatre department and a party for the cast.
Home haunts are also hot properties for those in the business of supplying high-tech props.
Paul Hopkins, owner of Toronto-based Boneyard Bargains, had to forgo his own full-scale home haunt due to high demand for his spooky supplies.
In addition to selling anatomically correct skeletons, he’s built his own line of props, including a hangman and moving caskets.
Hopkins also gets his share of custom requests, including talking jack-o’-lanterns, full-sized horses and flying rigs for ghosts, as well as recreating the Jigsaw Puppet featured in the film “Saw.”
At Scarefest, a party held at Boneyard Bargains in the summer to showcase new products, home haunters and those who run haunted attractions are brought together, allowing them to swap props.
“Everybody wants to do something a lot more than putting tombstones on their lawn. It’s become a much larger event than that,” Hopkins said. “It’s been building momentum … especially (with) the core base of people that we’ve met.”
“It’s like any hobby. You start to build on it and each year you add and add and add, and as new props come out and new ideas for building props come out your haunt gets larger.”
While a set of eyeballs will only set you back about $1.50, larger-scale props will cost considerably more. A full-size electric chair is on sale for $2,500, while a full-scale animatronic elevator that moves and shakes is $7,000.
“You can actually have people enter it and you could have it be a fort that’s being attacked, or you can have it be an elevator that’s dropping to the ground because there’s audio and all that stuff involved.”
Hopkins said up until recently the type of items he now distributes were only used by the likes of Disney. Read more by following the link belowwwwwwww!
The Canadian Press: Home haunts draw thrill-seekers and take Halloween-inspired decor to the hilt
