If you enjoy being chased by a chainsaw-wielding, blood-spattered zombie or ducking basketball-sized spiders, then you have to visit Creekside Insanitorim.
For the second year, Erik Laflamme and wife Lisa have pulled out all the stops at their home at 796 Eckhardt Ave. East to scare the pants off those brave enough to enter.
“I guess it’s kind of a sickness and I admit a little warped, but it is just so much fun to see the reactions of people,” said Erik who married Lisa in a costumed ceremony on Oct. 31, 2010. “It’s like a roller-coaster ride, it’s an adrenaline rush, and people keep coming back and getting in line to do it again.”
The house is open Monday to Wednesday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Halloween night it opens at 6 p.m.
The first thing visitors to the residence see when they enter the gate are the cemeteries littered with unearthed bones lying among the dark rodents.
In a nearby tree a lifeless body covered in cobwebs and wrapped in a bloody sheet dangles from a noose. And it only gets better.
Inside the darkened buildings is another world of terror where the creatures and critters come at you when you least expect it. Faint cries and humourless laughter ring in your ears and the non-dead patrol the shadows for new victims.
Also inside are the head and hands in the wooden stocks, which are all that remain of Mr. Bones, whose fleshless spine whips back and forth behind him.
A new addition this year is the black-light lab of Dr. Frank and his able partner Dr. Stein, who is feeling just a little out of sorts..
But do watch your step.
The work to set up the annual attraction generally takes several days and again this year, Erik has maxed out the seasonal budget to make things just a little more frightening.
“We’ve added an extra room, we’ve added a few extra actors and this year we actually have two full graveyards,” he said. “People can look forward to Dr. Frank and his associate Dr. Stein and their latest experiment, lots of spooky sounds and lots of candy and a good time.
“I think it’s definitely the scariest of the haunted houses in town.”
This year cash donations are being accepted for the Upper Dek Vees hockey team and there will be bins set up for people to drop off non-perishable food items for the Salvation Army food bank.
Erik urges parents of young children to visit the house first before bringing their kids and also advises those with medical conditions about the use of strobe lights.
