In Montreal, journalist Louis-Philippe Messier is mostly on the run, with his desk in his backpack, looking for fascinating topics and people. In this city chronicle he speaks to everyone and is interested in all areas of life.
Haven’t reached your October anxiety quota yet? Roaring aliens tormenting their captive humans and unfriendly ghosts of deceased actors populate La Ronde’s two new spooky maze courses to celebrate Halloween.
Do any of you remember the old mechanical haunted house in La Ronde called the “Witch Mill” with its facade decorated with a red dragon?
• Have: ‘It’s shameful’: Remains of iconic La Ronde rides left outside
We moved in a trolley on rails in front of rudimentary machines that seemed more tacky than frightening. Well, those days are over.
The two new haunted houses that La Ronde is offering during its traditional October Fright Festival competition are inspired by cinema.
References to the Alien franchise can be found in the brand new “space” haunted house called “Alert Base,” which was built in the former Nintendo building in the 1990s.
In Base on Alert there are no ghosts, only hostile aliens. And you only have one goal: to escape! Carl Desjardins
As for the new Phantom Theater, teeming with unhappy and noisy ghosts, its late 19th-century Parisian character gives it a picturesque appearance.
The Phantom Theater’s sets are sometimes magnificent…unlike the ghosts that inhabit them. Carl Desjardins
These decorations are often cleverly assembled from parts of old, dilapidated rides and sometimes attract admiration.
So we widen our eyes and say to ourselves: Great! We forget to be afraid for a moment.
Real theater
The haunted houses offered in 2023 are plays divided into multiple scenes with approximately ten actors animating each of the five houses.
Faced with an actress playing panic behind a window, I feel the urge to try to get the prisoner out of there before I convince myself that if I break the window I’ll be expelled from La Ronde for vandalism.
In the hallways you sometimes have to navigate the darkness with your arms outstretched… hoping that no one suddenly appears screaming (which happens a few times).
Two very shouty French visitors took refuge behind me in fear during the haunted trails. But since surprises often come from behind, they had more than enough fear. Well done to you!
Like movie scripts
“I build haunted houses like horror movie scenarios, where there are moments of surprise and fear, quieter moments, sometimes two surprises in quick succession,” says Paul-Patrick Hébert, the Grand Manitou of five haunted houses.
“We have been working on our two new houses since last winter, it is a long-term team effort.”
“With Base en Alerte we went into territory unexplored for us, the aliens, to create fear without the supernatural aspect,” adds Martyne Gagnon, a veteran of La Ronde who directs the Fright Festival.
Paul-Patrick Hébert and Martyne Gagnon Louis-Dominique Lamarche
In addition to the two new courses, three other haunted houses from previous years are also being produced again: “Nightmares” (a long, bad, tormenting dream), “Cirque Diabolique 3D” (with evil clowns) and “La Ferme Maudite”. (outdoor, which is only open in the evenings).
A show called L’Éveil will be presented at 5:30 p.m. About forty monsters come out and dance in the style of Michael Jackson’s Thriller before heading into the crowd to “scare” the children.
There are new monsters: the bloody Angelica, who is based on Carrie, the majestic Skeleton King who impresses children, the mummy equipped with a club, and the porcelain doll who seems to come from a Japanese horror film.
When we hear the children laughing and screaming as they run around the monsters, we are immersed in a truly happy Halloween atmosphere.
The Louis-Dominique Lamarche porcelain doll
The Skeleton King Louis-Dominique Lamarche
The mummy Louis-Dominique Lamarche
Photo Louis Dominique Lamarche