Deadnersville: Scariest, but friendliest, haunt of them all

Story and photos by Sharon Harrison
With monsters and ghouls and over-sized bone-rattling skeletons, it would be easy to say Deadnersville is a scary place to be this Halloween season, maybe even the scariest, and you wouldn’t be wrong.

But it’s also a friendly kind of place, if hanging out with the undead that come alive, move suddenly, glow ominously and moan dreadfully. But honestly, they make sure not to scare the youngest children and are mindful of those with delicate constitutions, they say.

The Deadnersville Halloween Haunt has become a fun annual Halloween favourite for many local families, as interest in the event grows each year, and as the event grows in size and scariness each year.

Now in its lucky 13th year, Lorne Holditch (along with some trusted creepy volunteers) is behind the huge, amazing display which takes about a month to set-up, and which last year, attracted more than 19,000 visitors.

It could be a stroll through in daylight hours for additional safety (perhaps), or under the cover of darkness for those brave enough, which provides a very different and much scarier experience.

If giant moving, glowing, talking skeletons aren’t scary enough, there are trolls and witches, and possibly the worse kind of scary – clowns – if that can be imagined. Too many clowns.

The animatronics are impressive, and many are new this year, and provide a levitating frightfully, creepy experience, the jumping-out-of-your-skin kind of frightening, heart-racing scary, accompanied by gleeful haunting sound effects for audience enjoyment.

With 260-feet of decorated covered canopies containing animatronics and props, menacing beasts petrifying lurk in chilling fashion with glowing eyeballs beckoning humans to enter their world.

While all appears reasonably quiet at first, many are motion-activated where the displays slowly begin to come to life, through sound and light and movement.

Dark corners and their contents suddenly emerge where soul-less beings, ogres, knife- and axe-wielding expired things among the ghoulish antics, and where almost everybody (dead or alive) seemed to have teeth, huge pointy sharp-looking teeth.

Scaring the living daylights out of folks at Deadnersville is a hideous, blood-curdling tradition, an annual frightening phenomenon of the macabre, of ghosts and monsters and phantoms, spine-tingling, horror-infested sorcery, but it’s also a really fun time. Really.

For those into weird and creepy-looking creatures and beings, glowing skulls, giant indescribable creatures and oddities, the illumination, the glow of lights, the sound effects, the movement, the groans and moans (the haunting laughter) make the grim, unearthly experience certainly gruesome.

Among the over-sized are the little things: little green goblins, and not-so-little big creatures, but beware as their size may be deceivingly small, or tall. And there are bones and lots and lots of skeletons and skeletal remains, and just remains, sometimes of the decaying kind. Bodies and body parts too, decaying decapitated things to add to the eerie suspense.

The event began in 2013, but it was in 2018 when Lorne’s wife, Sheila, suffered a massive brain hemorrhage that he decided to keep it going, incredibly thankful at the time for the care she had received at Belleville General Hospital, allowing for some extended time together.

Admission is free of charge, but donations are accepted and all monies go toward the purchase of new equipment for the Belleville General Hospital through its foundation.

Last year’s donations came to $21,543.66, breaking a record, and to date, the event has raised $83,243.

The month-long event, with the theme of ‘classic Halloween’ this year, is suitable for all ages (and all scare levels), and is wheelchair and scooter-friendly, and furry friendly family members are also welcome, if leashed (leashed humans are optional).

Deadnersville Halloween Haunt is located at 1744 Rednersville Road (County Road 3), Carrying Place and finishes its seasonal run this Thursday and Friday (4-10 p.m.), if you dare. To add to the scariness, and the fun, there will be live human actors for extra scare on Halloween night. And the forecasted rain shouldn’t put folks off as most of the scariness can be found under cover.

It’s a really fun walk-through (really), but beware the clowns.

And don’t stay for the barbecue.