Screemers: terror is tradition

17 oct 2021 - Photos by Drew Rowsome

It has become a tradition during the high holy Halloween season to visit Screemers in order to laugh, scream, and flee in terror from creatures brandishing chainsaws or claws. There are few things as cathartic as wending one's way through a dark maze and, usually, coming out alive. This year we need it more than ever. Last year was tragically Screemers-less and Halloween was basically cancelled leaving psychic wounds that may never heal. 

Finally in 2021 we are clambered out of the dark morass of horror that we have been living in to discover that we have survived to scream again.

Though it isn't fair, it's impossible to talk about 2021's version of Screemers without taking the pandemic and its resultant restrictions into account. I don't want to imagine the discussions and meetings that the Screemers masterminds had trying to figure out how to scare everyone silly while keeping them safe. Not safe from knife-wielding psychos or rampaging zombies, those we expect, but from a microscopic virus that is even stealthier. The solution settled upon was to move Screemers from its long time home (27 years) indoors at Exhibition Place to outdoors at Assembly Park in Vaughan. 

Viewing Screemers 2021 on its own merits as a singular entity, it was a blast and highly recommended. Viewing Screemers 2021 in comparison to previous years (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019) the scares and atmosphere hold up, with bonus points for the nostalgia factor for us regulars. I almost wept seeing familiar props glowing in the moonlight. Which brings us to viewing Screemers 2021 through the lens of covid, in which case what the Screemers team has achieved is nothing short of extraordinary and a malevolent miracle.

We had the good fortune to meet with Rikki, the general manager of Screemers as I wanted permission to shoot some photos. Using a flash is, without explicit permission, forbidden. The rule is in place to protect the cast and also, I suspect, to preserve the mystery as the shadows and pools of darkness add immeasurably to the atmosphere and cover up any little defects in the craftmanship and sleight of hand. The cast members thrive on being photographed and as Rikki explains, they return year after year as they also thrive on scaring people. I was accompanied by my eccentric aunt who is not only an aficionado of scares but is also a real rube. I lost count of how many times a cast member burst out laughing and said, "I really got you." 

And then there was the one who proudly boasted, "I got you both!"

Because they do get you. Wandering in the dark whether the atmosphere is a decrepit mansion or a gothic castle or a Zombie Prizon, one is constantly aware that at any moment a seemingly empty narrow corridor will fill with terror. The jump scares are constant, coming from all sides and even from above and below. The predictable ones are ripe with anticipation, the ones that are complete surprises, kick start the heart. Screemers is the crown jewel in a family business with deep roots in the carnival business. Rikki also has that carny spirit with a jovial ballyhoo with a mysterious sexual edge that is basically honest and forthright. Both of us being fully aware of the joys and skill of an actual con that is the basis of all great art. The Carnival of Carnage dark maze plays with these roots with killer clowns, games of chance, riotous colours, imitation sideshow banners in neon, and an actual Fiji Mermaid (but of the vicious and ferocious kind). Not that there was time to appreciate the introspective intellectual heft, I was too busy screaming and running while simultaneously trying to catch the eye of the most garish clown.

The 2021 edition of Screemers has a central tent that houses the fully-licensed (and you may well need a drink) Vampire Lounge as well as a museum-worthy array of animatronic (and living and undead) atrocities. The seven dark mazes are arranged in a circle around the tent with one end containing a small midway, a Ferris wheel, food trucks, an electric chair complete with a dramatically spasming victim, and a row of Porta Potties (that were fortunately not terrifying but rather clean and sparkling. Except for the one at the exit of one dark maze that is deliberately designed to be revolting and is a photo op for the very brave and strong of stomach). It is a sprawling set-up which benefits from the space, the night sky overhead, and the echoes of chainsaws and screams. It also makes the dark mazes more claustrophobic and unnerving. One is always aware of being channeled deeper and deeper into the depths of depravity and darkness. But the outdoor space is also used in expanded blowoffs. One exits the constricted and creepy confines of The Haunted House into a spacious garden filled with eerie dolls, gargoyles and decay. And a few other surprises and shocks. The exit is not necessarily an escape.

I don't want to spoil any of the jump scares but there is one new one that took my breath away. We exited one dark maze to find the actual exit on the far - intimidatingly far - side of a chest high roiling bank of fog. Fog capped by a green laser surface of light that was inevitably concealing something swimming or lurking beneath. There was. 

For urbanites, Vaughan seems like another world and the distance is initially daunting. However driving proved simple and there was certainly more (and free) parking than there ever was on the Ex grounds. Alternately there is a subway stop that empties a short stroll from Assembly Park so civilization is not that far away. The ubiquitous required masks are carefully integrated and often make up a part of the cast's personas. Terrormeister Kenny Wiseman (a Screemers scarer since 2002) welcomes us to Skull Castle with fangs of cloth instead of greasepaint, but the effect is as unsettling. As he notes, "It's all in the eyes." And his eyes are mesmerizingly malicious as he marks our tickets with a cheerfully scribbled "DIE."