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Shania Centre goes ghoulie

Frightful family fun set for Saturday

The Daily Press
By Kate McLaren
October 29, 2010

Shania Twain Centre manager Tracy Hautanen cozies up to a local ghoul while preparing for the annual Halloween Spooktacular. The event will feature a haunted tour of the Shania Twain Centre, gold mine tour, and Hollinger House, and is set for Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Ghosts, ghouls, and goblins are already flocking to the Shania Twain Centre for Saturday's Halloween Spooktacular.

The centre, along with the Timmins Underground Goldmine Tour and Hollinger House will all be transformed into horrifying haunts, something manager Tracy Hautanen describes as one of her favourite events of the year.

"We go all out and try to add new things every year to make it as scary and exciting as we can.

"This is the time of year when the centre goes from being a tourist attraction to a community centre."

The activities begin as soon as visitors step into the centre, where they can watch Halloween movies as they wait in line for the haunted house. After a guided tour through the centre, where monsters and skeletons roam among them, thrill-seekers will then enter into Beulah the witch's rec room for a spooky skit. The tour then continues underground, finishing with a visit to a fortune-telling gypsy at the Hollinger House.

"Beulah is a character we've brought back from previous years, except this time the premise is her friends have taken over her house and she doesn't know about it," explained Hautanen. "It's a good show with good characters and some humour thrown in there for the adults."

The amount of work is apparent in details, like plates of finger food (featuring actual fingers) and bottles of blood on Beulah's kitchen counter — details which Hautanen said complete the experience.

"A lot of the adults who come through come to see the decorations. I think they appreciate the detail more and recognize the amount of effort put in."

She explained it takes staff a few days to decorate and plan costumes, but it's well worth it when the centre sees crowds of up to 1,500 people.

"All of the programs that we run here, whether it's Halloween, St. Patrick's Day or Christmas definitely motivate local residents to come back again on a another day and see the centre under normal circumstances."

The haunted tour is scary, she added, so children under 12 must be supervised by an adult.

"It's scary, but it's fun too.

"We tested it out on school kids yesterday, and even though some of them were definitely scared, we had a lot of laughs."

Following the tour, snacks treats will be provided.

The Halloween Spooktacular is set for today from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Visitors are encouraged to dress in costume, and the cost is $2 each.

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