'Gutting Party' for Nightmare On Our Street
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Potential titles were being kicked around as fistfuls of disemboweled fibre and seeds flopped sloppily into waste buckets.
Unofficially, the event has been known as the pumpkin carving pizza party, but its hosts were open to suggestion. And based on its nature, its end purpose and the sounds associated with enthusiastic evisceration on two operating tables, an appropriate one came to mind.
"I'm (down) with 'the gutting party,'" agreed Melissa Torrence-Esseltine with a laugh. "Sounds good."
Melissa's love for Halloween was ignited while accompanying her aunt to a haunted house as an eight-year-old, but husband Rob's welcome adoption of her obsession has made theirs a perfect match made in Halloween. Since moving to 481 Plank Road South (just south of Highway #3 on the old Highway #19) in 2004, sharing the seasonal celebration with family and friends has grown into 'the haunt', an all hallow's eve backyard path of horrors staffed by costumed family and friends that borders on the 'out of control.'
"It's pretty much getting there," Rob laughed.
"It's all for fun," Melissa emphasized. The couple's children Klairissa and Cole attend Catholic school, but Melissa does recall a little nervousness the night Halloween was on a Sunday, in their church-rich area.
"I thought for sure we were going to be in trouble."
'Haunt' members sit down for a thematically-correct (finger food takes on a whole new meaning) shared repast before heading out for a night of good-humoured fright.
"That's what it's all about," said Rob. "And it seems we get bigger and bigger every year, more people are part of it."
Twenty-five ghoulish volunteers (including uncle Pat, aunt Lorraine, grandpa Clayt and aunt Irene along with other family members, friends, neighbours and Halloween fans) have confirmed for 2013 says Melissa, including 10-year-old Hannah 'Headless' Hopkins, who is giving up trick-or-treating in favour of helping her mom Nicole out at the guillotine. There is usually more-than-enough extra candy to go around, explained Hannah, who claims she gets more excited for Halloween than Christmas.
"I do like Christmas, but I like Halloween best because I like scaring people and getting candy and dressing up and carving pumpkins."
The crew will be staffing a lucky 13 or so stations featured in this year's theme, 'Nightmare On Our Street' including Girls Gone… Just Gone, Dead Hee Haw, Circus Of The Damned, The Last Hanging In Norfolk County, The Reapers, and The Insane Asylum.
"I haven't even figured it all out yet," Rob admitted. "Just keep putting stuff up and adding."
Beyond a growing props budget, annual costs include pumpkins and pizza for the gutting party, the pre-Halloween banquet and roughly $200 worth of candy for attendees who brave the full 10-minute 'haunt.'
There is no charge for sharing in their happy house of horror says Melissa, and last year, around 230 did so according to a goodie bag count.
"Those are the ones who made it through, we had a lot of 'bailers.'"
The latter list included a 50-year-old chaperone who gave 'Rock 'N Roll Never Dies' three tries, before her progress did.
"She only got as far as the corner," Melissa laughed.
It takes a lot of Jack-o-Lanterns to fully fill a Nightmare On Our Street, and a youthful eight-member surgical crew was hard at stage one of the process Saturday. The kids do the 'gutting' said Melissa, with adult compatriots taking over for stencilling and carving.
"By the time they've cleaned two or three, they're about done," she explained.
The 'Nightmare' will open at 6:30 p.m. this Thursday (October 31) and officially conclude at 10 p.m. A lot of work needs to be done in the interim said Rob, unpleasantly surprised, if unfazed Saturday by rain and wind damage.
"We went out this morning, half of it was blown down," said Rob, who did quick repairs. "And reinforced everything."
And in the end weather, rather than supernational intervention is the couple's biggest concern.
"I just hope the weather holds out," Rob concluded. "That's the biggest thing, today would not be a good day for trick or treating."