Legends of Horror is back at Casa Loma for its 9th annual production

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Since the event wrapped up last year, the production team for Legends of Horror has been hard at work attending horror trade shows all over the world to make this year’s production the best it’s ever been. With new costumes and sets, contortionists and fire eaters, Legends of Horror is back at Casa Loma this October to give you a fresh cast of horrors to keep you up at night. 

“Even though we do Legends of Horror every year, every year, we try to bring something new to our guests,” Catriona Delaney, general manager of tourism and operations at Casa Loma says. “We’ve always had horror movie themes, but I think we have even more this year.” 

This year will mark the 9th annual production of Legends of Horrors at Casa Loma and the event will have something for all ages. From Oct. 3 to Nov. 2, doors will open each night for regular admission at 7 p.m. and will run until late. But from Oct. 18 to Nov. 2, family hours will run from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. each night when it’s lighter out to make it less scary for young ones. At this time, there won’t be any actors or jump scares and Delaney ensures it will be “still quite scary for them, but not a level that it’s going to be traumatic.” 

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For everyone, the walk will start at the Davenport Gates and guests will then take a meandering walk through the gardens, a corn maze and windy trails until they arrive at the haunted house. 

“You’ll be greeted with people in terrifying costumes and contortionists,” Delaney says. And while you’re outside, “you’ll be able to navigate, but you won’t be able to see, you won’t know what’s ahead, and it’s not a straight path.” 

She says what makes the experience so eerie and unsettling is the how the set goes from overwhelming your senses one minute, to depleting them the next. So when guests are completely overcome with animatronics, LED lights and haunting sounds at one point, it probably won’t be too long until you’ll be left in the eerie darkness trying to anticipate what will happen next. 

“What we call promenade theatre is about overwhelming your auditory senses on some level, and then at other times, it’s way too quiet,” Delaney says. “Then when you’re walking in close quarters, you’ll be feeling things as you’re walking and there will be other times when it will be too much of a sense of space, but it’s dark so you don’t know where to go.” 

But before guests enter the castle, they’ll arrive at the Captain Morgan bar to get a shot of courage. And while the bar is designed to be a fun place to socialize and have a few drinks, Delaney says it’s also decked out with fabulous LED screens, amazing visuals and even a fire-breathing dragon in the middle of the bar. 

From there, guests will enter the haunted mansion which Delaney says this year is more of a haunted hotel with a destroyed ballroom feel. She says that this castle is what really sets the Legends of Horror event from other haunted houses. 

“We’ve got this historic building that’s got all the nooks and crannies built into it, if we didn’t decorate it at all, we could dim the lights and send people through and they’d still be scared,” Delaney says. “That’s just the real feather in our cap.” 

However, with the castle decked out in expertly created sets designed to make your blood run cold, what guests will find inside the castle is sure to keep them up at night well after they leave. These sets have been designed with horror movie buffs in mind, drawing from themes from classic horror movies like The Shining while also drawing inspiration from more modern productions like The Last of Us and Stranger Things. 

Last but not least, guests will walk through the creepy tunnels, through the boiler room and finally to the finale at the stables. But what you’ll find there, you’ll have to come check it out for yourself. 

“The more scared people are, the happier we are,” Delaney says. 

Tickets are available online or for $5 more on-site. Admission on dates before Oct. 18is available at a reduced price. For more information, you can visit their website at legendsofhorror.ca. 

Note that the Legends of Horror experience may not be suitable for people with disabilities as there is a lot of walking and climbing through forested areas, and the event is not wheelchair- or stroller-accessible. 

This story was created by Content Works, Postmedia’s commercial content division, on behalf of Liberty Entertainment Group.