Sydenham's Haunted Barn attracts hundreds of brave souls

Julie Druker | Nov 05, 2015

For those looking for a real fright on Halloween night, Sydenham was one place to be. For the last five years, members of the McNeill family, along with the help of numerous relatives and friends, have been scaring the wits out of Halloween revelers in an old barn located just behind their historic home on Rutledge Road.

The barn is where the close to 25 volunteers spend all year planning and preparing for the well known, free, annual Sydenham event, which the family have been offering simply because they “love Halloween”. On Saturday night hundreds of costumed trick or treaters lined up just outside the barn’s front door, where Cathy mcNeill Richmond, dressed as a witch doctor, greeted the patiently waiting visitors with shrunken skull in hand. Cathy grew up in the house and her mother still lives there. Mom is also a member of the haunted barn cast.

Cathy warned them of the strobe lights and fog machine inside but gave no other clues about what lay ahead, though multiple shrieks and bumps could be heard from within.

The theme this year was an “old-fashioned Gothic haunt” and the first scene to greet visitors was a family of four vampires, one lying in a coffin, seemingly dead and with a large bloody knife protruding from her chest. As the scary, dramatic organ music played and when the unsuspecting visitors were near, the dead person suddenly rose from her coffin and hissed.

Asked what in her opinion was the scariest scene inside, Cathy said, “For me it is the shadow in the maze”. Cathy said she her sister take the hobby of Halloween haunting seriously and both are members of the Canadian Haunters Association, a group that shares ideas about what works and what doesn't when if comes to getting the biggest scream. She said that she and her team spend a whole year designing and creating the horrors. “When we first started doing this five years ago, it was kind of hodge-podge and make-shift but since then we've started building solid walls and creating permanent structures, which is why it takes us a whole year to get ready”. She said the crew would begin redesigning the barn the very next day for Halloween 2016.

Themes in years past have included a zombie wedding, an asylum and a Heaven and Hell theme and judging by the hundreds who attended the Haunted Barn this year, it seems as though Cathy and her team know exactly what it takes to frighten folks. While the goal is to scare people, she said that she and her cast would tone it down when younger guests come through. She added that while no visitor has experienced a serious health issue resulting from a scare, she did admit that one visitor one year did pee their pants.

The event attracted Halloween revelers from as far away as Kingston and Amherstview. I spoke with Saskia Richardson from Kingston, who brought her mother Theresa along, who was visiting her from Slovakia. “We don't really celebrate Halloween in Slovakia and I wanted my mother to see this kind of thing first hand.”

Sydenham's Haunted Barn is on Facebook and if you missed it this year you can visit there to see what you missed.