Behind the scenes of a house of horror: the exhausting job of scaring people

MONTREAL – A punk metal Snow White, a red-toothed Little Mermaid, a demonic Pinocchio and a slaughterhouse manager named Cruella are just some of the fairytale characters grotesquely perverted and revisited by the immersive Malefycia theater, which is back again this year.

Set up for Halloween in the former Drugstore in the heart of the Gay Village, this house of horror plunges its customers into some twenty nightmarish scenarios spread out along a labyrinth. Performing their acts 50 to 200 times a night, most of the actors scream and strain to the limit of their strength.

Intense

The make-up room was buzzing with activity when 24 heures interviewed a few horror marathoners.

“It gives you adrenalin, scaring the world, but it takes a mind of steel,” explains Mathieu Laroche, a Malefycia veteran who’s playing Pinocchio this year.

“I try to take each visitor apart to thrill them in a way they’ll never forget, it’s a challenge I give myself with every take,” he continues.

“I find it hard to get out of my role once the evening is over!” admits Matthieu Girard, who plays one of Cinderella’s ugly sisters.

Hard

Little Mermaid Mylène Lefebvre-Lavallée had a particularly trying start to the season. “I was bathing naked in a kind of goo all evening during the first performance, I was super cold!” she recalls.

To prevent her from chattering her teeth, the director has since removed her from the bathtub. With a fish tail as her only piece of clothing, Ms. Lefebvre-Lavallée choreographs to a song that loops probably 200 times a night.

“You wonder if you’re going to make it, and by doing the number over again, you get a surge of nervous energy that makes you even more terrifying,” says Alexandra Cohen, a professional actress donning Cruella’s clothes.

“At 1 a.m., when it’s over, the beer is good,” says “Pinocchio”. But we go to bed quickly because it starts all over again the next day.”

At the time of publishing this article, the actors will be getting back into character hundreds more times. They’ll be working again next weekend, on October 25, 26 and 27, as well as November 1 and 2.

Warning

Malefycia is aimed at ages 18 and over, and depicts a gallery of physical and moral atrocities. Sensitive hearts and souls are advised to abstain. If the prospect of being sprayed with slime or inhaling foul odors doesn’t deter you, tickets start at $55 and the experience lasts around 75 minutes.