Bring out your dead
FIVE PLACES to get your fright on this Halloween from Universal Studios’ Horror Nights to a zombie road race in Toronto
Why look for a lively scene when you can get your thrills at a deathly one? Zombies, ghosts, skeletons and ghouls remain perennial attractions at destinations near and far. Here are five places where you can enjoy a frightfully good time, this Halloween weekend or year-round. 1. Bone up on your French in Paris
Why do the standard-issue haunted city tour, when you can enjoy a real fright? Underground. In a catacomb. With the bones of six to seven million dead Frenchmen and women.
The Paris Catacombs, also known as the Empire of the Dead, are a network of subterranean tunnels (20 metres underground) filled with the bones of the dead — displayed in inventively macabre arrangements of skulls and femurs stacked from floor to ceiling. As above-ground cemetery space became scarce, the city repurposed existing limestone quarries beneath the city for this purpose between 1786 and 1814.
The tunnels have remained timely since their earlier incarnation, with notables of the day touring them from the outset. The tunnels were the site of a mass murder, when Communards killed a group of monarchists in 1871. They appear in Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. French Resistance and German occupiers alike used the tunnels during the Second World War. And today, so-called cataphiles sneak beyond the public tour zone to (illegally) explore the winding caverns and tunnels using headlamps and camping gear.
The official entry to the Catacombs is in Montparnasse, giving visitors much to see, do, shop, eat and drink, before and after their brush with mortality. Last admission for Les Catacombes museum’s two-kilometre, 45-minute tour is at 4 p.m., which is probably best: you’ll want to escape back to daylight after staring down a wall of musty skulls.
CATACOMBES DE PARIS
Family friendliness: Suited to older kids Event date: Open daily from 10 a.m.-5 p.m., except for Mondays and public holidays For more info: catacombes.paris.fr 2. Escape from multiplex monsters in Orlando
Live your own version of horror movie hell as Walkers, Lickers and Deadites chase you through top-notch movieset recreations at Universal Studios Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights.
The big draw, of course, is the Walking Dead: No Safe Haven, where you evade Walkers while tracing the footsteps of season three survivors through the claustrophobic prison compound and faux-idyllic t own of Woodbury. (Spoiler alert: Yes, you will see an aquarium of heads.)
The Walking Dead theme extends into the park streets, where a variety of sights from the top AMC show have been recreated, including the farm, survivors’ camp and shambolic city of Atlanta.
Freaks and geeks will get a kick out of trying to evade Lickers, Hunters and Nemesis itself in Resident Evil: Escape from Raccoon City.
Finally, not just one, but two cabins in the woods await, offering the proverbial death and dismemberment to all who enter. The possessed Deadites lurk in the Evil Dead cabin, while a live recreation of the nightmare laboratory of The Cabin in the Woods offers campier but nonetheless super-scary chills.
Horror aficionados rate Universal’s offerings as one of the best in the U.S. — it’s Event date: Runs now through Nov. 2 certainly one of the priciest, with separate entry to the park and the event, and optional surcharges for express ride lines, totalling as much as $238 per adult. Yikes! HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS Family friendliness: Geared to adults and kids 13+ For more info: halloweenhorrornights.com 3. Get scared straight in Sin City
Forget gambling, drinking and losing your house in a card game: you’ll curl up in your hotel bed and stay there after a harrowing evening at Fright Dome, Circus Circus’s Halloween event at its indoor Adventuredome theme park.
With six haunted houses, including one based on the gruesome hit The Collector, thrills, chills and maybe a few nervous breakdowns are guaranteed, especially since The Collector Haunted House is solo. Yup: you have to traverse the booby-trapped house on your own, as the movie’s eponymous psychopath hunts you down.
After five years on the Halloween horror circuit — and for its shocking rather than schlockey approach — Fright Dome has become one of the country’s favourite among those who live for this sort of stuff.
Additional attractions include Camp Chainsaw, Clownaphobia 3D and a variety of “scare zones” themed around zombies, abandoned carnivals, creepy Victorians and a button-pushing live alt-circus sideshow (Spoiler alert: yes, people hammer nails up their noses). Those with strong stomachs can enhance their experience with the indoor theme park’s roller coasters and other rides.
Round out a dead-scary visit with one or more overthe-top bashes being held throughout Halloween week (vegas.com/halloween/), where the focus is on sexy costume contests and D-list celebrity revivals (Brody Jenner and Rob Kardashian’s Halloween Bash at the Bellagio’s The Bank; Marilyn Manson at Hyde Bellagio).
Expedia.ca’s annual Las Vegas sale is on right now, so you may be able to scare up a Halloween steal.
FRIGHT DOME
Family friendliness: Let the kids wait till they’re 18 ... or 30 Event date: Runs Oct. 26, 27, 29, 30, 31 For more info: frightdome.com 4. Check out some bodies
The creepy yet scientifically relevant (sort of ?) Body Worlds series of exhibitions is another option for those looking to spend time with the almost-living dead.
Touted as The Original Exhibition of Real Human Bodies, the cadavers of volunteer donors are posed — skinless, with muscles and organs exposed — in various daily activities ranging from playing air guitar to kicking a soccer ball. Anatomist Gunther von Hagens’s unique embalming and Plastination technique is an art, though perhaps not one for all tastes.
A variety of spinoffs from the original Body Worlds & The Cycle of Life exhibition (which just left Edmonton and opens in Bolgna, Italy Nov. 6), are exhibiting globally, including in New York City (Discovery Times Square), Mexico City (Museo de las Ciencias de la UNAM), and Bochum, Germany.
Even without a fake cobweb, canned scream or ounce of fake blood, this show might be the creepiest Halloween ticket out there. BODY WORLDS Family friendliness: all ages Event date: exhibition dates vary by venue For more info: bodyworlds.com 5. Run with the zombies in Toronto
Ever wonder what your chances would be in a zombie apocalypse? Sign up for a zombie run and test your cardio mettle. Cashing in on two pop culture trends — the love for all things zombie, as well as the growing popular- ity of obstacle racing — this 5K has participants running through a route peppered with messy hazards.
Although organizers are mum on what’s in store, expect standard obstacle fare like mud pits, mazes, climbing obstacles and marauding zombies who want to eat your brains. The best part: you can register as a human or as a zombie.
Zombies arrive at the park a couple hours earlier for professional makeup; plan your afternoon and evening around your awesome Walking Dead visage. The fun is contained in Toronto’s Riverdale Park East, a short jaunt to Danforth Avenue’s restaurants and pubs, and not far from downtown haunts via public transit, so you can make the most of your zombie flair.
For those who’d rather walk than run, ground zero for this year’s 10th annual Toronto Zombie Walk is Nathan Philips Square. Last year’s event attracted 10,000 walking dead, and this year’s iteration includes bike floats, marching bands and a drum line.
The downtown route and leisurely pace of this Halloween parade make it ideal for tourists eager to get a streetlevel view of the downtown core and popular shopping strips. Similar “outbreaks” take place the same day in Phoenix (downtownphoenix.com), Long Beach, Calif. (zombiewalklb.com) and Rotorua, New Zealand (zombiewalk.co.nz). THE RUNNING DEAD Family friendliness: no age limit for spectators, but registration as a human or zombie is restricted to 13+ Event date: Oct. 27 For more info: therunningdead.ca ZOMBIE WALK & HALLOWEEN PARADE Family friendliness: although the event is all-ages, use discretion as costumes can be realistic and gory Event date: Oct. 26 For more info: torontozombiewalk.ca