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Local director/producer Michael Gavin Booth isn’t quite scared of his own shadow, but having helped build some of the sets and systems in Scarehouse Windsor he freely admits being terrified of some of his own work.
That hasn’t stopped Booth from overseeing the production of an eight-part series called The Boo Crew, which focuses on what goes into a haunt season at Scarehouse Windsor.
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The series will air on BellFiveTV1 beginning Oct. 3. There will also be a public screening of the series at Scarehouse Windsor on Oct. 1.
“I haven’t once walked through the Scarehouse as a customer because I’m scared to do it even though I’ve helped to design and build parts of it over the years,” Booth admits.
“I don’t understand why people like to be scared.
“It’s part of what makes it a fascinating story, along with spending all that time and investing all that passion into a business that’s only operational 23 days a year.”
The series will feature eight 10-to-12-minute segments focused on a particular theme giving viewers a behind the curtain peak at the business as the staff prepared last fall’s season.
The production began filming new material last August with some follow-up interviews and post-production carrying the project into last month.
“He did a good job capturing our day-to-day activities and the challenges,” said Shawn Lippert, who along with his wife Colleen and friends Dario and Michelle Silvaggi own Scarehouse Windsor.
“I felt good watching it. How he pulled the story together was emotional. My wife teared up watching.”
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Lippert added the series gives viewers a good glimpse at what it’s like to be an entrepreneur and how that mindset differs from many people.
“When you’re entrepreneur, you learn to accept being uncomfortable and you learn to like it,” said Lippert, who has been friends with Booth for two decades. “I can see people watching and thinking that’s crazy.
“What caught me off guard was how well he was able to show the relationships and the people involved — the friends and family — many who have been involved for years.”
The series starts with a look at the history of the business and how it came to call McDougall Avenue home.
“We owned nightclubs and we were going to lose a building (Bentley’s) and before we handed the keys over to the bank, we thought we’d try this,” Lippert said.
“It was a struggle for five years before it picked up. It was always a passion project. It was just so much fun to do.”
Other episodes will feature on the renovations needed to the old factory on McDougall to get the doors open, the business’s growing community profile, the launching of immersive haunted dinners in 2021, the variety of personalities that make up the staff and the training that takes place in ‘Boo School’ to safely scare the pants off people.
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Booth said he feels the attraction in people paying to be scared is knowing it’s safe and done under strict guidelines.
“The second reason is half the fun is watching your friends and family get scared to death and then joking about who is the biggest chicken or screamed the loudest,” Booth said.
With the business now expanding in its permanent home at 1441 McDougall Ave. to include an entertainment centre and bar, Scarehouse Windsor will be available for events throughout the year. That transition from a ‘nomadic business’ to a permanent location is the basis for the second season of the Boo Crew currently being filmed.
Despite his long involvement with Scarehouse Windsor, Booth said the editing process revealed aspects of the business he’d never noticed before.
“The number one thing I noticed was what an inclusive environment there is,” said Booth of the staff that ranges from a Grade-9 student to adults.
“The Boo Crew is an eclectic bunch of people. They share being drawn to playing a role or dressing in costumes, but a lot of the kids might not be in the most popular social circles at school or even sit together in the high school cafeteria.
“But they all come together to create this inclusive and accepting group here.”
Dwaddell@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/winstarwaddell
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