By Jessica Anstice
While it looks like Halloween is going to be one more holiday on the coronavirus chopping block with restrictions forbidding large social gatherings, Pakenham’s iconic haunted house display seemed all but doomed.
However, with a lot of creativity and talent, Halloween enthusiast Dan Ioannou put his thinking cap on and came up with the idea of creating a visual projection display on his house.
Traditionally, Dan’s ‘haunted house’, complete with live actors, themed-sections and plenty of jump scares, attracts thousands of people on Halloween each year.
“This year’s display will be a visual projection display only, with no interactive displays or treats being given out,” he explained.
“Projection mapping is always something that I have been keen to learn, and 2020 has given me the chance to do this.”
The 36-year-old has been working on this idea since April as a backup plan, in case he couldn’t achieve the interactive haunted house he had originally planned for this year.
He said he feels lucky he did, as the projection mapping was harder than he had initially thought.
The whole thing cost Dan about $5000, which he said was more expensive than expected but cheap compared to previous years.
“Originally, Halloween 2020 was a time I had been looking forward to for a few years – not only does it fall on Saturday, but for the first time in 19 years we will have a full moon and blue moon on Halloween night,” Dan said.
“With Covid-19 around it was clear I wasn’t going to be able to utilise these rear occurrences to my advantage, so unfortunately changes had to be made.”
With guest numbers usually in the thousands and some travelling long distances to get a glimpse of the incredible yet horrifying house at 1 Victoria Place, Dan has altered the way the event will operate this year.
In order to prevent people from having to travel to see the display this year, Dan will set up a live video on the Facebook Page ‘Dan’s Haunted House’ between 8.30pm and 10pm on Friday 30 October, Saturday 31 October and Sunday 1 November.
“I have chosen to run the display for three nights to try and spread out the amount of guests who visit,” he explained.
“I’m feeling very confident that people will enjoy this different type of display, weather permitting there may even be a few random live fire displays throughout the night.”
Looking ahead, Dan said he is anticipating a massive year in 2021, with a lot of new props and ideas to make people scream even more in his haunted house.
