As screaming children chased by blood-soaked clowns spill out of a north inner city hall shrouded in gloom, some look thrilled and some look terrified.
“You’re not so brave now, are ya,” one mammy says good-naturedly to her little boy as she wipes the tears streaking down his ashen face.
“And if you’re bold I’ll bring you back in,” she continues before she sees the profound impact the words are having on her traumatised toddler and brings him in for a hug instead.
What’s a terrifying threat for one child is a terrific treat for many others and as they come out of Agatha’s Haunted Hall of Horrors on Dunne Street in Dublin 1, most are absolutely buzzing from an impressively staged Halloween experience.
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The tears came from an unexpected quarter. Conor McGregor, holding his mother’s hand, gulping for air and crying
The haunted hall has seen them spooked by headless adults and limbless children with blood-soaked eyes as well as terrifying clowns and demon doctors all to a soundtrack of scary music and unsettling strobe lights.
“Is it scary yeah bro,” a 10-year old boy says to his buddies as they step into the light after their 10-minute turn at terror.
“It’s not one bit scary bro,” one of those buddies says in response although the speed at which he just exited the building suggests he’s not being entirely truthful either to himself or his pals.
A little girl half his age looks exhilarated as she begs her mother to be allowed back in for another circuit of the hall and a chance to scream at the ghouls and ghosts, many of whom have been drawn from secondary schools and community groups in the neighbourhood.
Everyone – even the tearful toddler – is having a blast at what is just one of the attractions at the area’s Halloween festival which has been designed to entertain people and, hopefully, divert at least some of them away from the far more dangerous and damaging fire and firework themed pursuits that are commonplace across the country this week.
The Big Scream Festival is a 10-day event taking place across the northeast inner city with something for everyone in the audience from preschoolers to those in their 70s and beyond.
As well as the haunted Hall of Horrors, there have been fearsome fitness classes, library readings, cookery demonstrations and a Big Scream Carnival on Sean MacDermott Street and a sister Skelabration for smaller ones on nearby Sheriff Street.
“The idea is, I suppose, that we create lots of activities in the lead-up to Halloween with the thinking being that people will go towards safer activities as opposed to going toward something that would potentially be dangerous and wreck our lovely parks,” said Leona Fynes of Dublin City Council.
Karen Meenan is the festival director and was guiding people through the doors of the haunted hall on Tuesday evening. “This has been the creation of youth groups based in northeast inner city but it is only one of nearly 30 events over 10 days with something for everyone from preschoolers to senior citizens. It is multicultural and intergenerational and it has been phenomenal.”
She is also keen to highlight the role played by the Swan Youth Service who have given over their home in Agatha Hall for the horror show.
The festival was curated by artist Christina Sweetman Cullen and, she stresses, her young daughter Brooke.
The artist worked with children and community groups across the north inner city for weeks to make the haunted hall as frightening as it could be. “It’s a bit more gory this year I hope,” she said. “Last year it was a bit PG,” she added, before heading in to the darkness to soak up the laughter and the screams.
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