Halloween spirit alive in Saskatoon

SASKATOON -

Patrick Stuike starts planning a year in advance to have his Mayhem on Matheson house ready for Halloween night.

He operates a walkthrough haunted mansion, with several animatronic features.

“I usually sit in my garage, sketch it out and start coming up with a floor plan,” Stuike said. “Usually beginning of September I start building it in my yard.”

Last year was one of Stuike’s busiest, as he feels other places shutting down due to the COVID-19 Pandemic helped him see roughly 700 people come through his haunted doors.

This is his 13th year operating the haunted house and this year he’s expecting over 1,000 guests to walk through his haunted house.

“This year I’ve integrated walls and a tunnel to double my square footage,” Stuike said. “It’s a lot longer to walk through this year and more animatronics.”

With people getting dressed up to walk through the doors of Mayhem on Matheson, at least one Halloween store said it’s seeing stock fly off its shelves.

“It’s been very good. It’s been the best season yet,” said Gerald Lemcke. franchisee for Spirit Halloween in Saskatoon.

With stores in Saskatoon and Regina, Lemcke saw people purchasing home décor early and over the past two weeks people have shifted their focus to costumes.

“It seems like everybody’s excited about Halloween,” Lemcke said. “I think people are looking for something fun to do. I think that everybody’s been cooped up for so long with COVID, everybody’s excited for something fun.”

While serving the masses Lemcke knows he can’t please everyone. Tons of people were requesting Squid Game costumes, however his store never got any in stock.

“I’m sure it will be big next year.”

The supply chain shortage did affect his stores as Saskatoon received late shipments forcing the stores to open later than usual. Regina’s store was able to open on time but with limited inventory.