It’s all thrills, spills and screams at Dar il-Waħx, Malta’s only interactive haunted house experience. Patrick Vella tells Ramona Depares that horror has become real this Halloween.

The house includes a photographic exhibition by Bloodography.

Halloween traditions, until a short while ago a purely American phenomenon, have also caught on in Europe. We’ve had the trick-or-treating kids and the pumpkin recipes and now it looks like we will also be getting our very own haunted house ‘walk-through attraction’.

Dar il-Waħx, as the attraction is called, comes with a whole array of suitably horrific, interactive experiences that include actors, props, special effects, projections ... the whole nine yards, guaranteed to get thrill-seekers’ pulses racing.

The haunted house is the brainchild of self-confessed horror junkie Patrick Vella, who says that the idea had been brewing in his mind for years, when as a child he would fantasise about his own walk-through adventure, pinpointing actual locations where this could be set up.

“When I saw that it was really happening, I immediately decided to call it Dar il-Waħx. I love the word ‘waħx’ (horror). It’s so spooky, right? The idea was to keep it as genuine an experience as possible – I’m not very fond of the foreign, branded varieties, because for them it’s almost a formula. I see very little heart in them, very little individualism.”

Patrick Vella in a still from The Breeder.

The local initiative, on the other hand, goes in the opposite direction, bringing together a team of like-minded, professional enthusiasts who want to make the adventure walk-through an experience to remember.

“Of course, compared to foreign offerings ours is a low-budget one – although on a local level it is anything but. Where it was not possible to get super-expensive gadgets, we made up for it by focusing on human interaction and by creating some really original scenes,” Vella explains.

Vella, who is also a film-maker and who runs children’s entertainment company Curtain Raiser, has in fact gone all out in order to provide a compre-hensive experience to all those who visit. Besides a 15-strong contingent of actors who will be taking part, no effort has been spared with respect to special effects, screens and other props.

“Visitors will be taken on a walk through the house, with every room and corner offering surprises. Some of the attractions are interactive – such as The Rite, which is a blind-folded experience, or the Zombie Lair. Others are more passive and involve scenes unfolding in front of you. There is also a photographic exhibition, in keeping with the theme of course, by Bloodography,” he explains.

The scariest experience? Vella says that naturally, this is subjective, but The Rite is a strong contender as it manipulates the senses and gives a feeling of helplessness.

He follows this with a hearty “muwaħaħaħaħa”, adding that he has always wanted to do that in real life. With this sheepish confession, it is even easier to understand the appeal that horror holds for him.

Likely to be equally popular is the cinematographic experience area of the house, which will be showing The Breeder, a production by Vella himself. The film is a claustrophic, visually-haunting tale that has clinched the Most Disturbing award in the Everybody Dies Film Festival in the US; it is currently still being shown at various horror film festivals.

Horror film buffs will be kept further entertained by a full-scale film festival taking place right next door. The Malta Horror Filmfest is the first festival of its kind in Malta, and Vella says he received some 500 submissions from short film producers around the world – 36 were eventually shortlisted, and will be shown right next doorto where Dar il-Waħx will be taking place.

All the films showing (a full programme is available online) are shorts falling under different horror sub-genres, including gore, psychological terror, spoofs, animation and experimental.

Bearing in mind the diversity of the attractions on offer, the challenges involved in setting the whole thing up were quite a few. Logistics, Vella admits, were a nightmare. Safety issues were paramount, and this meant that separate entrance and exit points were needed, together with an extra emergency exit.

The Rite is a strong contender as it manipulates the senses and gives a feeling of helplessness

“Just sourcing the location was tough enough, but we managed. Add details like getting permits, making parking available, creating enough electricity points, making traffic arrangements ... there were a number of headaches along the way, yes. But hey, as long as the dream happens and people get to enjoy a memorable experience, then all the stress was definitely worth it,” he concludes.

Dar il-Waħx is taking place from October 31 to November 3 at L-Għassa l-Antika, Żabbar. Entrance is restricted to 15 years and over (13-year-olds accepted if accompanied by parent or gaurdian). Strobe lights and strong language are used during the performance. Tickets are available online, by calling on 2189 5072 or by sending an e-mail to darilwahx@gmail.com.

www.maltahorrorfilmfest.com