This is a very big weekend for Alain Gregoire of Saint Lazare.
He is in the midst of preparations for Halloween night, when his home on de l'Orchestre Street becames a spooky spectacle. He relies on supplies, including animatronic figures, collected over the past 15 years.
In recent years, the annual production has become a monster. Gregoire and a small army of volunteers set up zones on his property, some scarier than others, each with its own theme: zombies, pirates, witches, clowns and more. Trick-or-treaters are offered a small candy in each zone. The sweets are being donated by Pharmaprix because visitors are encouraged to make a donation to charity. This year, the recipient will be the Optimist Club of Saint Lazare.
Gregoire doesn't like to talk about how much money he has put into the creepy components for his Halloween spectacle - he simply says it's worth it.
"I just like people to enjoy it and to remember it," he says. "They're going to see something that, even if I talk a few hours about it, they need to see it."
It takes Gregoire about six weeks of indoor work to prepare the scenes and about ten days of outdoor work to set them into place. He admits that's a lot of work to stage a four-hour spectacle on Halloween night.
However, Gregoire says he always enjoyed Halloween as a child and he hopes one of his young visitors will be inspired to carry on his tradition of a big and spooky show in the future.