Nightmares Fear Factory
Attraction Type: Haunted Attraction
Location: Niagara Falls, Ontario
Years Operational: 1984-Present
Designer(s): Robert (Bobber) Gibbs, Frank La Penna
The earliest roots of Nightmares actually date all the way back to 1966, across Lake Ontario from the Niagara Region. A charity organization which Robert "Bobber" Gibbs belonged to opened a seasonal Halloween spook house which ran for the days leading up to Halloween in an old farmhouse in Oshawa, and the following Halloween moved to a farmhouse in Whitby. Keeping the concept's further potential in mind, he would revisit it for the 1980 Halloween season and open a seasonal haunt of his own as a business, this time in an old farmhouse in Markham on the North-West corner of Warden/Steeles, literally across the street from Toronto's Scarborough borough. It would be named "13 Rooms of Terror", as it moved through thirteen rooms of the renovated house, each with a different theme or scare, and would be open for all of October. The location closer to the City made the haunt even more popular than Gibbs' setups in the 60's, and it would return in the same location the following year since Gibbs owned the building.
The intersection of Warden and Steeles today as seen on Google maps, with a large business plaza now sitting where Gibbs' old farmland and once sat.
It would prove to be so popular that Gibbs began to contemplate the profitability of turning his ideas into full blown haunted attractions, and he would do just that in 1982. Gibbs would open his first permanent haunted attraction as a concession at Prudhomme's Landing, an amusement park in Lincoln on the shores of Lake Ontario, just inside the Niagara Region. The "Haunted House" would again remodel the bones of an old home, renovating the old Prudhomme house (the family which the land was named after) that stood on the land and predated the park.
This sign was all that remained of the Haunted House after it was eventually demolished in the 1990's. This photo was taken in 2011, nine years after the park was abandoned.
The thing the Haunted House was known for (as all Gibbs' subsequent attractions would be) was that the actors actually touched guests, poking and prodding them in the pitch darkness and grabbing their ankles as they walked past. The attraction was notoriously scary, and quickly became a rite of passage for Niagara Falls teens. It's extreme nature and the live actors' dedication to intensity provided an unrelenting experience through the twisting corridors of the old building. Despite the aging structure and maze-like nature of the attraction, Gibbs always had a strong mind for safety, stating "What I want is a safe place that looks terrible" in the initial proposal to the planning committee of Lincoln. This ahead of it's time thinking wouldn't become widespread in the haunted attraction industry until the tragic 1984 Haunted Castle fire at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey which killed 8 teenagers. Perhaps if Six Flags had been thinking like Gibbs, it could have been avoided.
The live actors actually touching and poking guests was both ahead of it's time and a relic of it. While it's trendy for many haunted attractions today to have guests sign waivers before actors physically interact with them to hype up the fear, and it was perhaps something that occurred without any thought to the matter in haunts of the 70's, The Haunted House fell somewhere in the middle. The era it existed in and the identity of the attraction made it completely unexpected, as no other permanent haunted attraction in the area at that time had actors physically interact with guests, yet it wasn't at a time when guests would be likely to turn around and sue for profit as they'd be more likely to today.
Nightmares would take this same concept and push it even further, creating a successor to the Haunted House. Nightmares would open in 1984 on the first floor of the mall portion of Maple Leaf Village in Niagara Falls, Gibbs' first haunted house in a space he was able to completely design from scratch. It would be a start to finish, relentless assault on the senses. The rooms and mazes in the attraction were lit only by small red lights high on the wall close to the ceiling. As guests made their way through each area, the lights were their only guide through the illusions, strange sensations, jump scares, and being grabbed by the actors. Not only that, the rooms and corridors were able to switch and change, trapping guests in dead ends and forcing them to walk in circles. Perhaps the most memorable feature of Nightmares was "Tommy the Tongue", a wet sponge on the end of a pole in the darkness which would "lick" guests' faces. The main scare in the attraction however was the goalie mask sporting actor who would chase guests around, and be one of the only seen elements in the attraction. For guests to be rescued from this nightmare, they had to yell "Nightmares", admitting defeat. The scares would stop and the staff would lead you out a "chicken exit", giving you a souvenir card of shame stating so.
The Maple Leaf Village mall sandwiched between the two hotels on Falls Ave., with the amusement park in behind, 1980.
The attraction offered a totally different experience from other haunted attractions at the time, being focused almost entirely on psychological horror instead of physical sets and props. While there were illusions and disorienting mazes in other attractions like Castle Dracula, The Haunted House on Clifton Hill (unrelated to Gibbs' attraction), and the Maple Leaf Village amusement park's Mysterious Mansion, the charm of Nightmares was that you, the guest was left to fill in the blanks as to what was after you in the darkness, hence the name. While it wasn't necessarily better than the immense detail, scenery and storytelling in other attractions, it was certainly different, and stood out in almost an apples-and-oranges kind of sense.
Original green card from Nightmares.
The rite-of-passage aspect of the Haunted House at Prudhomme's was also now marketed as a challenge at Nightmares, with colour-coded cards being given to anyone who completed the attraction. The colour on the card you received indicated how brave you were during the experience, with guests who barely scraped by receiving a pink card, guests who were visibly frightened receiving an orange card, guests who only appeared occasionally startled receiving a green card, and only a completely unflinching, unbothered guest receiving the coveted blue card. This was a genius move on Gibbs' part, as it secured repeat patronage as guests tried to memorize and predict the jump scares inside in an attempt to stay stonefaced during the attraction. With clever live actors however, this was easier said than done. Gibbs would operate Nightmares and the Haunted House simultaneously during the 1984 season, with the Haunted House's operations being transferred to Prudhomme's Landing themselves in 1985 so Gibbs could focus on Nightmares.
Nightmares' popularity led to it receiving a direct sequel shortly after it opened, right next door. The attraction moved to a larger space on the third floor of the mall to accommodate the addition. The new attraction, Nightmares II, would be a progression of the original with the same kinds of scares, however if it was a separate ticket or just an expanded area of the pre-existing walkthrough is unknown. This would be quickly followed up once again with Nightmares III - The Black Journey, a hybrid between a haunted house and an obstacle course. All three attractions would have the card level system.
The most notable feature of Nightmares III was the very first room. Guests would enter, the room would seal off behind them, and they would be left there for 10 minutes in pitch darkness and silence, feeling around the walls without even a red light on the wall to give them a sense that this was supposed to be happening. This apparently seriously freaked people out, and understandably so. Some guests allegedly even thought they had somehow wandered into a backstage area between the walls and were sent into a panic. A small hatch along the bottom of the wall opposite to the side of the room you entered through would eventually open near the floor, and guess would have to crawl through the claustrophobic tube-like tunnel to the next area, all in pitch darkness. They would then have to navigate a series of psychologically and physically demanding obstacles of a similar nature, with various degrees of lighting.
It was elements like this that were beginning to gain the Nightmares brand fame, as the extremity of the psychological torment was revolutionizing the industry. New attractions had started implementing similar features as early as the year after Nightmares opened, with Screamers also opening on the third floor of Maple Leaf Village in 1985 after an ex-Nightmares employee had a dispute with Gibbs so decided to start his own attraction.
Glow-in-the-dark pins from the attractions.
Screamers, "Where Nightmares Become Reality", 1995.
One of the most obscure and undocumented aspects of Nightmares however would also be one of its most important, as it affected not just the haunted attraction industry, but also the world of mini golf. "Nightmares Fore" opened as the fourth and final installment in the Nightmares brand, also on the third floor of the mall. It was a blacklight miniature golf course with horror theming, one if not the first blacklight mini golf courses. It was also the first with a horror theme, a popular theme for blacklight miniature golf courses today. A similar concept named "Monsterland Golf" was in the planning stages just a couple years earlier by Robert Dunham's Waxattract/Enter-Tech company, and would have used animatronic figures created from the same molds used to create the figures in The House of Frankenstein and Castle Dracula locations. Unfortunately Dunham passed away in 1985 before the attraction made it to the actual development stages, and it would never see the light of day. It's unclear if Gibbs knew about Monsterland, where it was planned to be located, or if the space it was meant for somehow evolved into Nightmares Fore. No photos, footage, or promotional material from the attraction have surfaced aside from a mention on the completion cards from Nightmares III.
Nightmares III completion card mentioning the cleverly-named "Nightmares Fore."
Allegedly the attractions grew a little stale from their original glory over the years as actors got less creative, employees began to give the colour-coded cards out at random to anyone who completed the attractions, and other attractions such as Screamers were doing similar things. Maple Leaf Village would begin a rapid, somewhat planned demise beginning in the early 90's. Several tenants began to leave, with the amusement park behind the mall closing in 1994, and the mall itself eventually closing in 1996 to become Casino Niagara. The heavy-duty wiring and power hookups the mall had for its many arcades, restaurants, and attractions were actually specifically designed for the mall to one day become a casino if it had to. Nightmares cleverly saw the writing on the wall back in '93, and Gibbs would begin plans to move the attraction to Victoria Ave. By the time the attraction moved, the total chicken count between Nightmares I, II, and III was allegedly up to 43,610. The new attraction would combine the elements from all three of these attractions and turn them into one, two-story, mega attraction.
The attraction on Victoria Ave., 1996.
The building on Victoria Ave. which Nightmares would move to would be the building formerly home to the original Castle Dracula from 1974 until it moved to Clifton Hill in 1977. The building dated back much further than that however, originally being constructed as a Bell Telephone office building and eventually becoming home to the Canadian Corps in the 1960's. It's unknown what the building was from 1977-1993, photographs from the early 80's show it seemingly abandoned, however a news article about Nightmares taking the structure over mentions something called "Plantation" formerly being there, presumably a restaurant that occupied a small portion of the space. Nightmares would have you believe the building was formerly the "Cataract Coffin Factory", which while great storytelling, isn't true despite a majority of tourists actually believing it. Being the former home of Dracula however is surprisingly fairly close to that, so perhaps there is some tounge-in-cheek truth to it after all.
This is where things get a little hazy. Frank La Penna owned the building and allegedly provided Gibbs with roughly $80,000 of renovations. The building itself had notoriously been an issue with several of its past occupants. The Canadian Corps moved out due to the absolutely massive, old building being much too large and costly to maintain. One reason Castle Dracula was sold off by it's creators and moved to Clifton Hill was due to how expensive it was to heat the building, and difficult to run power through it. It's unknown when exactly La Penna came into possession of it, the state it was in, or what was there most recently (as mentioned above) by the time Nightmares moved in. Some sort of financial dispute arose between Gibbs and La Penna, with La Penna eventually coming out on top and owning the Nightmares business itself by 1994. It's unknown if the attraction operated at the Victoria Ave. location for the 1993 season under Gibbs or remained closed while the dust was settling between the two parties. The attraction apparently opened for Halloween night 1993, but due to a massive snowstorm that night, only saw 10 guests. La Penna would continue to build upon the attraction once it was his. The earliest evidence of the attraction actually in operation on Victoria Ave. full time isn't until 1994.
Frank La Penna posed lurking in his attraction, 1994.
Whatever occurred wouldn't deter Gibbs however from being in the haunted attraction industry, and he would open the Scares 'n Dares Haunted Warehouse up in Wasaga Beach in 1994, occupying a former section of the Playland Arcade there which was walled off for the attraction. The section of the building was at the back of the arcade and was originally constructed as the bowling alley and expanded arcade area for Playland Park in a 1950s expansion to their penny arcade. The bowling lanes had since been removed and were replaced with various games before Gibbs moved in, leaving the area looking like a warehouse, likely where it got it's name. It's unknown how similar to Nightmares the experience was, however it would move across the street to a former gift shop when the section of the arcade building it was in was torn down, dropping the "Haunted Warehouse" portion of the name. It eventually became "Nightmares Wasaga Beach" in 1997, a direct version of the Niagara Falls attraction done in the same style, which would last until 2005.
Scares 'n Dares Haunted Warehouse (above, 1994) and it's later incarnation as Nightmares Wasaga Beach as seen on the righthand side of this image. (right, late 90's)
Back in Niagara Falls, La Penna's "new" Nightmares was kicking things up a notch in an attempt to stay relevant in the face of similar attractions which had sprouted up since the original opened in 1984. The attraction would initially still operate on a completion card system, however only a "Chicken" and "I Survived" card would be given out instead of the colour-coded bravery scale. Yelling "Nightmares" to be rescued from the experience was also a feature held over. The Nightmares building itself is located on a slight hill, so at the front along Victoria Ave., the first floor is level with the ground, whereas around the back of the building, the first floor would be a sort of underground basement, and the second floor is level with the ground. The front half of the first floor was occupied by Frank's Steakhouse for years, a popular local restaurant (that would later expand out the side of the building), and the back half of the first floor was home to the lower level of Castle Dracula during its tenure there. You entered Castle Dracula through a door on Victoria Ave., then were immediately greeted with a stairs up to the lobby, gift shop and arcade on the second floor, exactly where the Nightmares lobby is today.
Upper portion of the coffin display in it's original colours, early 2000's.
Lower portion of the coffin display as it originally appeared, 1990's. The head has since been removed.
Nightmares however doesn't take you down to a lower level on the first floor, only occupying the top two floors of the space. It remains a mystery if the former lower level of the original Castle Dracula exits abandoned under Nightmares, but the less exciting reality is that it probably became an expanded area of the restaurant years ago. Frank's eventually became Carlos O'Brien's, which was what it was at the time Nightmares moved in. The restaurant has since been "The Wild Mushroom", and later underwent major renovations to become Weinkeller currently. Like Castle Dracula before it, guests enter Nightmares through a door on Victoria Ave., however it's now under a giant gothic stone facade complete with a massive fiberglass Grim Reaper with glowing eyes which was added in late 1998. After passing a coffin display in the front window, guests traverse upstairs to the lobby and gift shop. Live screams of guests were originally broadcast on speakers both in the lobby and outside the attraction, however this was eventually discontinued, assumingly due to the fact guests likely let an array of expletives out while being scared senseless. After buying your ticket, you then venture upstairs to the top floor and begin your journey...
The attraction now features the aforementioned story of being the abandoned coffin factory, originally deemed the "Cataract Casket Company" but later changed to "Cataract Coffin Company" at some point early in the location's life. Nightmares has fully embraced this, officially becoming "Nightmares Fear Factory" in the late 90's. In a genius way to provide story and a theme to an attraction based almost entirely on pitch darkness and psychological terror, the majority of it's storytelling exits in its promotional material. No brochures from the attraction feature photos of the interior, and photography/filming is forbidden. It's also never discussed what's inside, and the story that the building is haunted and was formerly a coffin factory never deviated from, even to the press. This has created a cloud of mystery around how exactly the contents of the attraction have changed around over the years since the move, if at all. In one of the only pieces of media discussing the attraction as *not* being a real haunted factory, the 1994 newspaper article on the attraction moving to Victoria Ave. provides some insight into the creation of the scares. La Penna was a contractor, not a haunted attraction designer or amusement operator, but apparently had a blast reworking the attraction and seeing how extreme he could take things.
"I Survived" and "Chicken" cards from the late 90's.
Several elements have been kept from the original Nightmares attractions in Maple Leaf Village, including the red guiding lights, the crawl-through tunnel, Tommy the Tongue (although he is now nameless), and the dead-end room, although they don't leave you in there as long as it's original incarnation. New additions included bars which actors hit electrified poles on to create sparks, a room with inflatable walls that close in on either side of you, and most famous of all: the car.
The original lobby, later remodeled in 2008 to include more room for merchandise as the attraction's fame grew.
Nightmares features a car bumper and headlights on the wall beside guests at one point in the attraction, with a camera located directly above that takes a photo at the exact moment the headlights turn on and an unbelievably loud car horn blares. The photo of you and your friends in a raw state of petrified horror can be purchased in the gift shop. This gimmick was always popular dating back to the location's opening in the 90's, however following the rise of mainstream social media in the late 2000's, it absolutely exploded. This simple effect, used in dark rides as far back as the 1950's, took the already popular attraction and propelled it into the international spotlight when coupled with the hidden camera and the power of the internet. When the photos began circulating online, so did the tales of the intensity of the attraction, as well as people's stretched truths and misconceptions of what they had just been through. Tales of the attraction as well as it's story of being located in a former coffin factory spread like wildfire, and people started travelling to The Falls for the attraction alone, something a haunted attraction hadn't accomplished since The House of Frankenstein and Castle Dracula opened back in the 70's.
A group captured by the "Scare Cam" in the early 2000's. Wallpaper has since replaced the mural backdrop to these iconic photos.
It may have been years ahead of it's time and taken a while to reach the fame it has, but at every turn, Nightmares ended up being savvy to trends and technology the same way Niagara's other iconic attractions were in the eras when they debuted. This has secured it as a mainstay Niagara Falls classic, a well-deserved spot for an attraction who's roots lie not in a haunted coffin factory, but a humble, charity-run Halloween haunted house in an Oshawa farm field in the 1960's.
The attraction as it appears today. The reaper lost his scythe around the turn of the millennium, but finally gained it back in 2019.