History of Donovan Ville Penitentiary
DONOVAN VILLEPENITENTIARY
SUDBURY, ONTARIO, CANADA
Creator Robby Lavoie aka nOrTHeRn ToUCh
Well I guess you can say Donovan Ville stemmed from my love of Horror movies and my diehard passion for Halloween…It all really started as a kid when my mom/dad brought me to Niagara Falls and I went to some of there haunted house’s and was just intrigued with all the scares and props and just being scared that’s where my passion begain.That year my parents spent a lot of $$$on Halloween for the 1st time. Mom was always big on Christmas so it was easy to get her into Halloween…We continued to grow over the next few years and in 1997 I started making my own static props out of wood frames, I then stuffed news paper into plastic bags and then shaped into body form’s so that they could face are some times harsh weather, I used mask’s and glove’s and old clothes, and shoes to dress them up, they ended up looking like real people and it made people not know who was real and what was a prop, I still use a few of them in haunt now, and they work out great for fills in my many different rooms. Jump ahead to 1999 this was the year my family and friends really stared to jump in and want to help, my now fiancé built about 20 new tombstones/crosses out of pink foam that year and it she came through big time with all her painting skills. DONOVAN VILLE CEMETERY 1st opened its doors and started off as a small graveyard walk through that had grown off are large yard display. In the early year's we had a open element concept where You would walk around the entire house that we set- up to look like a large graveyard that was full of tombstones and fog from are 1st ice chest fog chiller and many static props about 5 live actors to run the haunt and are big scare at the end was always the Jason character with the chain saw, that sent the kiddies running, we ran the haunt like this for a few years, but those were the early days.
Now let’s really jump ahead to 2004 I wanted to be different and I quickly found that I wasn’t alone there were tons of haunters just like me online and world wide…I found many forms and was really just a lurker for the 1st 2 years but learned so many new things and what you could do with a home haunt. I like to thank all the great forms and the home haunters that make up those forms…From all the new things I learned DONOVAN VILLE PENITENTIARY was created and I quickly built my 1st façade and real entrance to the haunt in are 1st few years of DONOVAN VILLE PENITENTIARY we use pop up tents to house all the props and made a walk trough maze that went around the entire house. This set up worked great until Oct.21 2006, that’s the day we got 16 inches of snow in 2 ½ hours, collapsing 5 of are tents and several of are walls basically ruining the whole entire haunt. But with every bad thing comes a better day in the life of a haunter, I got the boys together and we really rallied together. We ended up having so much wood donated to us it was crazy, we were able to rebuild the entire haunt in 2 days and ended up building a bigger haunt then any of the years previous. I now know to plan for all weather I do live in Northern thrashing props using Shiatsu massagers and a few other props from these motors there are many cool ideas you can come up with using these and you can get so Ontario Canada lol. Since the days of Donovan Ville Cemetery, the outdoor haunt has now grown into a 13 room haunt witch is totally enclosed from the elements with a all new roof system we came up with last year, we went with a double roof just because of are harsh weather and now we are able to entertain no mater the weather. DONOVAN VILLE PENITENTIARY is designed to look like an old rundown Penitentiary that the soles of the dead have come back to regained there freedom and want no outside visitors. All our characters and actors are a combination of Zombies and classic horror characters that have been locked up in an evil penitentiary. We have many torture props and effects here at Donovan Ville, from a motorized spinning head in a Stockade to our Shiatsu massager hanging thrasher props and many more torture effects and props, also many of them are actor based. From our Gas Chamber to our electric chair with lights and brain smoking fog and also a working actor based Gallows where the actor actually falls through the floor. And many other actors with real power tools (scale saws, chain saw, drills, and resipicating saws) for that maximum scare factor. I find that using real power tools in safe matter can give some of the greatest scares and some great sound effects esspealliy with the theme of are haunt. We now have a total of 28 static props which all have there own look and no 2 are the same. In the last 3 years I have been playing around with a lot of different motors and have made many moving props. I have made 4 hanging many different movements out of them. I also have 5 wiper motor based props I have built, from a grave digger, stockade clown to 2 new grave clawers I built this year. Last year was my 1st year building a FCG with a rotisserie motor and they ended up being a big deal with all my neighbors and of course I ended up making about 10 of them for people who wanted to buy them from me. Before last year I never thought about making money at this but what the hell if people want my stuff all build it for them and I am always building something anyways I never really stop I am a propaholic lol. This past 2007 season I took my prop building skills to the next level and did all the research I could on pneumatics and started to build I quickly discovered that a home haunt is not truly all it can be until you add pneumatics. I built 5 pneumatics props last year and they are all my favorites. I built 2 wall pop-ups a scissors prop that jumped 4 feet of the wall at you, an air cannon, my wheel chair pop-up and of coarse my toilet from hell that sprayed a 4 foot mist of spray. I have already started on a few new pneumatics, a trash can trauma a water based barrel pop-up and another scissor prop, I also plan to build some pop –ups for the grave yard this year that will be on timers. This upcoming 2008 Halloween will be by far the biggest we have ever done and now with the help of a few sponsors things are really starting to move I have started to build a 2 stage sound system 1 being for just the graveyard and the other for the cue line and façade, we already hall powered by 2 PC power supplies and gives me many sound options for my graveyard also we will be broadcasting the haunt on a FM transmitter for the whole month of oct. for the graveyard display were are also in the process of building 3 separate light boards and a breaker system for the entire haunt... This year it will be my 1st year working with monster mud and I’m really excited at giving this a try. I plan to make all new static props for the grave yard also an old horse draw patty wagon is in the works for the front display that will house a FCG. We are also redoing are façade for the 3rd and final time and have some really big plans witch include a watch tower with old warning bell, to an all new entrance and many different things going on both in and outside the façade from projector lights to video, also we are building a waiting area that will be under a 10/30 carport that will be decorated to look like a visiting room at a prison here will have videos playing of he haunt from previous years and also Halloween music playing plus a monolog of the haunt rules in between songs. As for the haunt itself were are going to be extending the size and going up a 2nd level in the back yard because the yardave part of it finished a 16 speaker sound set up that runs of 4 Car audio decks that is is in 3 different levels it make for an entirely different haunt by going up a level and also gives us another 5 rooms we are now just planning to build a ramp system that way know one has the walk up stairs and will be much safer. The last big thing on our plates is to expand off the garage, in the last 2 years we started letting people go through the garage and this gave a huge amount of space to play with we plan to go an extra 5 feet off the garage and by doing so will give us another 2/3 rooms taking us to about 20 different themed rooms this year from jail ranges to a lunch room, shower room morgue and many rooms hallways and toneless.
Like I said I never stop building and am so lucky to have a my fiancé Jen that understands me and my passion for what I love do and now having my little ones Trinity 3 Marshall 1 to help Daddy out and already love Halloween it just help’s it just helps to fuel my fire. The Haunt is a family/friend operated haunt that is totally free to the public and we usually see up to 500 guest's Halloween night and many guest Devils Night for the annual haunted house balm fire. We have made every forum of media for the last 8 years and have been featured on Globule Toronto news we have even made the CBC radio where I had a local DJ come out and walk through the haunt live witch aired Canada wide we are a regular stop for the local TV news and even shots of the haunt have been the back drop for are local weather during the month of Oct. I myself have now moved from my parents but we still do the haunt there just because everyone in are city knows where it is and would be disappointed if it wasn’t there. I also do a large yard display at my home that advertises the haunt at my parent’s house. Finally I can’t forget the role Mom and Dad play in the operations of the haunt there one ones who keep all the stuff running smooth from the front and give out all the goodies they even dress up and still play the role. As for the back of house the boys and I run the haunt. Now that the haunt has grown so big we have a lot more people that make Donovan Ville come to life. And we would not be the haunt that we are if it wasn’t for all the help of my good friends and family. We continue grow each year and every year are set-up are different so are guest's are left scared each and every year...I try to create the best possible environment for all ages and we are able to adapt many of are scares on the age group going through, I want to make everyone have fun and I truly do this because there is nothing like seeing a kid drop his loot bag and go running for the hills and if you dare enter the doors of Donovan Ville Penitentiary we will get ya!!!!!
Robby Lavoie aka nOrTHeRn ToUCh 
