One year of planning and tireless work all comes down to one day for sculpture artist and self-proclaimed Halloween fanatic Maxime Duval.
“It is crazy, a year’s work — all this for a day, six hours, ” Duval said laughing. “It’s my life and it’s in my blood. I love it.”
For the past three decades, Duval’s mission every Halloween has been to top the previous year’s display.
His movie-quality scenes have become famous locally with a growing fan base.
“The amount of love I get out of it is what I put back into my work,” Duval said.
This year his home in Saint-Amable, 30 minutes south of Montreal, is unrecognizable.
His front lawn has been transformed into a spooky, zombie-filled graveyard.
His workshop looks like the house from The Amityville Horror.
Dotted all along the property is a Mount Rushmore of scary movie characters, including Freddy Krueger, Jason and the Demogorgon from Stranger Things.
Marking the 30th anniversary of his display, Duval brought to life 30 iconic characters from horror movies and TV shows.
A centrepiece this year is a life-size Daryl Dixon and Negan from the Walking Dead series.
The two characters have an uncanny realism to them thanks to their 3D-printed heads and mannequin bodies.
“It takes me almost 200 hours of work to make one character. This year I have 30. I almost bit off more than I could chew,” Duval said.
His favourite character this year is the recreation of the famous bedroom scene from the movie The Exorcist.
Duval uses animatronics to spin crosses on the wall and lift the young girl to make her appear to be levitating.
The event has gotten so popular the city is forced to shut down the street on Halloween night.
Duval says he expects to hand out with his family more than 1,000 bags of candy on the big night.
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“People come from as far as Sherbrooke. They love coming here. Their idols, these characters come to life,” Duval said.
The artist is tight-lipped, however, when it comes to the price of all his work, only saying that costs can run into the thousands.
He does manage to reuse much of the material year after year, such as the mannequin bodies and forms.
Donations and sponsors from local businesses facilitate the process. Reselling some the art pieces every year also helps repay the expenses.
However, Duval said, the biggest cost is his time.
“From January to October I’m thinking about my theme. ‘What will it be next year?'”
After three decades, Duval says it’s all still worth it.
He plans on continuing the tradition for years to come.
“I’m looking forward because there are plenty of themes I haven’t done yet,” Duval said.
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