While the Woodbine Centre could be used as a horror themed experience (escape rooms, light shows, halloween-centric events), there's a few hurdles going against the mall.
For starters, the most successful events are housed in major tourist destinations. Casa Loma's Legends of Horror and Wonderland's Halloween Haunt, for example are major
tourisit hotspots attracting millions of visitors each season. The closest attraction the mall has going for it is the Woodbine Racetrack, and even then, horses/slot machines
aren't the first thing I would think of as a tourist when looking for a scare event in Toronto.
Secondly, as someone who has worked for Halloween-based events in the past, preparation for these types of events takes months of setup. Loma's prop setup begins in March
to be ready for September. While the Halloween event is going on, workers are already preparing gadgets for the Winter events in the weeks to follow. To compete with such a
workrate, The Woodbine would have to invest in a number of props, animatronics, as well as hiring an able team of talented technicians just to have an environment ready for
guests to visit in time for the holidays. A considerable overhead cost that the mall may not wish to invest in.
And that's not including the costs of site managers, supervisors, security and actors.
I will say though, it would be awesome to convert the Woodbine into a zombie escape room. Moreso, a loosely-based homage to the mall scenes from Dawn of The Dead.
In the past, the Woodbine has made extra revenue by loaning out it's mall as a filming location to movie companies. The idea of gutting all of the stores and using the mall as a
year-round set piece would be a costly endeavor. With rent costs these days, and filming invites few and far between, I don't have much faith in the Woodbine being converted
into such. The Woodbine has always relied on generating income by charging rent to it's tenants first and foremost.
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