The Royal Ontario Museum is hosting a haunted tour on select weekends from Oct.3 to Nov.1.
The tour takes you through the museum’s several exhibits where they will tell you a bit of history or the science behind each exhibit, as well as a spooky tale.
But it’s not just a simple tour around the museum as the guides will put on a performance to draw attendees deeper into the experience.
Fynn Cuthbert, 28, a museum docent and performer, developed the fictional character of Dr. Strauss and his assistant, Nicole Fairbairn, 55, a fellow museum docent and performer, performs as the character Hettie.
Cuthbert talked about historic superstitions and beliefs like the Greek underworld of Hades and it’s guardian Cerberus, but also of ghosts who haunt the museum.
The first spirit Cuthbert said haunted the ROM was its founder, archaeologist Dr. Charles Trick Curelly.
“It is said that his ghost still wanders the museum at night, dressed in his pajamas and listening to his jazz radio music,” Cuthbert said
Then there is the mysterious spirit that haunts the third-floor bathroom.
Although Cuthbert and Fairbairn said they do not believe in ghosts, they do enjoy conducting the tours because they get to perform and get to learn.
“I feel like I've had a university level of education in the past year just jammed into my head, you get the opportunity to learn so much working here,” Fairbairn said.
Cuthbert said he loves playing the Dr. Strauss character for haunted tours.
“The mask of Dr. Strauss is very helpful for having fun. I’m still gonna make it spooky and tell some jokes, maybe learn a little history, a little science along the way,” Cuthbert said.
“I feel like people are more willing buy into the spookiness when they feel at ease with this is just a goofy guy who's telling that story.”
The ROM has also announced an exhibit that opens Nov.22 titled This Land: The Group of Seven and their Contemporaries, showing 88 paintings from several artists.
