The Muskoka Drive-In is hosting a Trunk N’ Treat event with a candy route and a lineup of family-friendly films on Oct. 19.
The Gravenhurst-based drive-in has hosted Halloween parties and Scream at the Screen events with costumed scarers, but this will be the first gathering for a Trunk N’ Treat. Tickets are on sale in advance and will only be available at the gate if they don’t sell out. It costs $20 per carload, and groups that hand out candy will receive a $5 voucher for the snack bar. The drive-in just finished screening Joker: Folie à Deux and Speak No Evil and has Smile 2 and Venom: The Last Dance coming up, but even though they have spooky and superhero films covered, it’s not ideal programming for children.
“I saw on the schedule that I wasn’t going to have a lot of kids’ [content],” said drive-in owner William Alexander. “I thought, ‘Oh, I’ll put together a little family event,’ so this is the first time we’re doing Trunk N’ Treat.”
The gates will be open from 5 to 6 p.m. for set-up followed by candy distribution from 6 to 6:45. Alexander asks attendees to be in the gates by 6 as cars won’t be allowed into the area after that point for the kids’ safety. There will be a costume contest, a car decoration contest and Halloween-themed grab bags for the kids.
Halloween cartoons will play on the screen during the early portions of the Trunk N’ Treat. Once the candy collection is complete, the drive-in will screen It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, the live-action Scooby-Doo and R.L. Stine’s Zombie Town, which features the Muskoka Drive-In’s projector.
“If it’s successful, then we’ll probably plan to do it more,” Alexander said. “Maybe even a touch earlier next year so, that way, we have slightly warmer weather when they’re out there having fun.”
Alexander doesn’t want to pack the place completely full, so there’s a limited number of tickets to ensure a fun and comfortable experience for all involved. He hopes to grow the event in future years, but for now, he’s looking forward to a fun and lowkey celebration.
“People that maybe don’t get a lot of kids get to come, bring their cars and hand out candy to costumed kids,” he said. “Families get to hang out and be together on a fun night where the kids are all excited, and it’s just something fun for us to be able to facilitate.”
In a rare turn of events, the season won’t be over after Halloween, extending into November for a holiday weekend special. The theatre’s annual Christmas Blast will be on Nov. 8, offering Christmas movies, candy canes and a possible visit from Old Saint Nick himself.
The Christmas Blast will also include its usual food bank collection and fundraiser. Donors get a chance to win season passes, carload passes and other prizes. Last year, the drive-in was able to donate $2,100 and six boxes of food to local food banks.
Alexander and his team are still putting together the lineup for the Christmas feature. Every year they try to make one screen more family-friendly and the other more geared toward adults, and while licensing restrictions can present challenges, they always manage to get a good group of Christmas classics.
Since it can get dark early in November, they’ll play Christmas cartoons to light up the park for people arriving at the event. Coupled with possible snowfall, it could be pretty magical, Alexander said. No matter what season it is, support from members of the community is what keeps the business going.
“We need them to come out and support us to keep it viable for us to stay open this long, and it really comes down to, of course, the snack bar,” he said. “[That] is where we really need their help because that’s what keeps us alive, and it’s been a bit of a struggle this year.”
The Muskoka Drive-In’s history goes back 72 years to 1952. The ownership has changed, but apart from minor repairs, the iconic screen on the rock hasn’t. Alexander knows how nostalgic the drive-in is for so many locals, so he tries to have as much fun and offer as much help as possible while still maintaining the business.
Being an involved part of the community is essential to Alexander, so he and his team try to give back through markets, fundraisers and more. He said it’s crazy to think about the inception of the drive-in all those years ago, and he hopes to keep adding to its history for years to come.
“Probably 73 years ago, somebody looked at it and went, ‘Yeah, let’s do this. Let’s build a drive-in right here,’” he said. “But we are it. North of Barrie, we are the last of the northern drive-ins.”
Though the Muskoka Drive-In has done well enough to stay afloat, that’s not true for other businesses of its kind. A fellow drive-in recently shut down in British Columbia. Last year, a historic drive-in in Port Hope also closed its gates for good, giving Muskoka residents all the more reason to protect and support its local treasure.
“We never like to see drive-ins close because it hurts all of us,” Alexander said. “They were the oldest continuing drive-in in Canada, and now that they are no longer operating, we become the oldest continually operating drive-in in Canada.”
Visit the Muskoka Drive-In website for Trunk N’ Treat tickets, and follow the drive-in on Facebook for regular updates.
