The team behind Toronto-area Halloween attraction The Haunting of Hexwood is asking residents to give it another chance following an outpouring of negative feedback to its opening night, some of which has included personal attacks on employees and organizers.

The event is one of the most-anticipated spooky season destinations in the region this year, and consists of an entire sinister town with multiple creepy scenes for participants to navigate, along with activities like pumpkin smashing, a tattoo shop and a "hex your ex" stand.

Located on 20 acres in rural Pickering, the site is billed as a spine-chilling mix of horror and Hollywood magic, with live actors lurking in the corners of a gas station, town hall, diner, shops and more, all part of a film set "transformed into an unsettlingly authentic haunted experience."

Ell'Events, the firm that created the park, has years of experience with other events around the GTA. But, this past weekend was the first-ever of Hexwood, and unfortunately did not go to plan — and of course, people have been quick to air their grievances online.

Staff and volunteers tried their best to manage the 2,500 people who showed up early on the inaugural night of Friday, October 13, but owners say that there were indeed some opening night hiccups, especially with crowd control and the transportation of people from the parking lot to the set.

"We messed up and didn't get it right, we are owning up to that," Event Director Olivera Pavlovic tells blogTO of their sold-out first weekend. "We had a detailed plan in place but it didn't work out logistically. Then we immediately pivoted for Saturday and made improvements."

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Along with not being fully prepared for thousands of people showing up within the first half hour of opening on Friday, the team was not equipped to handle the unexpected deluge of complaints that hit social media that same night and quickly snowballed.

Some are calling Hexwood the "Fyre festival of Ontario," bemoaning everything from long lineups, general disorganization, low staffing and a subpar experience for the $40-$60 pricetag, to more serious allegations of safety issues.

Management says that the mess of an entrance experience — as the volume of people in such a short time span made marshalling "impossible" — may have put some attendees in a bad mood from the start, along with the negative reviews that flooded in from the beginning.

There was also the fact that the City of Pickering had issued a press release just seven days before opening citing previous "health and safety concerns" that had been resolved by delaying the event and moving it outdoors.

Even though the City stated that it felt "this reimagined outdoor event, and its embedded health and safety measures, will create a safe and secure Halloween experience for all visitors," Pavlovic feels that many showed up with a negative pre-conception and "the notion that we weren't going to be a safe event."

She also has worries about the potential involvement of a competitor that had been putting up signs for their own event on the Hexwood property and is now apparently offering discounts to anyone who had a negative experience this past weekend.

Beware: Haunting of Hexwood is a flop & has safety issues
byu/Top-Salamander1663 inontario

As the Hexwood team struggles to mend its public image, it has offered disgruntled patrons the option to come back and try the new and improved set free of charge after hiring more security and other staff, rejigging the layout, extending the parking lot and "staying up all night" to determine how to act on the pain points they realized after Friday.

"Saturday went as smooth as butter," Pavlovic adds of the changes made.

Still, between the odd positive review online, there's an overwhelming glut of criticism, including from ex-employees who claim their pay is being withheld.

And, the team's strategy of trying to vet certain statements of dissatisfaction online — including initially deleting more serious claims, such as groping by security, until they were investigated — has only served to quite understandably fuel the fire.

"People seem to forget that we're humans. We're a small business and we're local, we're not trying to scam anybody," Pavlovic says. "We love what we do and it breaks our hearts when it doesn't go well."