Canon Beazley has always wanted to scare people.
When he was five or six, he says he was the one getting scared, but he was also inspired.
Some neighbours put on a big Halloween display with animatronics, something really artful, until they moved away, he said.
“I just really, really loved the decorations, and I just wanted to have some of my own.”
At 14 years old, Canon is the creative architect behind the House of Doom, a haunted house at his home in Cole Harbour.
It evolved gradually, from a few animatronics that he set up in his garage next to a candy bowl to a full maze, complete with costumed volunteers, more than a dozen spooky animatronics and fog machines.
He said it became a real haunted house when it had a separate entrance and exit in 2019.
But in 2021, Beazley was diagnosed with cancer, a stage one Wilm’s tumour on his kidney. He had several surgeries and endured 24 weeks of chemo at the IWK children’s hospital before he rang the bell in November of that year, signalling he was cancer free, according to the family’s website.
That Halloween, he decided he wanted to give back and officially started the House of Doom to raise money for the hospital.
Shelly, Canon and Dan Beazley pose outside of their home on Halloween night, 2024. (Jacob Moore/Acadia Broadcasting)
He had other complications after cancer, like developing PTSD from his treatment, and later he had his appendix removed.
But those didn’t stop Canon from coming back again this year to run the House of Doom.
Before Halloween night, he and his family had raised more than $8000 dollars, with a goal of $15,000. Donations are open for a few more weeks.
On Halloween night, he walked around outside his home with a mask on and his hood up. The line of people waiting to get in stretched from a side door along the driveway and out into the street. Grave stones spotted one side of the lawn, with several animatronics growling and moaning in eerie spotlights.
It took all year to prepare, he said. Some of the cemetery pillars took that long to make.
His father, Dan Beazley, said it’s great to have a kid who is really interested in something other than just video games. It’s a “healthy obsession,” he said, because it’s lead to all sorts of things.
“He’s had just oodles of opportunities public speaking, [being] invited to events as representatives for IWK, Make a Wish,” he said.
“It’s really ballooned into something fantastic for him.”
From art to engineering
But the whole family is learning a lot “on the haunting side,” including engineering, art, and even pneumatics—controlling things that are activated by air-pressure, Dan said.
All the homemade animatronics in the House of Doom use air pressure to detect movements.
However, Canon does most of the heavy lifting on the creative side, and Dan mostly helps out with the technical things Canon hasn’t mastered yet, he said.
The line outside the House of Doom stretched to the street. (Jacob Moore/Acadia Broadcasting)
“He has been just obsessed with Halloween since basically diapers, and has dragged the rest of the family along with him,” Dan said.
But he had a blast managing the entrance, watching security camera footage of wary people navigating the maze and letting the volunteers know how much to scare the participants. They’ll go easier on some people, like young kids or people who don’t want to be scared too bad.
Grateful for community support
Canon’s mother, Shelly Beazley, said they’re all really grateful for how much their neighbours and their community supports them, especially by donating to the IWK.
“The IWK has given us the biggest gift by basically saving Canon’s life. And the care that we received there was incredible,” Shelly said.
“In order for them to be able to keep giving world class care, we all have to fund them. And if we can fund them doing something that we love to do, then bring it.”
