Large crowds outside the city’s famed Blood Manor haunted house are spooking Tribecans over coronavirus concerns.
“We walked by there on Saturday evening and it was a mess. We were actually nervous enough that was [sic] walked in different direction. Aside from the non-compliant mask wearers, there were tons of people on the sidewalk drinking and getting high. We seriously don’t even want to leave our apartment any more,” one resident lamented on the Tribeca Citizen blog, where a photo taken Oct. 17 appeared to show a tightly packed line of patrons outside the Broadway venue.
“This is so crazy. A haunted house during a pandemic?!? Think about it, you’ll have enclosed spaces (poor ventilation), people in costumes (masks?), people screaming in fun and fear (exhaling oxygen, spitting saliva, etc.), people drinking (impaired judgement) therefore there’s the potential for this to be a Covic petri dish (super spreader location). Who made this decision and when are they getting fired?” another commenter seethed.
The 5,000-square-foot haunted house, which has drawn ire from neighbors since it moved to Tribeca in 2017 over concerns about noise and other antics from people partying, was allowed to reopen for its annual Halloween stint, despite a statewide ban on large gatherings of more than 50 people.
Some critics pointed out the apparent double standards.
“Ok, this is just ridiculous. While the rest of us wonder whether our kids will be able to attend school next week and local restaurants sweat whether their tables are 6 feet apart, or their propane heaters are in precisely the right location, the city is permitting Blood Manor to run a pop-up haunted house on Broadway, attracting hordes of the maskless,” the Tribeca Citizen blog wrote Monday in a post titled “Blood Manor draws big, often maskless crowds.”
Blood Manor’s founder and owner was quick to call up the local blogger and boost the venue’s safety precautions in the days following the criticism, the Citizen wrote in a follow-up article.
The 275-person venue only allows 60 patrons and 30 actors in at a time and follows a slew of other safety precautions, including supplying all actors with N95 masks worn under their costumes, Jim Lorenzo explained.
Only 45 people are allowed on a single floor at any given time, said Lorenzo, who did not return a call from The Post.
An actor in a monster costume explains coronavirus regulations in a video that plays outside the venue, the Tribeca Citizen blogger observed.
“We are hypersensitive to COVID, because of my son. I don’t take it lightly,” Lorenzo told the blog, referring to his son who died of cancer in August, according to the Tribeca Citizen.
On Saturday night, a spooky-sounding COVID-19 public service announcement played for the 100 or so masked Halloween fans who waited online — and who had to submit to temperature-checks before entering.
“It was short and fun,” said one visitor, who gave her age as 20 and said she felt perfectly safe because of the COVID-19 precautions.
“I didn’t feel scared at all. All the costumed characters were wearing face masks — the crazy clown, the devil, the demon,” she said.
“They tried to blend it in with their makeup. But you could tell.”
Additional reporting by Alex Taylor
