Photo by Daniel Cura
I’m a bona fide freak for Halloween — actually, for all things dark and spooky. As I write this, I’m wearing a T-shirt that says “Halloween Safety: A Sitter’s Guide,” featuring a cartoon Michael Myers wielding a butcher knife behind an unsuspecting Laurie Strode.
I only paused my favorite podcast, “Morbid,” to listen to an audiobook of short stories by the master of horror, Stephen King, titled “You Like It Darker.”
Indeed, I like it darker.
So when I heard about the immersive Relics & Lore: A Radley Experience opening at FloridaRAMA in St. Petersburg, obviously I was excited.
A mini haunted house of sorts, it transforms 1,000 square feet of space in the attraction into the paranormal, Victorian Gothic vision of St. Petersburg artist Cody Meacham.
A Haunted History
More than a dozen years ago, I was fortunate to experience Meacham’s attraction, Radley House, a visionary endeavor that transformed his own St. Petersburg home into a Victorian haunt. It featured Gothic-inspired, cinematic sets and scare actors dressed in vintage clothes poised to startle visitors.
And here’s the thing: While I like it darker, I don’t love cheap scares and gore à la Halloween Horror Nights.
I was so stressed about being scared that I couldn’t slow down and enjoy Meacham’s craftsmanship and attention to detail. I grabbed my now-husband’s hand and booked it through the house, barely noticing anything along the way.
I’ve never forgiven myself.
Photo by Daniel Cura
Chance for Redemption
Luckily, no one is going to jump out and scare you in Relics & Lore, which is rated PG-13.
“Relics & Lore is not a traditional haunted experience,” Meacham said in a press release. “It’s an immersive art experience designed to create a sense of mystery and discovery. We want people to walk in curious, encounter the unexpected and leave wondering what exactly they experienced.”
Mission accomplished. I went one afternoon and was the only soul in the attraction. After grilling a FloridaRAMA associate about what to expect, I slowed down and took my time.
A sign rendered in a Victorian-era font welcomes you to the “reliquary housing some of the infamous Radley Family’s cursed Relics.”
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Photo by Daniel Cura
In the greenhouse, the sound of rain taps softly as patterns snake across the glass walls. Seemingly ancient stone artifacts sit beneath another hand that occasionally shoots flames from its fingertips.
Portraits change to reveal skeletons underneath. Ornately carved arches and damask wallpaper run throughout the home, where lace drapes over lamps and cobwebs cover candelabras. Drawers reveal mini reliquaries of old photographs and objects.
Shadows run across the walls as the clock strikes. A nun-like figure wearing a lace-and-pearl veil that obscures her face hangs next to another intricate altar of a saint (it’s filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, an inspiration of Meacham’s).
When we see the nun (maybe?) again, it’s by looking in a mirror, and she appears in the wallpaper behind us. Her face is a skull, but it’s adorned with jewels and hardware and topped with a flower crown. It’s beautiful, and I stayed to inspect it over and over.
But when it came to the section where a mysterious figure sits with its back to us, I couldn’t get out of there soon enough.
See Relics & Lore at FloridaRAMA
FloridaRAMA, 2606 Fairfield Ave. S., St. Petersburg. Through Nov. 2. Included with admission, $22-$27. Thurs.-Fri. & Monday, noon-8 p.m.; and Sat.-Sun., 10 a.m.-8 p.m. floridarama.art, 727-210-5450.
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