Clowns, scarecrows, witches, bloodthirsty monks… and even Freddy Krueger gave life to the ‘House of Fear’ last night, headquarters of the murgas Mamelucos and Mamelones that has become a benchmark for chicharrero Halloween. Apart from the donation of two euros –to cover expenses–, the queue of the public, until near La Concepción, shows the acceptance of this appointment with fear in a Carnival temple.
The House of Fear is located at number 31 Calle de La Noria, even before the Halloween began to wreak havoc on chicharrera society, a phenomenon that dates back to the last two decades. The building, which dates back to 1712, has four floors and an oratory, where the Mamel’s Society has its headquarters, which houses the Mamelucos and Mamelones murgas, as well as La Rondalla Mamel’s, the group of La Canción de la Risa No Tengo El Chichi Pa’Farolillos and the Habana Vieja formation, which participates in the Carmen festivities.
As if it were a prophecy, Enrique Rumeu Palazuelos recalls that Felipe Verdugo Bartlett and his family lived in this house and assures that the younger brother, Manuel Verdugo, every time he returned from his night walks, placed in the porthole window that overlooks the street a skull with candles next to it, which caused the children who were playing in the surroundings, when looking through the window, to get scared; hence it began to be called House of Fear.
A little more than three centuries later, in 2014, the generation of members of the Mamel’s Society led by Alberto Justo –a reference in the Mamelones children’s murga–, despite even knowing of the refusal to incorporate the Anglo-Saxon tradition of Halloween, decided take advantage of the House of Fear to carry out activities for the components of the institution, as an added incentive.
Since then, every October 31, fear lives in this mansion in La Noria, which last night revived scenes from A Nightmare on Elm Street, with the entire house set in the film for a recreation that included even Freddy Krueger, in a cast of thirteen extras and guides who were in charge of feeding the fear of more than half a thousand people who paraded through the House of Fear since it opened its doors, at 7:30 p.m., and until close to midnight. «I would never stay alone at night in this house, because even the wood creaks; there are strange things that give me yuyu», said Alberto Justo; for one night Halloween displaced Carnival in La Noria.
