Toronto Man Got A $100K Loan & Built A Haunted Mansion That Will Make You Pee Your Pants

Fernando Martino was groomed for horror set design from the time he was in a highchair.

The 24-year-old creator behind Martino Manor, a haunted house in Toronto that has gained a credited following in the few years since its opening, has always been surrounded by a passion for dramatics.

Growing up, his father, Bruno Martino, put on yearly holiday displays in front of their family restaurant Mama Martino's Pasta and Pizzeria Restaurant.

"It all started, if you want to go all the way back before I was even born. My father built Halloween displays at our family business Martino's there on the Queensway. Little Halloween displays, Christmas displays, even for Valentine's day he'd throw up decorations and Easter," Fernando told Narcity.

From the ripe age of 12, Fernando says he has been in charge of Martino's displays and his passion for horror, especially bringing it to life in a tangible way, was nurtured throughout his childhood.

"As I grew up over the years, I started joining in with him and eventually, my father said, 'Do you want to just take over the displays for me?' And I was around the age of like 12, 13 and then as the years went on we progressed and then he said, 'Why don't you go even bigger and bring it down to the house and just do the front lawn?'"

That's how the snowball that would become Martino Manor started rolling. The front lawn turned into a walk-through and the walk-through turned into a house walk-through of what would one day be the manor.

How Martino Manor came to life

Back in 2017, a conversation with his father altered Fernando's life.

Approximately 30 years prior, his father bought a house on the property behind the family restaurant. But as the mortgage continued to suck profits, he turned to his son to gut the interior and jumpstart turning it into a rental property.

"There was a house behind the restaurant that needed renovating that he bought like 30 years ago and I walked in and I said 'The amount of money that you got to put into renovations here you'll never make that back.'"

Half joking, Fernando proposed they turn it into a haunted house. "I said how about we transform this into a haunted house on an attraction and charge people to walk through?"

Two weeks later, Fernando showed up to work at the restaurant, and his father offered him a loan of over $100,000 to make Martino Manor a reality and gifted him his first animatronic.

"Wow, it was like winning the lottery, that moment. It's my passion."

"I took into consideration what the demo and renovation costs would be and we put that in half," he said. "It cost less to do and he was a lot happier doing it that way because like I said we wouldn't have ever made our money back. You know it's impossible to make that kind of money back through a rent fee and we have a mortgage on the house too."

Fernando had a year rent-free to transform a run-down house into a functioning house of horrors before he started paying rent for the property.

Where it is today

Martino Manor opened in 2018 and has now become a Toronto Halloween tradition for many in the city.

This October, the manor will open its doors once again after closing last year due to COVID-19, and Fernando has a few new horrors up his sleeve for this year and next.

What are they, you ask? Fernando says, "You'll have to just come and check them out yourself."