It’s officially the haunting season. This week we journey to a bone-chilling place, where blood-curdling screams can be heard from blocks away. We are going to Fear Fest. We are enduring the horrors of the night – so you don’t have to. Throughout the night we experienced denial, panic, and horror. On our adventure we had two experienced thrill seekers and two scaredy cats who had never set foot in a haunted house. The journey begins the moment you enter the gate and doesn’t end until the faces of the deranged leave your nightmares.  

Upon arriving we already had our nerves going. The workers at Fear Fest were still setting up, but the place still had a creepy vibe. As the sun began to set, we realized that we were some of the only people there. The fog machine kicked on and a couple of people that were dressed up began to wander the premises. ”I’ve performed at least one hundred surgeries, and I have twenty crazy patients with me”, a crazy nurse commented.

As we walked around, we quickly clicked with a special monster named Otis. Otis was a friendly actor who played a role of a kind, stupid monster. Soon after the sun went down and people began showing up, we had an “interview” with a few of the actors. However, they never broke character. We were going to interview them about working at Fear Fest and what it was like to scare people, though they only had one thing in mind, to scare us.

Next, as Zoie was attempting to take a picture of a man dressed in a flannel, covered in blood, and with a chainsaw, he quickly started it up and ran at us. The loud, terrifying noise of the chainsaw flying towards their face made Silvia and Ella completely rethink the whole experience. After the chainsaw man backed away, he made the most dementing laugh the world had ever heard. He then said, “I’m ready for my interview.” As Silvia and Ella began to back away, a man on all fours came up behind them, and chased them as they darted for the exit. While Zoie was busy taking photos, a specific clown took an interest in her. He wore a bell nose, which Zoie kept asking to jingle. We never got close enough or comfortable enough to begin asking them serious questions. Instead, Zoie, Kayla, and Silvia were all too busy trying to comfort the shaking and crying Ella.

As we began to speak with the extremely reassuring manager, Dana . She was very hospitable, and gave us all access and free range to take as many videos and pictures as needed. She also walked us through the houses to make us more comfortable. As the four of us waited in line, Silvia and Ella chickened out and ran over to the fence by the exit to wait patiently for their fellow classmates to return. While waiting for Kayla and Zoie, Silvia and Ella kept watchful eyes all around for possible encounters with any zombies, clowns, or psychos. Occasionally, if needed, Silvia and Ella would leave the premises and hide behind the wooden fence. They would watch the park through the holes in the fence. The next time that Silvia and Ella saw Zoie and Kayla, they were sprinting out of the exit, away from the man with the terrifying laugh and revving chainsaw. “As you guys took your final steps out I gave the chainsaw men the go ahead to turn their tools on, given that you were all the way through”, Dana later told us.

The asylum, which was in a one story house, was constructed to look like two. It was built to look as if it was falling apart. The asylum was complete with broken windows, dirt everywhere, and a set of rules on the front door that would send a wave of relief through everyone. It reads: “Do NOT touch the actors or props as they will not touch you,” which was alleviating of any worry, since you were notified that all you would be getting is screams in your face. Inside, the asylum had a similar experience as the outside; Decaying, musty, and dirty. The air felt thick, like the whole scene could have been taken straight out of a horror film.  

From the asylum, you went straight into the mortuary. There was barely any time to recover, which scared Zoie so much. As we went in, there was a man there, and a moving painting that scared you, then you go through to get even more scared by actual people. In the mortuary, there are chainsaws, people with knives, and other “sharp” objects. It was all terrifying, and seems highly dangerous. The mortuary was full of zombies, people with stitches on their faces, and cooks who ate people. All of the costumes were very well done, and professional looking.

After the mortuary, we went to the zombie paintball. We got loaded into the back of a trailer, and were told to sit away from the paintball guns while we were told the instructions, and got to the place we were allowed to shoot at. As soon as we were allowed to shoot, zombies started coming out and we began shooting. This was Zoie’s favorite ride, only because there was nothing there to scare her there. We went around the track once before the ride was over, and there were around 10 zombies there to unload your paintballs into.

Lastly, we went to the Terror in the Woods, which was full of clowns. It was a pitch black, downhill walk through the woods, where clowns came out behind curtains and shined bright lights with horn noises that scared the group to the core. At the end of the woods, the bell-nosed clown was waiting, and Zoie finally got to jingle his nose, bringing a great end to a terror-filled night for her, and the group.

Overall, Fear Fest provided a great scare to our Friday the 13th. We all experienced chilling thrills and adrenaline rushes from running away from monsters and clowns. Fear Fest is a great place to go for friends or families looking to live a night and many to come in fear. Concluding our experience, Silvia and Ella have vowed not to return out of fear. While Kayla and Zoie were left wanting to come back later this season. Fear Fest is not a haunted house for the everyday scaredy cat. It is a professional house of horrors.