Outdoor haunts hope to provide night frights during Halloween season
While Athens is home to haunted venues like the Ridges and Wilson Hall, three outdoor haunts outside of Athens aim to terrify the masses during the Halloween season.
Monsters with names like Digger, Mr. V and Cletus will be scaring up a storm in the Hocking Hills.
Wicked Forest, located three miles outside of Logan at 15111 State Route 664, takes visitors on a haunted walk through the wilderness of a simulated old coal mining village in the Hocking Hills.
“It’s over a half-mile trail through the woods with over 20 live actors out on the trail,” said Karen Armes, general manager of Wicked Forest. “It takes about 20 minutes to walk it on average.”
Attendees are bused to the top of a large hill. To go through the Wicked Forest, they’re placed in groups of four to six, which Armes said better allows for the actors to restage their scenes.
For Armes, her favorite part of the experience is Hell’s Mine — the first part of the trail.
“When we load them up on the truck, they’re in pitch-black and when they get off their in Hell’s Mine,” she said. “It’s an abandoned coal-mining village and these are the creatures that took over. It really sets up the whole experience.”
Wicked Forest will be doing tours Fridays and Saturdays beginning at 7:30 p.m. until Nov. 1. The admission is $15.
For Halloween fans searching for a barn scare, The Haunted Farm will be the perfect fit as creatures like Karver, Cage and Seed bring out the screams in all who attend.
The Haunted Farm, located at 5450 Old Millersport Rd. NE in Pleasantville, is a 15 year-old haunt that takes visitors on three different attractions.
The haunted barn maze is the oldest of the Farm’s attractions. The haunted corn maze is a three acre corn maze. The final attraction, the hayride, takes riders through the back fields of the farm to see the back barn.
The farm also has bonfires and nightly entertainment.
Another trail-style haunt is Forest of Fright — located just over an hour outside of Athens at 7295 Duncan Run Rd. in Philo.
Visitors walk down a trail that is nearly a mile in length through spooky features like Kari’s playhouse, Toxic Terror and the Butcher Shop.
While most of the scares at the Forest are staged, the haunt is known to be haunted by real paranormal activity and is certified by the Ohio Paranormal Investigations.
Forest of Fright features entertainment each night.
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