The extreme brothers grim, Gene and Jim Schopf, return for the 23th season to scare the pants off of Halloween thrill-seekers with their latest collection of macabre interactions.
Specifically, victims willing to seek out a quiet borough in Lancaster County will find a quartet of attractions surrounding a carnival-style midway bursting with hard rock music, games and roaming ghouls.
Let’s start with the traditional Haunted Hayride, transformed into roughly a 20-minute gantlet of shock. Climb aboard the wagon while being greeted by a massive, animated pumpkin creature and get pulled into horrifically detailed, live-action scenes contained in warehouses and along the cornfield route.
Riders will encounter twisted clowns within a circus tent threatening to smother all, flesh-eating pigs, a massive snake hidden in a greenhouse, a family of cannibalistic hillbillies, chainsaw-wielding lunatics, a vertigo-inducing tunnel and also experience the finer points of a guillotine execution.
Next, visitors can stroll through a Nocturnal Wasteland loaded with toxic waste barrels and mutated inhabitants. Be it moving through a bus filled with awakening zombies, avoiding a human trapper, ducking gas-mask-wearing ghouls or escaping through sewer pipes, the over 20-minute-long workout is not for the faint of heart or anyone afraid to sweat.
I’d then suggest taking a breather before entering my two favorite attractions at Field of Screams, each offering some gory, old-school, haunted-house action.
First, thrill-seekers walk through the multistory Frightmare Asylum and its new wing called the Crazies Quarters.
This old barn converted to a research hospital for the insane will be most remembered during a recent visit for its complementary pungent smell, thanks to a humid, misty night.
The odor of moldy concrete and sweat-covered latex mixed in perfectly with a smothering atmosphere highlighting experiment rooms containing faceless nurses and homicidal doctors carving up their patients to deliver a too-grotesque version of the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Saw.”
Now, of all the attractions, I am clearly partial to this year’s version of the Den of Darkness, a real haunted barn from the 1800s converted into a old-fashioned, 3.5-story mansion of horror.
Invited in by a pair of paranormal females conducting a seance, visitors maneuver through claustrophobic corridors to view full-size, living dioramas loaded with stalkers in areas such as an old-fashioned hunting club, a classic 1920s ballroom and a meat locker.
I caution humans bearing wide loads. Walking up and down tight staircases and crawling through an attic will be more straining to the heart than many of the frights.
The full-sized doll room in the Den takes this year’s cool make-up award for the Field of Screams. A supposedly elderly women dressed in antique garb slowly crept up to me and flashed a chewed-off face only a zombie would love.
It’s worth noting throughout that the ghouls are especially feisty this year, and I caution patrons that many of the creatures are more than happy to run a chainsaw up a leg, hurl insults or dares, paw at torsos and scream full throttle into shocked faces.
Also, for those looking to frazzle their vocal chords, Field of Screams extends its season to Friday, Nov. 13, to offer an unusual option called Extreme Blackout. You guessed it. Visitors must journey through the attractions in total darkness.
IF YOU DARE GO
Fear factor (out of 5): 4.25 for adults; children younger than 14 need not apply.
Hours: Open weekends through Nov. 8 — Friday, Saturday and Sunday and Nov. 13, 6 to 1:30 p.m.
Price range: $16 to $18 for individual attractions to $34 for a “Scream Pass” accessing all four attractions (look online for daily deal sites to find less wallet-bleeding pricing).
Website: https://www.fieldofscreams.com
• Joseph Szadkowski can be reached at jszadkowski@washingtontimes.com.
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