Category: Featured Content

Prepare for scares at haunted attractions

From killer clowns to bloodthirsty zombies, New Hampshire haunted houses have scares for everyone.

At Spooky World in Litchfield, open weekends through the end of October, you’ll visit four frightening attractions, including Brigham Manor, an estate with a horrifying history now haunted by tormented spirits; The Colony,a labyrinth in which you’re hunted by sadistic unearthly creatures; Dreamscape, where your worst nightmares — spiders, snakes, aliens, clowns and more — come to life in a 3D experience; and the popular one-mile, 22-minute Haunted Hayride, which takes passengers through a number of scream-worthy scenes.

“You’ve got your cemetery scene, and, of course, you’ve got your creatures from the dead who attack the wagon,” Spooky World co-owner Mike Accomando said. “You’ll see an abandoned house that has been taken over by a cult, and — this one really freaks people out — an abandoned barn and campsite that has been completely taken over by spiders. It’s just littered with them.”

Fright Kingdom in Nashua also has four attractions. There’s Apocalypse Z, a military bunker that has been overrun by zombies; Bloodmare Manor, a Victorian mansion inhabited by the diabolical Bloodmare family; The Abandoned, an old abandoned farm house linked to a series of disappearances of people in town; and, finally, Psycho Circus, a 3D experience where you’re taunted by insane clowns and inundated with sensory illusions that may make you question your own sanity.

“We really try to take [visitors] out of the real world and put them into our world with everything we do,” Fright Kingdom owner Tim Dunne said. “We use animatronics; we have well over a hundred animatronic effects alone. We also use lighting. We use smells. We use video and sound effects and music — all kinds of things to create an atmosphere.”

Haunted Houses have had to make some adjustments this year to allow for social distancing and prevent the spread of Covid-19. At Spooky World and Fright Kingdom, capacity has been reduced, and tickets must be purchased for specific time slots in advance. Both parks require visitors to wear masks at all times, and Fright Kingdom is conducting health questionnaires and touchless temperature checks with all visitors and staff before they enter the park, Dunne said.

Accomando said Spooky World hired more staff than ever before to help keep the park safe.

“Because of the new regulations, there are so many more things we have to take care of,” he said. “We need [staff for] crowd control, for directing people, for sanitizing the [Haunted Hayride] wagon between rides and sanitizing all of the haunts every single night.”

Another big change is that groups from each household are ushered through the attractions in a staggered manner so that they don’t come in close contact with other groups.

“Typically, when it gets busy, we send in larger groups of people who may not know each other, because we have to move things along, but we aren’t doing that now,” Dunne said. “Now, you only go through with the people you came with, which means you’ll have to wait longer, but on the other side of the coin, it means you’re going to have a more personalized experience, and people love that.”

The scares will look much different this year. Actors won’t be able to “get right in your face” anymore, which Spooky World has “always been known for,” Accomando said, and actors at Fright Kingdom are doing their scares from behind plexiglass walls.

“It’s definitely been challenging, having to distance the actors,” Dunne said. “You’re always going to get a better scare when you come into someone’s personal space.”

But Accomando said Covid-19 has pushed Spooky World to get creative with alternative scare techniques and expand its special effects to compensate for the restrictions with the actors.

“Don’t get me wrong; it’s been challenging, but it’s also been exciting to use this new format,” he said. “It’s not going to be what people are accustomed to, but I think we’ve really stepped things up a notch to make sure that we’re still giving people a good show.”

Haunted attractions

Halloween seems like the perfect time to celebrate the fun kind of scariness — but of course it will look different this year. Check out recommendations for trick-or-treating safely, plus all kinds of happenings for kids and adults, from costume contests to haunted houses. Just remember that all events are subject to change (boo) and may have specific safety rules, so check before you head out for your Halloween fun.

Trick-or-treat safely

State offers suggestions

Though the CDC is calling traditional trick-or-treating a “higher risk” activity, state public health officials have created a safety tip sheet for families that want to trick-or-treat and people who want to give out candy.
The tip sheet was provided to most municipalities and is available to view online at readynh.gov. It offers suggestions like wearing a mask or face-covering when handing out candy, and bringing a bottle of alcohol-based hand sanitizer with you while out trick-or-treating.
“Certainly the things we’ve been saying all along … remain true for Halloween,” said Paul Raymond Jr., a spokesman for the state’s Covid-19 Joint Information Center. “Everybody needs to be aware and take preventative measures, including practicing six-foot social distancing, covering their nose and mouth and practicing good hand hygiene.”
Designated trick-or-treat times for Halloween have historically been set at the local level, usually either by a town or city’s board of selectmen or police department. A majority of communities are carrying on with the same days and times they normally do each year, but with the caveat that they could be subject to change based on the rate of positive Covid-19 tests in the days leading up to Halloween.
Some towns, like Exeter and Mont Vernon, have moved up the trick-or-treating times to earlier in the day as a way to better enforce regulations before the onset of darkness. Officials of other towns, like Chester, Fremont and Gilford, have decided not to set any hours at all.
Some cities and towns are recommending creative methods of handing out candy to promote social distancing. Officials in Nashua, for example, which will observe trick-or-treating from 6 to 8 p.m. on Oct. 31, are suggesting people individually wrap goodie bags and line them up for trick-or-treaters to grab at the end of their driveway or edge of their yard. Others are strongly recommending against trick-or-treating altogether, especially in popular communal areas like town commons, and instead recommend some type of stay-at-home Halloween activity, like a family scavenger-style hunt in your backyard.
If you are going to go door to door, many towns recommend you do so in small groups and stay within your neighborhood as much as possible. A Halloween costume mask, Raymond said, is not a substitute for a cloth mask or face-covering and should not be worn underneath. Instead, the CDC recommends using a Halloween-themed cloth mask.

Neighborhood trick-or-treat times