You've been warned
Photos by LOREN BENOIT/Press Park guests walk through clown town during the opening night Friday night at Scarywood at Silverwood Theme Park.
An actor pops around the corner to scare Daniel Mckeirnan as he makes his way through the Valley of the Queens section of Silverwood’s new Scarywood attraction Pharaoh’s Curse.
Guests ride the Corkscrew rollercoaster during opening night Friday night at Scarywood. LOREN BENOIT/Press
Park guests make their way through Silverwood's new Scarywood attraction Pharaoh's Curse on Friday at Silverwood Theme Park. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)
By DEVIN WEEKS
Staff Writer
ATHOL — The newest haunt at Scarywood Haunted Nights is leaving park guests petrified and screaming for their … mummy.
"It's fun," said Rose Nelson of Hayden, who was one of the first to go through Pharaoh's Curse with her husband, Matt, when the park first opened Friday night.
"As a fright-seeker, it's really well done. It's really dark. There's a lot of strobes," she said. "There's a lot of rights and lefts, so it gets you disoriented."
"There were a couple times the monsters got between her and I," said Matt, a Scarywood first-timer. "We go to haunts all the time. October is our month, we got married in October. We live for this kind of stuff. It was really well done for a brand-new maze."
Pharaoh's Curse takes those who dare to enter into a winding tomb where menacing undead ancient Egyptian guardians lurk in the shadows.
"It definitely messes with your head," said the Nelsons' nephew, Casey Cook, 11, who was also enjoying his first adventure into Scarywood. "Some of them are dummies, some of them are not and it's hard to see with the strobe lights."
Howls, growls, shrieks, freaks and creatures of the night are more abundant than ever throughout Scarywood this Halloween season with nearly 200 actors scattered in the dark corners of the park.
Siverwood Theme Park's evil twin features five walk-through haunts of varying intensity and several scare zones where scarecrows, undead dolls and other terrifying ghouls await their next victims.
Also new this year is the horror-themed magic show, "Dillusion," with Nick and Amanda Norton.
"You can imagine the kind of scary things that will be going on in that," said Amanda Noah, Silverwood's marketing manager. "We're really excited about that."
The twisted world of Blood Bayou has returned to haunt the dreams of Scarywood visitors long after they leave the park.
"I'm sweating," said Danni Barden of St. Maries after she exited the haunt. "I'm scared of the dark and I'm an incredible wuss anyway and I don't like to be scared."
"I just think it's fun to see all the different costumes and decorations," said Barden's sister, Brandi Scheffelmaier.
"It is a little scary," said Scheffelmaier's daughter, Brooklyn, 8.
Scarywood is now open for the Halloween season from 7 to 11 p.m. Thursdays and from 7 p.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays.
For prices and details, visit www.scarywoodhaunt.com.