Here's where you can find scares and chills in Livingston County
Owners of Livingston County's four haunted attractions confess they all get a kick out of scaring people.
They also agree that in order to make it in the haunt industry, a more than billion-dollar industry, according to the Haunted Attraction Association, you have to keep frights fresh and switch scares up from year and year.
Chris Schell co-owns Ghostly Grove, a nearly 1-mile haunted trail on part of the Schell Family Farm, located in Pinckney and Putnam Township.
Schell said the attraction has grown and changed each year, and they added several new scenes and about a quarter mile to the trail this year.
"We probably changed up 50% of the trail (from last year)," Schell said. "We even change it up weekend to weekend. We take people down different trails. We like to keep people on their toes."
Livingston County's newest haunted attraction, Slay Nights, debuted in Howell Township last year.
Local businessman and building owner Dwayne Combs said he wanted to bring a different type of haunted attraction to the county. Slay Nights is an indoor haunt through two stories and about 10,000 square feet.
Combs said he hired professional haunt designers, who helped create this year's theme of a haunted video store.
"Really this area needed it, an indoor haunt, and it’s just a really fun industry to be in and provide for the community," he said.
Slaughterhouse Adventure and Grand River Corn Maze creator Ken Evans is celebrating his 20th season of haunting near Fowlerville. The haunted attraction features a haunted house, escape rooms and corn mazes, and Evans said he expects to offer haunted hayrides again later in the season.
"I always change up rooms (in the haunted house) every year," Evans said.
He said he enjoys writing original haunted scenes, like theatrical productions, and some of his biggest influences are Universal Studios theme park and magician Chris Angel, and people have been enjoying his take on "evil Colonel Sander."
Terrorfied Forest co-owner Marie Butler said she changes the Pinckney haunted trail every year, since she and her husband Byron Butler took over ownership in 2019. They added a haunted structure at the entrance in 2020, and the trail will feature more new scenes this year.
"You have a lot of people who just go through," for the scares, Butler said. "Then you have the diehards who are looking for the little extras, the 10% who see the details I do, the time I spent on it, and they are looking for those little changes. And those people are big for word of mouth, they are the big reviewers."
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Where to find haunted attractions in Livingston County
The county features two haunted trails, a new indoor haunt that opened last year, and a longtime haunted site with multiple attractions. They all feature monsters, ghouls, startles and spooky scenes, that are not for the faint of heart.
Ghostly Grove
10055 Dexter-Pinckney Road on the Pinckney-Putnam Township line
An outdoor haunted trail featuring actors and haunted scenes
The haunt runs through Oct. 30. It is open 7:45 p.m. to midnight Oct. 14, 15, 21, 22, 23, 28, 29 and 30
Tickets are $25 per person
More information is available at www.ghostlygrove.com
Chris Schell and his wife Dea Greer Schell have been transforming their 250-acre farm and woods into an agricultural tourism and entertainment destination since 2019.
The Schells have added new scenes, structures and lengths of trail to the haunt each year.
"It's a super, dark thick woods," Chris Schell said. "It's gnarly. I mean, we have nice clean trails, but to the sides it's gnarly and as dark as possible."
He said Ghostly Grove is scary and not for the faint of heart. Monsters, frights and haunted structures are lurking in the woods.
The haunt also offers a less scary version for those who request it. Guests can pick up pacifiers that glow at the ticket booth.
"If they have a pacifier, then actors turn to goofing with them, playing with the kids, so they can still enjoy the scenes."
The Schell Family Farm also offers other family friendly activities, including pumpkin and apple picking and a free 5-acre corn maze. The farm is also flush with mums and offers freshly made doughnuts.
Ghostly Grove will host a trick-or-treating event for kids and their families from 2 to 4 p.m. Oct. 9.
"Local businesses in the community set up on the trail and hand out candy," Schell said.
Slay Nights
1800 N. Burkhart Road, Howell Township; the haunt is in the north end of the building
Approximately 10,000-square-foot indoor haunt in two-story building
The haunt runs through Oct. 30 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Ticket sales are open 7:30 p.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday, and guests must be in line by midnight; and 7:30 to 11 p.m. Sundays, and guests must be in line by 11 p.m.
Tickets are $20 per person
More information is available at www.slaynights.com
Combs said the indoor haunt is set up in a series of rooms and actors may change up performances throughout the season.
"Every year we change our theme, this year our theme is 'nightmare connection,' and the back story of it is a video store goes out of business, as it sits dilapidated over the years, it becomes haunted," he said. "The movies left in there are coming alive and the only section left is the horror section."
Co-owner James Hogg, his brother Robert Laughlin and haunt designer Trevor Petherbridge created the scary scenes.
“What I want to do, I want to create something new each year, if a customer comes through one year and them comes through the next year, it’s something different. It’s not the same haunted house,” Hogg said.
He said this year’s haunted video store theme is also a throwback to the 1980s and ’90s, with scenes featuring Freddy Krueger, Chucky and other famous horror movie characters that come to life at the haunt.
Combs also owns Castaway Play Cafe, an indoor children's playground located at the same address, and said haunted houses are a fun but totally different form of family entertainment.
The haunt is a separate business from the indoor playground, with its own entrance, but it does take visitors through the laser tag area.
"In the family entertainment industry, a big part of it is haunted houses," Combs said. "It’s a fun facet of the industry."
"This year, we’re bigger and better," he said.
Slaughterhouse Adventure & Grand River Corn Maze
5781 W. Grand River Ave., Fowlerville
The haunted site includes the Slaughterhouse haunted house, a haunted corn maze, and escapes rooms called Hillcrest Asylum and Jigsaw's Escape Room; It also features a non-haunted corn maze; haunted hayrides are expected to be announced later this season.
The haunt runs weekends through the end of October. Current information on which attractions are open is posted on the haunt's website and Facebook page.
Haunts typically open at dusk and close "when the last body falls."
Tickets are $20 for one event and $35 for two events; Tickets for the non-haunted corn maze are $7 and sold separately; Tickets for the escapes rooms are $15 for 30 minutes and $20 for an hour on Fridays and Saturdays, and groups of 10 or more may reserve spots. Escape room turns start at 7 p.m. and run by the hour.
More information is available at www.slaughterhouseadventure.net
Evans said he comes up with ideas for haunted house scenes throughout the year. He is also a standup comic, who is always collecting material.
He said the Slaughterhouse scenes are performance-based and theatrical.
"I like to create tension, and then there are some entertainment factors," he said. "I want to make it a mix of Chris Angel 'Mindfreak' twists and some startle scares.
"It's also Universal Studios inspired, because (at the theme park) you walk through 'The Terminator,' 'Jaws,' 'King Kong,'" he said. "What I built this house to be is you're walking through a scene, like you're part of a movie or a play."
He said people should check the website or Facebook to see which events are open which nights.
"We're picking two events and we put it on the web page, the first couple of weeks, it will be the field (haunted corn maze) and haunted house, and we'll try to get the hayride open the last three weeks," he said.
Terrorfied Forest
145 Swarthout Road, Pinckney
A nearly 1-mile haunted trail with structures and monsters in the woods
The haunt is open through Oct. 30
The haunt is open 7:30-9:30 p.m. Thursdays; 7:30 p.m. to midnight Fridays; 7:30 to midnight Saturdays; 7:30-9:30 p.m. Sundays
General admission is $25 per person; VIP passes are $35; Groups of 20 or more receive a discount of $3 per ticket.
More information and online tickets are available at www.terrorfiedforest.com
The haunted trail features a variety of scenes and monsters, as well as an overall theme that changes year to year.
"This year the story is based off the professor and the professor's bride, who died, and he's trying to bring her back to life," said Marie Butler, who also works as a special effects makeup artist when she isn't helping run her father's dental office.
She said, in the story, the professor practices on other people, turning them into different creatures released into the woods.
"We have different sets, but it still ties into a story," she said.
Some nights, Butler's character Red Rex shows up at the haunt.
"Red Rex shows up Fridays and Saturdays and is a post-apocalyptic character who survives and turns into the boss of everyone she encounters," she said. "She's a little sassy and when you meet her, she's loud and crazy and carries a bat covered in her victims."
Contact Livingston Daily reporter Jennifer Eberbach at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: How Livingston County's 4 haunted attractions change up scares
