New England folklore comes alive (or un-dead) to scare your pants off at Trails to Terror

Halloween means a few things to New Englanders: candy, parties, and haunted attractions. For the last 17 years, Trails To Terror has been the go-to haunt for Southern New Englanders looking to get the crap scared out of them.

General Manager Larry Wilhelm, also known as “Scary Larry,” has been with Trails since its fourth season. He worked his way up from set construction and acting, to now, writing the scripts, creating the soundtracks, and working the set design. Wilhelm started as a “lawn haunter” and worked with several other local haunts before joining Trails.

Trails To Terror is divided into two sections. There’s Delamorte’s Haunted Hayride — a half hour ride complete with special effects, scares, and sound effects — and the Forest Of Fear – a walk-through event featuring, as Wilhelm describes, “12 scenes to test your phobias and your nerves.”

Like other haunts, Trails To Terror changes the format every year. This season, appropriately dubbed “Fiendish Fables,” focuses on several New England legends spread out over the massive walking tour. The tales include such high profile events as the Salem witch trials and Lizzie Borden, to more obscure local events such as Mercy Brown (the RI vampire). “The Forest Of Fear walk-through begins with our brand new laser vortex, but we’ve hidden a few surprises within it.”

As Wilhelm explains, other scenarios include “a very unhappy birthday party, a toxic waste dump full of mutants, the ruins of an Egyptian temple, a circuitous butcher shop, a black light clown room, dark woods full of creatures of the night, a squeamish bus ride, hillbillies who are very upset to see you arrive at their moonshine still, a scarecrow forest, a dark maze you’ll never forget, the remains of a lost graveyard and, once you emerge from our underground crypt…” Well. You’ll have to find out for yourselves.

Trails To Terror is located at Highland Farm, 4235 Tower Hill Road, Wakefield, RI. The season runs from 9/27 through 10/27, from 7 pm to 11 pm, with the ticket booth operating from 6:30 pm to 10 pm. There is free parking, and a free shuttle bus runs between it and the Stedman Government Center on the busier nights. Go scare yourself stupid at Trails To Terror, or as their ads say, “It’s time to be afraid of the dark!”