On October 21, the Middletown High School North senior council, assisted by the junior council, hosted the annual Haunted Woods at Tindall Park to fundraise for the upcoming year.

The trail was designed around the theme of the popular television show American Horror Story throughout the seasons. With two junior council members leading the group venturing into the woods, the experience opens up with the first scene, based around the first season of AHS entitled ‘Murder House.’ Students disguised as creepy characters from the show are there to greet the tour group.

Next, the trail moves into the Asylum season, which was defined by terrifying nuns and priests seeming to be exorcising possessed victims. The woods were transformed into a corrupt mental asylum, chilling all of those who walked through.

Following the Asylum scene, the tour group was led into the Coven scene, where realistic witches were there to greet them. Adorned by black clothing, the senior actors reenacted scenes from the show in which a ritual was being held.

If that did not scare the tour group enough, Tindall Park soon turned into a Freak Show, with horrifying clowns and circus members, including contortionists, meeting you. Air was puffed into the audience’s face as they travelled through, and the senior students excelled in scaring their audience.

The tour group made a quick stop at the haunted Hotel, where reservations had already been made for them. Vampire-turned workers spooked the tour guides by sneaking up on them in the midst of a cob-webbed hotel setting. “We hope you enjoyed your stay,” a vampire said as they exited the scene.

The trail took a turn in time to Roanoke, Virginia, to discover the secrets of the Lost Colony. Tattered actors warned the group upon arrival to not enter, but the group pursued the trail to find a creepy scene of witchcraft in the colonial era. Cannibalistic colonists jumped out at the tour group as modern-era teenagers screamed for help.

In the last scene of the trail, clowns either on bicycles or traipsing around the woods taunted the tour group in the Cult scene. At this point, the tour group was thoroughly scared, and the trail was met with horrified screams.

“It was actually super scary,” MHSN student Taylor Pecoraro told the Lion’s Roar. “I wasn’t expecting that. I found myself screaming, like, the whole time.”

The Haunted Woods trail succeeded in raising sufficient money on behalf of the Senior and Junior Council, and those who contributed in making it as successful did an exemplary job.