Scaregrounds house:

By DEBORA SHAULIS
ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
CANFIELD -- You can't scare me. No sir, no way. I have nerves of steel. I'm .... AAUGH! What in Freddy Krueger's name was that?
It was something indistinguishable reaching out for me in the haunted house at Canfield Fairgrounds, which for this month has been renamed "Canfield Scaregrounds."
I admit to being a bit jaded when it comes to Halloween haunts. During the early 1990s, I volunteered at the Niles Jaycees haunted house. One year it was on Tibbetts-Wick Road near state Route 11, then it moved to property off South Main Street, where the new Niles Middle School now stands.
I used to be one of those folks who emerged from the shadows and made visitors jump out of their shoes. So I believed my senses would be on high alert as my stepdaughter and I fumbled our way through the dark corridors of Mid America Events' seasonal attraction. I didn't expect to be jolted, or to yelp with surprise -- but I was and I did, several times.
The house is the best feature at the fairgrounds this year. It has plenty of dark passages, where Freddy, his hockey-masked movie nemesis Jason and all kinds of hairy, scary beings lie in wait.
There's a room full of glow-in-the-dark masks, but you can't tell which ones are just hanging on the wall and which are covering some ghoul's face.
Good props
There are gruesome, movie-quality props in many scenes. The coolest was the illusion we dubbed "Torso Chick," featuring a real young woman. There also was that thing that tried to grab me while I was gawking at some skeletal remains.
We were awestruck by the very tall, sturdy guy who walked up to us wearing the mask of an evil-looking pig. He didn't have to mutter a word. His behemoth size, which we could see in silhouette, said enough.
Visitors must pass through not one but two colorful vortex revolving tunnels -- we called them "Vertigo Tubes" -- that will mess up your equilibrium. In fact, we had done so much winding through the house that I had lost my sense of direction and was convinced that we were walking through the same tunnel twice. Corrin, my stepdaughter, assured me otherwise.
The other attractions at Canfield Scaregrounds are purely optional, if you have time and money to spare. Next to the haunted house is a maze that's called The Tomb. Seasoned Halloweeners will think it's mild compared to the house, but it may be right for parents who wonder if their younger children are ready to be spooked.
There's no roof over the maze, so the glare of lights from the fairgrounds allows you to barely see what -- or who -- is ahead. There are fewer but nonetheless creepy scenes of corpses and creatures and, at least on the night we visited, noticeably fewer actors than in the haunted house.
Disappointment
The haunted hayride was a disappointment. It started out well, with a stop at a portable band shell that was home to a group of deranged clowns who climbed aboard our wagon. After that, the scenes were few and far between.
The scariest part of it all was left to one's imagination, wondering what could leap out at us from those horse stalls or under the grandstands.
Enter Canfield Fairground at the main gate off state Route 46. Hours are 7 to 10 p.m. Thursdays and Sundays and 7 to midnight Fridays and Saturdays.
Adult admission is $8.50 for the haunted house; $7 for either the hayride or maze; and $10 for both the hayride and maze. Admission for children age 6 to 10 is $5 per attraction or $7 for the maze-hayride combo. Children age 5 and under receive free admission to everything.
shaulis@vindy.com