An attraction like Scary Acres takes a lot of work to go from concept to the real thing (or the surreal thing!) We asked longtime cast member and manager B.R. to give us a behind-the-scenes look at the experience.

“Each year, the work begins in summer as we inspect the layout and scenes of the attraction. Some of these displays have been around for years, and patrons enjoy seeing them again and again. We’ll hear people ask for the chainsaw guy or the butcher, and it’s great to know that these things are remembered from season to season,” says B.R. However, don’t rest on your laurels, people…one of the major goals of Scary Acres is to change things up to scare you even more! B.R. tells us, “We always tweak the sets. Some may need to be refurbished because they’re run down after a few years of use, but more often, we want to relocate the displays so there’s more of an element of surprise. You don’t know what to expect, it will always be different each year—that’s part of what makes it good and scary.” 

Some changes to this year’s event included the corn maze and wagon ride, and often, patrons’ reactions in the initial weeks have an influence on how the attraction evolves.  This season, over 40 actors will populate the corn maze on a nightly basis, with the sole purpose of scaring the people in it. How do you manage and direct this kind of operation? “It’s a crazy process, trying to scare the daylights out of people. Even within the season, changes are being made,” B.R. added. “Last year, there was a lot of bottlenecking in the corn maze, people were getting lost. So this year, we made the corn maze a little less complex so people can flow through it more easily and get to the characters and displays. There are fewer dead ends so people spend less time backtracking and seeing the same events. We also added more corridors where patrons can walk through without characters—this adds to the suspense and allows people to create their own interactions. We love to see a big group of people freaking each other out in the maze.” Do I detect an evil cackle, there, B.R.?

Come see the new, scarier Scary Acres…it’s something new every year!