BOO! This past Saturday, Lenape’s juniors went on a class trip to Six Flags Great Adventure. Leading up to Halloween, the park was hosting its annual Fright Fest, and you better bet us juniors were scared (well, most of us).

In case you don’t already know, Fright Fest is a scary celebration that starts in mid-September and ends after Halloween. This seasonal event happens every day after sunset around 6 pm. During these couple of hours, the park sets up haunted houses and scare zones, specific areas of the park where actors dressed as zombies, witches, clowns, etc. try and scare guests. Now, this isn’t your typical scare; these actors look extremely realistic, pop out of nowhere and chase after you, and sometimes even touch you. In fact, the park recommends children younger than 13 leave the park by 5:30 to avoid this event.

Personally, I get scared very easily. I never watch horror movies and always jump when someone tries to sneak up behind me. I’m probably the biggest “scaredy-cat” ever, so you can imagine the type of night I had.

Luckily, I have amazing friends that helped me through Fright Fest, and we planned things out very well. Before walking through a scare zone, we would wait until a big group of people walked by us. That way, the actors couldn’t target a single person since the group was too big. 

I’m not going to lie… sometimes our scare plan didn’t exactly work. A couple of times, I separated from the large group because I was too timid to keep walking (yes, my friends had to drag me through a few scare zones–sorry Dae!). One time, there was a scare actor to the left of me and another with a shovel behind me. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried looking to your left and behind at the same time, but it’s very difficult. I ended up running out of the zone (thankfully without any altercations, unlike last year when I fell down a hill while running away from clowns. Yes, I still have knee scars from this incident).

One particular time, I got very spooked and ended up letting a few tears go. Although, in my defense, the tears were a combination of adrenaline, laughter, and fear. 

You’re probably wondering why I walked through the scare zones if I get spooked so easily. Well, it was because I really wanted to ride the Harley Quinn and the only way to get there was to walk through two (yes–two!) scare zones.

Of course, not everyone was as scared as I was. For instance, my friend, Ariana Prenaj, wasn’t even a little scared. She walked by those actors like they were trees and didn’t even flinch. She even wanted to check out the rest of the scare zones to see if they were any creepier! Another one of my friends, Jind Kaur, was also not scared. She said the key was walking through the zones with confidence because they only come after you if they think you’re scared of them. However, this is a lot easier said than done. This was originally my plan, but as soon as I saw the actors, I was a goner.

Overall, I actually enjoyed Fright Fest… I think. This is what I say after the fact, but if you asked me to go back to that park right now, I would probably say no. It’s not my cup of tea, but I’m glad I got to experience it with my friends. In fact, if I wasn’t with my friends, I probably would have hidden in a shop the entire night. Just like people say, everything’s easier to handle with good friends– including scare actors.