Coulrophobia times five
Fright Night opens at Two Rivers Wildlife Park on Friday
There are all kinds of chilling clowns along the Fright Night trail at Two Rivers Wildlife Park in Huntington, including some found hanging around a creepy clown doll on a swing, from left, employee Shauna Wells, volunteers Cameron MacLean and Phalen Huntington and staff member Kelly Huntington. Organizers say anyone who suffers from a certain phobia — coulrophobia, which is a fear of clowns —will likely find their worst nightmare somewhere along the Fright Night the 15th trail at the park, which has its first sessions of the Halloween season on Friday and Saturday nights.
If you have a fear of clowns, get ready for your worst nightmare.
Two Rivers Wildlife Park is preparing for “Fright Night 15th: The Nightmare Continues,” and creepy clowns will play a big part in the annual scarefest.
“Expect to see your biggest fear because there will be clowns of all shapes and forms,” said park manager Johnny Huntington.
“They’ve been coming out from V.J. McGillivray Funeral Home every year since we started. Anyone who dares to enter their cabin had better beware, as you never know what they are going to come up with. They know how to scare.”
Park manager Johnny Huntington
He said the idea for a clown theme came from the recently released popular horror movie “It”.
“Oh, there’s lots (of clowns) and these ones are frightening.”
Fright Night, a major fundraiser for the park, kicks off Friday and continues Saturday, as well as Oct. 27 and Oct. 28, with a children’s Halloween party on Oct. 29.
The park’s Fright Nights have a reputation for being scarier than expectations.
“People have told us they have peed ‘a little bit’ and others said they peed ‘a whole lot,’” Huntington said, laughing. “As a result, a couple years ago as a joke we handed out Depends to those in the lineup.”
Huntington said they’ve not only had people who found the trail so terrifying they couldn’t handle it and turned back, but they’ve also had people who never got further than the lineup itself.
“It’s the noises and screaming going on inside the woods,” he said.
Huntington said once the trail sounds start, the park animals like the coyotes and wolves join in and some people just can’t bring themselves to enter the trail.
“There’s one girl every year she shows up, makes it as far as the entrance and turns around and goes home again. She said she’s going to keep trying.”
There are about 100 volunteers who take part in Fright Night, including groups who create themes in the 10 cabins along the kilometer-long trail.
“They’ve been coming out from V.J. McGillivray Funeral Home every year since we started,” he said of one such group.
“Anyone who dares to enter their cabin had better beware, as you never know what they are going to come up with. They know how to scare.”
Cabins have included everything from a headless horseman to
Ghostbusters in the past and the trail proves nothing is off limits. Two years in a row there was a tunnel people had walk through while live rats ran above them.
The rats were contained but people could see and hear them as they scuttled about.
“We also had an area people had to cross over and below could see a tank of eels swimming around bones.”
The Cape Breton Post had a preview of part of the trail and found it spooky even in daylight, with glimpses of faces people don’t want to see around this time of year, such as Jason from the “Friday the 13th” movies and Michael Myers from the “Halloween” horror series.
There are witches and monsters — including some without heads and, in some cases, some without eyes. Witch doctors and lots of body parts, a swinging bridge, graveyards, mazes and tunnels all add to the macabre fun.
And then there are the clowns, which are not only spine-chilling but unforgettable.
For this reporter, the nightmares have already begun.