Fall is here — let the haunting begin

East of Siloam Springs lies a swath of forest that herald in the beginning of Fall with a delightful show of reds, oranges and yellows. And alongside that forest, east of Siloam Springs’ city limits, Riverside Entertainment celebrates a new autumn with the turning leaves.

“Fall is about haunted houses and leaves changing and corn maze type stuff,” said Kevin Williams, one of the managers of Riverside Entertainment. “It’s the perfect fall activity.”

The company offers yearround entertainment and events, but fall is where Riverside Entertainment has the most of its focus. Fall sees the opening of a haunted house, a haunted corn maze and a hayride-style attraction that allows guests to shoot paintball guns at actors, known as the zombie shoot.

This year’s iteration of the haunted house contains 21 themed rooms, which are all new. The rooms were built after flooding in April left the complex’s main building under seven feet of water, Williams said. The damage necessitated innovation, he said.

Each of the rooms fit a distinct theme, such as classic haunted scenes, creepy clowns or zombies.

“All of our rooms try to play off of a fear people have, like hospitals,” Williams said.

The corn maze for the 2017 season is more of a haunted,

guided trail than a maze. Williams said the trail was made more linear because guests were prone to miss sections of the attraction if they took a wrong turn or skipped a portion of the maze. A non-linear maze also made it difficult for the actors in the maze to interact with guests without getting out of position and missing other guests.

Someone walking through the trail this year will find a series of decorations and scares themed after a classic Lewis Carrol novel. The props are brightly colored and are an imaginative interpretation of Carrol’s work.

Also returning to Riverside Entertainment’s lineup this year is the zombie shoot. Guests, armed with paintball guns, ride a trailer through a course filled with haunts and actors. This year’s zombie shoot is pirate-themed, and culminates in a ship-to-ship battle with a pirate captain, Williams said.

Riverside Entertainment’s season began during the first weekend of October when the group’s staff of over 70 served more than 530 guests. On weekends, the facility opens to sell tickets at 6:30 p.m., with events beginning at 7 p.m. Williams said he recommends children be at least 10 years old before participating in the haunted house or corn maze.

Williams is half of one of three couples that have run Riverside Entertainment for eight years. The group also sells fireworks in the summer and hosts murder mystery dinner parties in the offseason.

“We will all go to the conventions, learn about the haunt industry,” Williams said. “There’s more to it than you’d think.”