Grove City’s Trail of Terror taking spooky fun to the limit

Legend has it, the mutated victims of a toxic waste dump reanimate every Halloween season in the woods of Grove City.

Vicious cannibals, rabid animals and other creatures that go bump in the night are said to haunt the secluded trail where the shady (and fictional) LYNCON Corporation carelessly dumped barrels of harmful waste 50 years ago.

Central Ohioans may know the site better as Kickmaster Footgolf.

But for six weekends in the fall, the location will take on a decidedly spookier ambience. Visitors brave enough to walk the Trail of Tormented Terror will be treated to a variety frightening scenes.

Donnie Hoover, a selfprofessed horror aficionado, and wife Terrie worked with Kickmaster Footgolf owners Bob Clanin and Debbie Guzzo to get the first terror trail up and running for three weeks in 2017.

It returns this year with a longer run, several more scenes and more props.

“It’s the same haunt, but it’s a different haunt, so What: Trail of Tormented Terror Where: Kickmaster Footgolf, 1700 Dyer Road, Grove City Contact: www.trailof tormentedterror.com Times: 8 p.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays through October; a childfriendly version of the trail is scheduled for 1 to 4 p.m. Oct. 20 and Oct. 27 Admission: $15, or $20 for VIP tickets, $5 for kids 12 and younger; admission free to child-friendly events

there’s new stuff to do and new things to experience,” said Donnie Hoover, 46, who with his wife also owns and operates New Ohio Wrestling out of Kickmaster Footgolf. “It’s just so much fun.”

Zombies, werewolves, evil clowns and a witch doctor are ready to terrorize those who travel the trail, which wends through the woods on the outskirts of the footgolf course.

Visitors pass through a chainsaw maze, an abandoned cabin and a skull hall — a 144-foot-long hallway shaped like a skull that serves as an entrance to the trail.

Terrie Hoover, who is admittedly not a fan of scares — “I’m the one who’s jumping and crying,” she said — uses the planning phases to temper her husband’s more-macabre impulses.

A golden rule, she said, is if it scares the daylights out of her, it’s likely too intense for guests.

“I do have to try to hold him back because he would be all-out,” the 42-year-old said.

The Hoovers said they recommend parents use their discretion about bringing children younger than 12, but the trail is open to visitors of all ages. The actors will not grab or intentionally touch the guests.

“I don’t like terrorizing people to where they’re legitimately scared and crying,” said Donnie Hoover, who plays a cannibalistic butcher this year. “My favorite type of scare is when I scare someone real good (and) as soon as they’re done screaming, they’re laughing.”

If the trail is too intense for some of the younger guests, parents can bring the kids to family-oriented afternoons at the end of October. From 1 to 4 p.m. Oct. 20 and 27, the Hoovers will partner with the Arnold Sports Festival to offer a free walk of the trail in daylight.

Some of the less-scary characters will be on site, but rather than hiding and chasing the guests, they’ll be handing out candy.

“We want to give back to the community,” Terrie Hoover said. “We want to get the word out that we exist.”

The character that Keith Newsome plays, however, is not among the less scary.

Depending on the night, Newsome may be Zomketh — a zombie mutant — or Snappy the Clown.

Both characters amp up the creep factor.

Snappy — a red-haired, mallet-wielding clown — oscillates from goodnatured and humorous to dark and demonic.

Although Newsome is mostly sidelined in a chair with unrelated injuries, he said other actors won’t hold back on the scares.

“We will go after you pretty much full bore,” Newsome said. “We just want you to walk into it and believe it.”