The Ames Haunted Forest is scary. On a scale of 1-pee my pants, I am pretty sure I was in the “I’m sorry I gave you whiplash from pulling your sweatshirt so much, Katie” range. Something to know about the Ames Haunted Forest is that it is different every night. They have different actors and most of them are students who are fundraising for a club. I am in PRSSA and we were supposed to be helping staff the Haunted Forest in exchange for funding for our club, unfortunately everyone wants to do this since its super fun so we weren’t able to. If you are afraid to go into the forest just remember that those actors could be someone like me (a 5’1” girl with no acting experience who giggles a lot).

I did go to the Haunted Forest this weekend and it was a blast. While you’re waiting in line they build your anxiety up by having characters walk around and sneak up behind you while you don’t expect it. One girl pushed her friend out of the way and almost fell into the tarp that blocks the forest from the line of people when she saw the guy dressed as a skeleton behind her.

I was pretty scared to go into the forest since I don’t do well in scary situations; I won’t even watch horror movies unless it’s daytime. One of my friends had some liquid courage before going into the forest, causing him to make this more funny than scary. He had much of his own commentary throughout the forest and would either storm ahead of the group or stop in his tracks (which made that crazy spinning tunnel of death really fun for me, NOT). Two of the actors in the forest ended up breaking character for a minute and laughing at him, especially when he freaked out about a fake spider. After a guy with a chainsaw chased me out, seeing our car was a relief. You would have thought I had a box of puppies trapped in the car with how fast I ran to it. I recommend this forest for anyone who is able to control their bladders and their alcohol.