Last Saturday night the line at Oldsmobile Park’s “Fright Night” stretched from the haunted stadium’s entrance nearly to Michigan Avenue.
And the teeny-boppin’ youths of the Lansing area, families, students and others that waited there had a common goal: to be scared - or at least entertained.
“It was good, and I was scared, definitely,” said former Lansing resident Tameko Watts after her walk through the dark, spooked-up corridors of Oldsmobile Park.
“We were at Detroit last weekend and it was a lot more expensive, so this was pretty good for the price,” said Rob Slonaker, who accompanied Watts that evening.
Dewitt resident Joseph Fase brought Joseph Fase Jr., 6, to Fright Night Saturday.
“Um, the train was the best,” decided the younger Fase after his haunted experience. “I was like ‘ahhhhh!’ and I was running with her,” he said, and re-enacted the experience with Barb Adkins, who accompanied the pair that night.
“When you come out toward the end a big light shines and noise blares,” Fase Sr. said.
The Lansing area offers an array of simulated haunting experiences.
Sundance Riding Stables, 9250 Nixon Road in Grand Ledge, has a haunted barn and hayride, and Sundance employee Angie Hansen said the business of spooking was quite steady last weekend.
“There are 20 to 25 people who will go out into the woods for about a 20 minute hayride,” she said of Sundance’s hayride offers. “Things jump out and scare you, drop out of the trees, all kinds of different setups. We have a witches pit where they serve you cider and doughnuts.
“We have a haunted barn, too.”
How frightening the experience will be depends on age and personality, she said.
“There are parts where it’s entertaining and other parts, depending on your personality, that could be scary. The hayride is more for the family, the house is scarier, for an older crowd.”
One neighborhood in the Lansing area offers a tour of “real” haunted houses.
The Genesee Neighborhood Association will host “Halloween’s Haunted Walking Tour” this Friday and Saturday night.
“Each house has a story told about it that is as true as can possibly be,” said Rick Bowers, an organizer of the event.
“The owners may have embellished them.
“Two of the four houses people see stuff all the time, every day. You don’t go inside the houses, but the story is told about their house.”
Proceeds benefit the Genessee Neighborhood Association.
“My house is on this tour,” Bowers said. “Things happen there that probably shouldn’t. It makes you wonder.”
