Be on the lookout for Chainsaw Charlie and packs of roving zombies.
Two of Surrey’s biggest Halloween attractions are now open for the season – Potters House of Horrors, celebrating a decade of thrills and chills in 2012, and the Haunted Forest Scream Train in Bear Creek Park, home to a certain goalie mask-wearing, chainsaw-wielding madman.
Potters House of Horrors isn’t so much a haunted house as it is a dark, disorienting labyrinth of doom filled with lurching live actors in terrifying special effects makeup, a dazzling and amazing array of animatronics that can appear startlingly real, and meticulously-designed scenes of utter horror, the more gruesome the better.
In other words, it’s 10,000 square feet of scare.
The Potters crew starts putting the house of horrors together months in advance to get ready in time.
This year’s offering – 10 Years of Fear – pays homage to the great thrills of the past plus plenty of new scares, including living zombies, creepy creatures and sickening scenes.
Not for the faint of heart, even the website is scary, with creepy sound effects, scuttling insects, and images of gruesomely-grinning ghouls.
It’s open nightly from Oct.
12 to 31. Ticket prices vary. From Oct. 12-18 and Oct. 21 to 25, general admission is $15 for adults and $10 for children aged 12 and under, and $25 for a speed pass, allowing you to jump the usually lengthy queue (but true fans know that’s part of the experience). From Oct. 19 to 20 and from Oct. 26 to 31 admission is $17/$12, and $35 for a speed pass.
[Left: the disorienting vortex of horror at Potters]
Family hour from 6-7 p.m. is for little kids and scaredy-cats, and offers a tamer version of the horror attraction, but be warned: from 7 to 10 p.m. “all hell breaks loose”.
It’s located at Potters Nursery at 12530 72 Avenue, in Surrey, one block west of Kwantlen University’s Surrey campus.
The 13th annual Haunted Forest Scream Train offers a frightful train ride into the dark forest loaded with scary creatures of the night.
The ride is designed to scare and startle older folks and mature youngsters (leave the little ones at home – or take them to the kid-friendly daytime version).
The Scream Train runs Oct. 12 to Oct. 31, rain or shine, from 6:30-10 p.m. (While it’s really busy the week leading up to Halloween, the big night itself on Oct. 31 is not a busy night.)
Tickets are $9.50 for adults and $8 for kids aged 12 and under.
The Scream Train is located in the “dead centre” of Bear Creek Park at 13750 88 Avenue, at King George Boulevard. Call 604-501-1232 for more.
The Children’s Halloween Festival has already begun at Bear Creek Park. Take the Halloween Pumpkin Express, make crafts and play games. Receive a candy treat and take home a farm-fresh pumpkin. The festival runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. to Oct. 31. Admission is $9.50 for adults, $7 for children aged 2 to 12, $3.50 children under two, and babies are free.Follow the Cloverdale Reporter on 
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