Ava’s article is among a series of news stories that were completed in Ms. MacMillan’s 3rd period journalism class.
Indy Scream Park is a popular haunted house attraction located in Anderson, Indiana. Open during the Halloween season, it typically runs from early October to early November, seven days a week. The park was established by the Nagengast family in 2010 to offer excitement and thrills for visitors during the fall. The park is favored among Fishers High School students as a close by and exhilarating Halloween tradition.
Indy Scream Park is known for its six freakish attractions, ranging from a spooky walk in the woods to an interactive zombie paintball fight. Although, with higher ticket prices from around $22-$45, and wait times of 30 minutes to one hour, local teenagers have expressed their dissatisfaction with the park this year.
“This was my third year [going], and it was not quite exciting this year because the attractions weren’t as new. If it’s your first time, yes, but I wouldn’t recommend going to it again because it’s the same thing every time,” junior Mallory Long said when asked if she would recommend visiting Indy Scream Park.
Last year, Indy Scream Park opened its newest attraction known as “Lockdown” to their park, consisting of the escape from the hallways of a mental institution, surrounded by jump scares. The park invested approximately $1 million in renovations last year, including the addition of “Lockdown.”
Jolie Carolan, a junior at Hamilton Southeastern High School, describes her third annual visit at Indy Scream Park: “The actors, to me, are such a big part of [Indy Scream Park] because being able to talk to them in between attractions made the whole experience more fun. This year, [the actors] not really interacting just made it boring because we just went from attraction to attraction and they were the same attractions, so it was just a boring experience,” Carolan said. “[Last year, the actors and I] had whole conversations, whole vibes, and this year they just avoided me at all costs.”
Indy Scream Park currently features over 140 scare actors who get transformed nightly into blood-curdling monsters by a team of nine makeup artists. Actors are free to roam, talk to, scare and interact with visitors.
“It was fun, it was just the same things as last year so it wasn’t as interesting, but I would still go back next year and keep going back every year,” Carolan said.
