On a recent cold October night, Samantha Baker summed up her experience in the Fear Forest with two words.
“I’m terrified,” she said after stepping out of the forest.
Baker said her favorite part of the forest was also the part that scared her the most — the brightly-colored clown section. This is just one of a variety of sets that guests walk through in the forest — which includes shadowy graveyards, underground mine tunnels, a poison-filled factory and more.
With new scenes and new actors, Fear Forest, a popular Halloween attraction, is returning for its 19th year of operation to scare and delight guests of all ages throughout the Halloween season.
Fear Forest is on the Nesselrodt family’s farmland just outside Harrisonburg, where they also live, raise cattle and grow corn.
The haunted forest started nearly two decades ago as a small family affair with 20 actors — but has quadrupled in size since then and opened two adjacent attractions, one with an agricultural theme and one with a factory theme.
“The factory’s been here for probably four years, and then the crops were before that,” said Brandy Nesselrodt. “I would say the largest attraction is the forest, but we have quite a few actors in the cornfield and the factory.”
The newer Fear Crops and Fear Factory round out the $30 experience of Fear Forest, with each attraction taking about 20 to 30 minutes to go through. Every year, the attractions change and expand with new sets and roles to frighten customers.
Emma Rion of Penn Laird and Veronica Hinkle of Timberville play the moss-covered witch sisters of the Viking-themed witch hill, added just this year.
Both actors said it has been one of their favorite places to work in Fear Forest. The scene includes a Viking hut where the two witches jump at guests and encourage them to stay for a “special potion.”
“I’m more of a jump scare, so when I jump out and scare them, they usually duck, run into a wall,” Hinkle said. “That’s the fun one — when they run into the wall, I’ve done my job.”
Along with new scenes, there are also some new actors. Alyssa Miller is spending her first Fear Forest season playing a “little dead girl” with a baseball bat who chases guests into the catacombs.
“It’s just a lot of fun; it gets your adrenaline going,” said Miller, who lives in Broadway and works for Sentara. “You get to be like a little kid again.”
Fear Forest actors, who have to audition for the part, are paid workers and allowed to make their own costumes and characters. Many actors take time off from their regular jobs to work at Fear Forest year after year.
For some guests, it was their first time at Fear Forest.
“I think they were most scared of the clowns,” said Carter Sutherland, who went to Fear Forest with his aunt and cousin. “But I would say the loud honking from the cars, that was amazing.”
Sutherland liked the “haunted car” section of the forest, where loud and startling car noises accompany guests through an abandoned car repair shop. Sutherland’s cousin, Chloe Morris, said her favorite part was the colorful “spinning tunnel” that guests walk through.
Other guests, like Logan and Emily Hagstrom, have often visited the forest.
“It was good, it was fun,” said Logan Hagstrom. “I liked the witch house.”
The Hagstroms have been through Fear Forest enough times that the jump scares are “startling, but not scary,” according to Emily — but they still come back every year.
“It’s our tradition,” Logan said.
Not all of the scare actors are inside the forest, crops, or factory — some work as “line entertainment,” interacting with guests as they wait in line. Natasha Pence is one of these, playing a neon-colored clown character named Boom. She has been acting at Fear Forest for 19 years since it opened.
“I’ve done everything. I’ve also done ticket booth, but most of it has been acting,” said Pence, who is from Harrisonburg. “We started with mainly family and a couple of close friends, and now we have 60 to 80 workers.”
Pence said she enjoys being a line entertainer because it gives her a chance to be social and talk to people. She said though she is an introvert in her regular life, getting into the character of Boom gives her the confidence to be more extroverted.
“I really like socializing and getting to know people,” Pence said. “They’re more open to you. You can make them laugh if you can’t scare them.”
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