Markoff's Haunted Forest is filled with spooky Halloween thrills
Markoff's Haunted Forest is getting into the Halloween spirit
One of the country’s best-reviewed "fright nights" since the early 90s is back again to entice more scares, more screams, and plenty of lurking surprises in Montgomery County.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. - If you’re looking for some seriously spooky fun and a screaming good time this Halloween season —then a haunted forest might just be the place to be.
One of the country’s best-reviewed "fright nights" since the early 90s is back again to entice more scares, more screams, and plenty of lurking surprises in Montgomery County.
"It’s a really long trail, most people will have a 10-minute walk, but we are a full 30 to 35 minutes, it’s three-quarters of a mile a trail and then another 1/4 mile for the town which is a little side attraction," says Paul Brubacher, Director of operations at Markoff’s Haunted Forest.
Markoff’s Haunted Forest has built a national reputation for offering unique, multisensory attractions where the music, the lighting effects, scents, and creepy human interaction set the tone for a fully immersive experience.
"Right now I am dressed as my favorite possum person I am generally roaming the cornfield in the town which is where I manage the attraction called Wild West Ghost-town which is one of our main attractions at Markoff’s," says Dave Harding, Manager and actor At Markoff’s Haunted Forest.
Markoff's Haunted Forest shows off some new thrills and scares
FOX 5's Ayesha Khan is setting the spooky Halloween mood with a preview of Markoff's Haunted Forest.
For tickets starting at $30, guests brave a ghoulish walk in the woods, usually while holding on to their friends for dear life. Sometimes they may even negotiate or try to survive the actors and the haunted paths —hence the signing of a waiver before entering.
"Of course we have a lot of actors, and they will scare you they will come after ya but sometimes if you say stop, they will stop but if you start freaking out, we might push you a little more, but we do train our actors who know when to back off."
The Haunted Forest, started by three brothers sits on more than 260 acres of farmland in Dickerson, Maryland and is always working on improving the whole experience for locals —-as a yearly fall tradition.
"We have a brand-new attraction called See no Evil which is a blindfolded maze that you go through, and I can’t give away too much because I want you to be surprised when you’re walking through, but it’s neat because we take away those senses so that means everything else is heightened."
Now in its 31st year the Forest has been welcoming nearly 30 to 40 thousand visitors during Halloween season—pulling in between $600,000 and $700,000–most of which will go to charitable causes.
"So this is all a benefit performance for Calleva outdoors. We are a 502 C3 non-profit here in the DC area with the mission to get people of all ages outdoors in any way that we can, whether that’s coming to the farm and enjoying the haunted forest or coming to the farm for horse back riding or taking a tour of our garden."
The haunted forest is also a farm-to-table adventure.
"If you get a hamburger from our concession stands it was from one of the cows that was here on the farm. So when you talk about local grass fed beef, it’s coming from right over here."
Organizers say they want you to have a screaming good time but to follow their rules.
"We want to keep those phones away when we are out here on the trails one because they can get lost very easily but 2 because it kind of takes away other people’s experience.
"Please try not to come intoxicated—we do have police presence, this is a family event, and we don’t want people getting rowdy."
The haunted forest opens at 6:30 p.m.—although Sundays and Halloween tend to be less busy, and are great times to visit for a shorter wait.