Haunted delights await in Eastern North Carolina this scary October

Spooky season arrives, unveiling Eastern North Carolina’s haunted attractions for students, faculty and staff to explore this eerie October.

One of these scary places are the Extreme Fear Scaregrounds in Kinston, North Carolina. Co-owner Maurice Nix said he rented a building at the Lenior Fairgrounds to build the ultimate Halloween attraction, which took him and his team seven weeks to put together. He said the scaregrounds include different themes for the ultimate scare.

“We have three different themed attractions,” Nix said. “Our main attraction is called Nixon Asylum, it's our biggest hall with about 6000 square feet. You start in that building and then you exit the asylum and you go outside into what is known as Insanity. It's a large cage maze with strobe lights. It's very disorienting with loud music. There's actors chasing you everywhere. And you kind of have to find your way out.”

After one has to find their way out of the cage maze, Nix said, the trail goes to their last attraction known as the Mayhem 3D.

He said this attraction is a clown house, but doesn’t include the traditional “big red nose and big red shoes” kind of clowns.

“Mayhem 3D is our 3D Clown house,” Nix said. “You do have the option to buy 3D glasses or you can just walk through it without it. Either way, it's a really cool experience and our clowns are definitely not what you would expect.”

Nix said the Extreme Fear Scaregrounds are based on “originality,” with him creating a personal story behind each character and attraction.

His affinity with psychology has helped Nix to get into the mindset of other people, he said. He tries to learn about what people are scared of to provide the best haunted experience they can have.

“This might sound bad, wanting to get to know a person’s fears,” Nix said. “But this is what gives them the over the edge type of experience. I went to school for psychology, so it also kind of helped me to understand that they are people who are afraid of the dark or of spiders. But I don't just do arachnophobia or anything, I kind of combine them (fears) all into one. So there is no escape. You have to conquer all of them.”

His love for fall, the month of October and Halloween has been something that has always been a part of him, Nix said. Around 15 years ago is when he first started getting into haunted attractions, allowing him to conquer a dream of his. For the past three years now, he said, he has been working hard with co-owner and fiance Jon Clark to come up with new ideas for the Halloween season.

Today, he employs around 55 people, from which most of them are actors who are interacting with the visitors. The scaregrounds made their debut on Sept. 22nd and will remain open through Oct. 29th. Throughout that time, Nix said, different special events will be available.

“On Sunday, we will be having our Hero Night, inviting anybody with a valid military, fire emergency medical service or police batches to come by and receive free entry into the haunted house,” Nix said. “Then, on Friday Oct. 13th, we’ll be hosting our Blackout night where all of the lights in the house will be turned off. Visitors will get only glowsticks to find their way through the building.”

On Oct. 21st, there is going to be another event called Kids’ Trick or Treat with free candy for children to collect.

New additions to the Extreme Fear Scaregrounds for 2023 include the Midway Madness and The Basement Escape Room, Nix said.

“We now have a midway that people can enjoy while they're waiting to go into the haunted house,” Nix said. “We call it Midway Madness and it includes carnival games, a concession stand and on some nights we might even have some vendors. So when you get there and you buy your ticket, you don't get in line automatically anymore. You now can get your ticket, get some food and play some games. Once your ticket number is called, that is when you get in line so that way you're not waiting in line for hours.”

The Basement Escape Room, on the other hand, can be purchased with an additional charge and has a time limit of five minutes to complete.

Nix said the scaregrounds are open throughout the weekend only, with opening times on Fridays and Saturdays from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. On Sundays, he said, the haunted house is open from 8 p.m. to 11 a.m. Ticket prices can be found on their website and regular updates on their Facebook event page, Nix said.

Scare actor Kyle Greene has been spooking people at the Extreme Fear Scaregrounds for the past two years. During the week, he said, he works for the government and during the weekend, he is an asylum patient in a strange jacket.

“I work in the asylum portion of the haunt, where I am a patient,” Greene said. “The whole backstory of my character is I was the most violent patient that they had. The doctor tried to give me some medicine to make me better, but it just made me 10 times worse. So, besides the straight jacket, I'm covered in cuts and bruises. Lots of blood, messed up hair.”

To prepare for his character, Greene said he does a lot of research on psychiatric facilities from the past. He said back in the day patients weren't taken care of properly; they were getting tested on, which made their psychiatric health worse. Apart from that, Greene said he also watches horror movies that deal with psychosis.

With turning into his character and learning so much of asylums from the past, he said sometimes he struggles with breaking out of character.

“I have my full time job now working as a contractor,” Greene said. “It cannot bleed over any bit into my daytime job because I gotta be super professional at this job. And then at the haunted house, I’m this crazy character screaming and stuff. There were situations where I saw myself slipping in a little bit too deep. But this is what I love and I take being a scare actor really seriously.”

He said his main goal is to provide visitors with the “best” scare possible and them not wanting to finish the trail.

Andre Woodard, senior architectural design major, said he has been to multiple haunted houses in his lifetime, along with helping with one in the past.

“It’s the thrill of the unexpected”, Woodard said, in regards to why he enjoys going to haunted houses. “It’s the surprise of a potential jumpscare that excites me.”

When Woodard was younger, he remembers going to a haunted house while he attended Speight Middle School in Stantonsburg, North Carolina.

He said haunted houses may not scare him anymore, but he still loves the idea of going to houses he’s never been before.

“We basically went through a dark hallway, and then when we headed into the room, a kid popped up and scared members of our group,” Woodard said. “Haunted Houses don't really scare me, so there’s nothing that really gets me. I’m just built differently. My reflexes are just quick enough to not let it affect me.”