By Craig Horleman

Randy Ridgely says scaring people never gets old.

His Wicked Woods Halloween trail at Wicked R Productions in Wyoming has been giving people the creeps for the past 20 years.

“We have these air cannons that do nothing but blow big things of air. You would be amazed at how many people fall on the ground because air hits them at night.

I’m 54 and I laugh like hell. People will spend money to get scared. We do no advertising and they keep coming back,” he said of the popular one-mile attraction at his 61-acre ranch.

It’s open one more weekend for your thrills and chills — tonight and Saturday from 7 to 11 and is one of a number of Halloween trails to cap off the month of October.

Wicked Woods starts off as an innocent hayride into the woods and then you are let off in groups with a tour guide to explore the wonders in store.

Mr. Ridgely said Wicked Woods might not have the polish of some of the more upscale haunted attractions in the area but that may be part of its spooky charm.

“We keep it low budget with volunteers and things. But it seems to work. We don’t have the big fancy props, number one because weather conditions ruin them and it’s all outside. And number two, they’re not as effective as real people jumping out from behind trees with fake chainsaws.

“But if we do 300 or 400 people on a Friday or Saturday night, that’s a lot for us. The other fright places, if they don’t do thousands of people, they think it wasn’t a very successful night.”

He says it can get pretty busy but that’s OK with most folks.

“They don’t mind waiting an hour and a half, two hours for a tractor and wagon to pick them up because they know it’s going to be pretty good,” Mr. Ridgely said.

Inside the woods, scaregoers are taken past facades of haunted structures like a bank or a schoolhouse and bump into all sorts of crazy characters.

“We’ve been doing it long enough to where we know we have to change things up every couple of years and detour them around a few things so they don’t see everything the same year. That’s I guess the advantage of having it in the woods, because you can just cut a new trail,” he said.

“At nighttime back there, it’s only lit up by tiki torches. Well, that’s the whole lore of it — people being scared to be in the woods.”

And the group factor also helps to keep the scares coming.

“No one just ventures through the woods on the trail alone. When the scene actually happens and the scare actually happens, you want everyone to be able to enjoy it. So you don’t want 10 people to be 20 yards ahead of the rest of the crowd and they’re the ones to see it. Now the other 15 or 20 come past it and nothing happens,” he said.

He said everything happens when tour guides use certain key words, which signal that the frights can begin.

Mr. Ridgely said it doesn’t take nearly as long as it used to get everything back up and running for another year.

“It happens later and later each year because we have more things that are permanent in the back. We just have to go back and clean them up and run the power. In the past, it would take a full month to a month and a half to set everything up. But now I can shut down this October and in probably a week, 10 days before next October, I can be ready again,” he said.

Mr. Ridgely says it takes about 25 to 30 volunteers to help run Wicked Woods each year.

“I have probably half a dozen new people every year but for the majority of it, it’s the same guys and girls year in year out.
They just really enjoy doing it,” he said.

“I’ll get people from another fright place and they’ll say ‘Hey, they paid us there.’ And I’ll say ‘Well, these are volunteers here. I can’t pay you.’ But they’ll say we’d rather work here and that’s great for me.”

Wicked Woods is not recommended for children below the age of 10. But Mr. Ridgely said it’s really up to the parents’ discretion whether they think their child can handle the scenes. If they are skittish, then a tour guide will give the child a glow stick, which signals to the actors to not get too near them.

“Probably 75% of my actors have kids. So even if little kids come through there, and they’re petrified — most of them like it — my actors are informed to be scary and if they can’t be scary, be funny. Give them a good time, interact with them,” he said.

“But if a kid shows them his glow stick, they’ll leave him alone and that gives that kid a better feeling that OK I can keep him away with it. Now if they’re scared but they’re loving it, well, they’re going to hit him harder.”

When they aren’t scaring the pants off people, the Wicked R hosts a Fall Family Fun Fest Saturdays and Sundays in October from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Those tamer days include pony rides, petting zoo, a corn maze, playground, moon bounce, farm games and more.

The cost for that is $10 per child with adults free. The cost for Wicked Woods is $20 per victim.

Mr. Ridgely said the proceeds from these weekends is especially important these days due to the lack of business coming in from school field trips and other celebrations canceled due to the pandemic.

“That really kind of put a hit on our ag tourism because you still got to keep all these animals, feed them all. You still got to pay your insurance. You still got to do just about everything you needed to do before COVID. But now you’re missing. $40,000 a month that you should have. I have a very successful auction business so that really sustains it,” he said.

Wicked R Western Productions is at 2621 Sandy Bend Road in Wyoming. For more information, call 302-492-3327.

Other Halloween trails to keep you busy over this weekend include:

•In conjunction with this weekend’s Sea Witch Festival in Rehoboth Beach, The Children’s Fantasy Trail is set for today and Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m. starting outside the nature center at Cape Henlopen State Park.

Dress in your favorite costume and trick-or-treat down their jack-o’-lantern-lined trail. Face masks are recommended.

Entrance fee for the trail is $6 per person, adults and children. No pre-registration will be taken.

Call the Nature Center at 302- 645-6852 for more information.

•It will be a Wicked Weekend in Milton with festivities that will begin at the Milton Memorial Park with the Sorcery & Stories magic show at the gazebo at 4:30 p.m.

Then the Fantasy Trail & Haunted Walk will offer a stroll through the park where you will be met by superheroes, princesses, witches, and more.

A haunted ride on the Terror Train will lead to a pumpkin carving contest.

Other activities include a movie in the Milton Museum, games for the kids and townwide trick-or-treating from 6 to 8 p.m.

For more information on the Wicked Weekend, contact the Milton Chamber of Commerce at 302-684-1101, email chamber@historicmilton.com, or visit the festival website.

•The Children’s Halloween Drive-Thru Fantasy Trail will be held from 2 to 4 p.m., Saturday. Hosted by Kent County Parks and Recreation, it will be held at Akridge Ridge Scout Reservation Loop Trail at 1910 Baden Powell Way, Dover.

It is designed for children ages 2 to 7 years old. For more information, call Joseph Paugh at 302-744-2486.

Sea Witch Festival

As we mentioned earlier, the Sea Witch Festival is taking place for the 31st year at the beach Friday through Sunday

This family-friendly annual community event includes hayrides through downtown Rehoboth Beach, vendors of all specialties at both the Rehoboth Beach Bandstand and Rehoboth Beach Convention Center, the Sea Witch 5K Race/Walk and more.

There is trick-or treating through local businesses, Halloween-themed scavenger hunts and local musicians performing on the bandstand.

The centerpiece of it all is the giant Sea Witch Costume Parade beginning at 4th Street in Rehoboth Beach at 11 a.m.

DART Transit will offer free bus rides on Route 201 for the Sea Witch Festival Saturday from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Parking will be free at both the Rehoboth Beach and Lewes Park & Ride locations where riders can take the Route 201 bus to downtown Rehoboth Beach for the festival.

For more information on the Route 201, Park & Ride locations, and departure times, visit the “Routes and Schedules” page here.

For more information on the Sea Witch Festival, visit here.

An Evening with Spirit

Psychic medium Deanna Fitzpatrick will present An Evening with Spirit Saturday at 7 p.m.

In 2001, Ms. Fitzpatrick visited a hypnotherapist for assistance with weight loss. That evening, after the hypnosis was complete, she began to see Spirit for the first time.

Since that time, she has been working to improve her ability to connect and help the living come to know that their People in Spirit are very much still a part of their lives and to know that we continue on beyond our physical existence.

She will show off her abilities Saturday night in Smyrna.

Tickets are $35 general admission and can be purchased at SmyrnaOperaHouse.org, by calling 653-4236 or visiting the box office at 7 W. South St.

Now showing

New this weekend in theaters is the horror film “Antlers,” the psychological thriller “Last Night in Soho” and the anime film “My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission.”