In the darkest corner of Balboa Park, overlooking downtown San Diego, screams can be heard echoing throughout the park. There, in all of its frightening glory, lies the annual Halloween event  Haunted Trails. I ventured there opening night with high expectations and was not disappointed. 

   The opening night hosted a large amount of attendees, which meant a torturously slow-moving line. The moment I crossed the threshold of The Haunted Trails, I was hit with a feeling of excitement and dread. My excitement sparked as soon as I saw statues of the iconic horror movie characters (the ghoul from Scream and Pennywise from It) both crouched together and looking menacing as hell. However, my internalized fear began to take physical manifestation once I realized that scare actors were to be slinking about the line and preying on unsuspecting patrons.  

   Before the doors to the trail opened, a cheesy video of some guy who looked like he should be hosting The Twilight Zone played before the group, warning us about how scary the experience would be, although it only made me laugh. After that, the doors opened, and we were let loose to explore the dimly lit halls of the eXperiment Maze. 

   The eXperiment Maze comes before the actual Haunted Trails, and includes a wide variety of classic settings and scenes from iconic horror movies. My favorites re-creations of these sets were from the movies The Nun and Friday the 13th. The Nun consists of a nearly pitch black hallway with door-sized gaps in the wall, allowing scare actors to move freely without being seen and jump out at patrons at random. The theme for Friday the 13th is the erie cabin at Camp Crystal Lake, complete with multiple Jason Voorhees standing around: some of them statues, and others standing as still as statues waiting to catch you off guard with a scream. These initial jump-scares add to the thrill and excitement of the attraction. 

   Once I made it through the eXperiment Maze, it was time to walk through The Haunted Trails. Personally, I liked this second half better than the maze, because there weren’t any “halls” to walk through, so you experience what should be a frightening walk in the park. The trail leads you through haunted graveyards filled with both fake and real scarecrows and ghouls. Some of these creatures chase you while others stand as still as statues, waiting to scare you as you walked by, all of which adds to the terror and suspense of the experience. My absolute favorite part of the entire night was at the very end of the trail, when a psycho-killer with a chainsaw chased me and eventually cornered me to the rope, all the while menacingly wielding his chainsaw at me. 

   Overall, I give Balboa’s Haunted Trails 4 out of 5 stars. The scare actors’ ability to stay in character was phenomenal (kudos to the actor in the insane asylum who let out one hair-raising scream after another), and the general atmosphere of the place keeps you on your toes. Although it’s easy to trick yourself into a mindset that allows you to just power through without getting scared, it’s extremely fun to immerse yourself and allow yourself to get spooked.