Southern WV’s spookiest Halloween attraction goes all out

Southern West Virginia has no shortage of spooky places to check out around Halloween time. We’ve got a haunted amusement park, a spooky old company store, and if you go into our woods in the right mood, or at the wrong time, you just might be treated to Blair Witch-style frights.

Over the past 6 years, The Resort at Glade Springs, which is just south of Beckley, has been adding to Southern West Virginia’s Halloween spooktaculars in a big way with with their Fright Nights— voted the “#1 Haunted Attraction” in Southern West Virginia for 3 years in a row. 

The centerpiece of this 8-night extravaganza is a Haunted Trail-type spook alley. But there’s much more to the event than just a haunted trail, with interactive games and kids’ activities. The Resort has worked hard to make Fright Nights the Halloween destination for people of all ages, and “fright levels.”

Here’s a look at 2016’s frights:

Terrifying Trail

The Resort takes the authenticity and theatrical detail of their Haunted Trail seriously, with intricate costumes and props that blend into the eerie late-fall forest perfectly. The haunted trail also focuses on a theme. For several years, the theme of the trail was a “zombie apocalypse”— with actors chasing terrified visitors through the woods.  

More recently, the trail has adopted the theme of “Appalachian Anarchy.” The details of what exactly this “anarchy” entails are top-secret. But Fright Nights’ website features a video that may give a clue: it has eerie, panning shots as fading evening light filters through desiccated, dying leaves. A soft wind begins to blow, as you hear the twang of a bluegrass banjo plucking the familiar refrain of “Dueling Banjos” from the movie Deliverance. If this imagery of forest suspense and terror sends chills down your spine, you’ll just have to head down to The Resort to get the full experience of Appalachian Anarchy!

Family-friendly

If you have younger kids, or prefer a Halloween experience with more candy and less horror, check out the No-Scare Trick-or-Treat on Oct. 30 from 4-6pm. There will be a traditional fall-festival hayride, a jumphouse and the option to tour the haunted trail in a fright-free environment. Oh, and there will be treats– lots of them!

Another family-friendly option of Fright Nights is “Spooky Golf,” which will be open for all the dates of Fright Nights.  This 9-hole putt-putt course that has been tricked out with ghouls and goblins that will try their best to scare you away from making that hole-in-one!  

3D, lasers, puzzles & dancing!

There’s also the 3D Nightmare, which will mess with all your senses as you don 3D glasses, and enter a strange 5,000-square-foot course of moving floors, lasers and floating walls. The 3D Nightmare also includes laser tag, so you’ll have to role-play, shooting mad scientists during a mutating nuclear apocalypse!

The Resort also has an “Escape Room,” the most recent craze in Southern West Virginia. You and a group of friends are locked in a small room, and presented with a series of timed tasks, puzzles and brain teasers that will get you out. Think Bruce Willis-style action movies, or Saw scenarios without the hacksaws and lethal consequences. The Resort touts their Escape Room as West Virginia’s 1st and scariest, with a special “The Collector” theme for Halloween.

Finally, Fright Nights will also be throwing a 21+ party for adults on Oct. 29.  Raging into the night, the Bunkers Halloween Party will have a live DJ, shots, costume contest, and more.

All in all, Fright Nights is the place to be for kids, teens and adults this October, as the woods of Southern West Virginia get colder and scarier.

Kicking off Oct. 7, the Appalachian Anarchy Trail, 3D Haunted House and Spooky Golf will be open every Friday and Saturday evening for the rest of the month, although the trail may close if there’s bad weather. The Escape Room is open select days of the week.

Discover Fright Nights.