Whether going to haunted houses or dressing up in terrifying costumes, everyone wants to be scared at Halloween. One opportunity to give yourself a fright is to go to the annual Haunted Hayride at the Norfolk County Agricultural High School tonight and tomorrow.  The first hayride goes out at 8 p.m., and the last ride goes out a 10 p.m with tickets priced at $10 each person.

The past weekend, children and parents alike were invited to join in on the holiday fun at the Norfolk County Agricultural High School Haunted Hayride. As participants waited in line to get on the ride, frightening characters from bloody zombies to creepy clowns patrolled up and down the line. Once on the hayride, participants experienced over twenty different frightening scenes including an American Horror Story-themed scene and a dance number to the song “Watch Me” by Silento.

Each year, members of the Norfolk County Agricultural High School come together to plan, design, set up, and participate in the Haunted Hayride.

200 members of mostly the senior and junior class of the high school participate in the project each year. The majority of the participants are members of the Senior Class, as the funds from the hayride are later used to help students with the cost of senior prom, as well as paying for the end-of-the-year senior gift.

“The hayride is entirely student driven, and everything involving the hayride is on the students,” said Wendy Harlow, Junior Class Advisor.

For this reason, only a small amount of teachers are needed to plan the event, and this year, the hayride was run by Harlow and Lauren Frasier, a math teacher at the Aggie.

The creation of each specific scene requires special effects created by the students and involve elaborate acting. Many students work together with friends to come up with ideas for a scene, and some of the different grade levels create their own specific scene. This year, juniors at the Aggie dressed up as vampires and werewolves.

“The best part of hayride is seeing how horrific all my classmates look in their costumes and how original each scene is,”said junior Samantha Packer. ” This year, I also had a really great time working together with my friends to create our scene called Valley of the Dolls where we dress up as creepy shelf dolls.”

The hayride at Norfolk County Agricultural High School is unique because students use the skills they acquire in the classroom to set up the different scenes. In one of the Plant Science classes, all students are asked to make jack-o-lanterns for Pumpkin Alley where dozens of different pumpkin with individual designs line the road.

Students provide almost all of the costumes, makeup, and props. In addition, many of the special effects are student-made, typically created in Technology classes, including the dinosaur head that is showcased in the Jurassic Park scene on the hayride.

The first hayride goes out at 8 p.m., and the last ride goes out a 10 p.m with tickets priced at $10 each person.