WCCO Viewers' Choice For Best Haunted Hayride In Minnesota
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Maybe one of the reasons Dead End Hayride in Wyoming was voted Best of Minnesota is the care they take with their clients.
"Our customer service is top notch," show manager Brent Faymoville said.
In fact, if you need anything, anything at all, just give a scream.
Dead End Hayride started six short years ago after owner Jeremy Hastings picked up an issue of Hauntworld Magazine.
Three years later, Dead End Hayride was on the cover. And if screams are a way of measuring success, this place is killer.
"We'd been to other haunted attractions and decide that we could put on something more cost-effective and scarier for people," Faymoville said. "And we got lucky and it stuck, and it worked!"
Faymoville makes it sound pretty simple.
"We start by putting you on the haywagon, and then we drop you off in the woods. You wander through the woods and meet a bunch of strange people and creatures,' he said.
The scenes are so real, the attention to detail so precise, it is hard not to let your imagination -- and fear -- run wild.
"It is scary. People seem to be really attracted to it because of how intense it can be," he said. "It's not for everybody, and I think that's what draws people in."
I'm not sure why, but I love being scared. And I'm not alone.
"People enjoy getting scared for the adrenaline rush. We hear that a lot," Faymoville said. "People enjoy the adrenaline rush of the chainsaws and loud noises and the lights."
Riders are attacked from every angle, every sense engaged.
"This year we have 96 actors on staff. [There are] men, women from 16-years-old all the way through 60-years-old," Faymoville said. "A lot of them have day jobs, and this is like their one time of year that they get to escape from reality."
Actor and makeup artist Jacquie Lantern says the job is a blast.
"It's so much fun. You never know what you're going to get," Lantern said. "If somebody's going to scream or if they're going to run from your, or sometimes they even swing at you (laughs)!"
Dead End Hayride is a huge production, with one goal in mind.
"To scare them," Faymoville said. "If you remember coming out here, we've done our job correctly."
Dead End Hayride also has a DJ and food on site. And this Thursday you can get free admission if you bring in a toy worth $15 or more for the Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota.
Your other favorite haunted hayrides are Zywiec's Haunting Experience and Nightmare Hallow Scream Park.
