Scare up some fun this season!

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If your Halloween experience is just not complete without a fear-filled trip to a completely creepy and sensationally scary haunted house, then the now legendary Wells Township Haunted House in Brilliant is the place to go.

Open at 7 p.m. to the public on any Friday or Saturday in the month of October, the event venue is located at 101 Market Street in Brilliant, in what looks at first glance to be a painfully plain commercial stone building built in the 1800s.

General admission is $10 and tickets can be purchased at the venue on the evening of your tour, or online at wells-township-haunted-house.ticketleap.com. The tour is not recommended for children ages 12 and under.

Fans of this season of fright come to the local haunted house in Brilliant for one overriding reason year after year: to experience the fear generated adrenalin rush virtually guaranteed to accompany any who dare enter the outwardly unremarkable looking stone building.

"We have, at least, three tours in the house at the same time. Mathematically, you would wait 15-20 minutes for each tour to begin once three tours are in the house. If you are in group five, for example, your wait could be over one hour. We can and will put four tours in the house at the same time but can only do so for a short period of time as not to over exert our actors. We are not permitted more than four tours in the house at one time due to fire code," explained Wells township Police Department Captain Sean Norman, who is also the director of the haunted house project.

The local project, got its start in 2002 at another location in the community and now more than a decade old, The Wells Township Haunted House program is being held for the second consecutive year in its permanent home at the north end of Brilliant, in a stone building built in the late 1800s which comes complete with its own, almost tangible, haunting spirits.

In the blink of an eye a typical visitor to the legendary haunted house finds they are no longer in a plain stone building at the heart of a small riverfront community, but have stepped through a portal into the unknown, unexpected and at times even terrifying.

"They love it," is the evaluation given by Norman when asked to describe a typical guest's first impression of the hauntingly inviting house. "We designed the rooms to play on all the universal, yet personal fears we all face as we go through life. Judging from reactions we got from early visitors, we have been pretty successful in meeting that goal.

"When you ask people to wait a little while before taking them on a tour of the haunted house you really need to be able to offer them a true quality scare that will have been worth the wait," he offered.

The local project's basic design is not meant to put one room's popularity ahead of another, according to organizers.

"We want guests to come away having enjoyed our haunted house tour so much it is hard to pick out one or two things that stood out to them above everything else," shared Norman.

"Even people who thought they knew what they were going to see on the tour come running out of the back of the house and are at a complete loss to tell us exactly what was the best part of the tour, or even what needs more work," offered Dave Crawford of Brilliant, the project's construction director, and long-time Wells Township Haunted House volunteer.

This sort of breathless and wide-eyed response to the haunted house tour is exactly the type of reaction the project's more than 100 member volunteer team works diligently for nearly year round.

"We want to give our customers the intense scare they have come to expect from the Wells township Haunted House year after year," said Crawford.

Once inside the building any thoughts the event would offer something less than a seriously scary production disappears immediately.

There is nothing plain or ordinary about the complex production carefully crafted by the diverse and dedicated group of volunteers drawn to the haunted house event from communities up and down the riverfront.

The two-story stone building now home to the widely known event offers organizers and designers almost 6,400 square feet of space in which to shape and share their always original dark and seriously scary Halloween tales with visitors every Friday and Saturday evening throughout the month's end.

As is often the case with older homes: more than meets the eye is to be found there.

The custom-designed and generally horrific decor in each of the nearly 20 haunted "rooms" keeps fear response levels heightened throughout the entire tour experience. A goal that has been very real to those working behind the scenes to develop, create and install all the thousands of elements needed in order to create a professional quality haunted house, according to key organizers.

"We change things every season. We know some of the rooms have been really popular, but we like to give guests a whole new 'scare' to enjoy when they visit the Wells township Haunted House year after year," offered Norman. "Each room has been painstakingly crafted by a volunteer team working hard over the summer months to complete the design and get the new "scares" constructed and functioning smoothly."

The haunted house itself, is packed with a dizzying array of what the veteran volunteer Haunted House designers and crafters describe as "an old school style haunt", and guests simply describe as "awesome scares".

The now legendary event recently garnered unsolicited attention and recognition from leaders in the nationwide "hauntings" industry as being one of the top three events in the country when it comes to overall quality.

Professionals in the haunting industry recently named The Wells Township Haunted House annual event as being the third highest quality venue of any size in the industry with the comparison done on a on a nationwide scale.

"One of the largest Haunted House Conventions in the world, the Midwest Haunters Convention recently brought people from all over the United States, Canada and New Zealand to see our 'Old School' style haunt. We have become a desired location for multiple paranormal investigation companies, have been featured on the Global Paranormal Network as a result of the findings," said Norman.

But the surprises the project holds are not limited to the event production or even the truly haunted status of the building.

"A lot of people still find it surprising officers from several local departments enjoy taking active roles in the entire process," noted Norman. "Currently we have Officers from the Wells Township Police Department and the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department and the Tiltonsville Police Department working inside the house.

"All these officers volunteer their time to work with the youth volunteers and get involved in the house. Each one is in character and working in the various rooms, and they also provide interior and exterior security for the Haunted House events," said Norman. "This is a great way to build positive relationships with the youth involved on this project from communities all across the valley."

It is also a wonderful example to the teens about giving back to the community around you, said Norman.

The program is so well thought of by local community leaders that many of the teen volunteers have been given awards and school-based credit for the thousands of volunteer hours they have invested, many of which have been accepted toward fulfilling school-based community service graduation requirements.

Norman is particularly proud that several of the haunted house volunteer members have noted the effort on their National Honor Society applications and even on college applications.

The local haunted house effort has a massive fan base, reaching well outside the boarders of the United States. As a result, organizers have had a top quality webpage crafted through which the public can easily find event schedule details, reviews and can purchase tickets.

To reach event officials at the Wells Township Haunted House for more information, including driving directions, visit www.wellstownshiphauntedhouse.com

Proceeds from the professional quality production are directed straight back to the coffers of the haunted house operation, as it is a 501- c3 not for profit organization.

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