A lot of people enjoy a good scare. Especially when they are able to enjoy it with some of their best friends. Halloween is many people’s favorite holiday for many reasons. Not only are people able to dress up, hang out with friends, and get tons of candy, but they are able to enjoy all kinds of different activities put on by others who enjoy Halloween just as much as the people visiting.
Finding things to do in a small town can be a tedious task, especially when it is one of the busiest times of the year. Tucked away, in the small county of Miami, there is a little building that holds so many screams, laughs, and memories. This place is called the Grissom Maze of Terror. The Grissom Maze of Terror is a haunted attraction that is put on by many local high school and college students. These students are able to dress up, go in a room, and get some good scares out of a lot of people. When a few students at Lewis Cass heard about the attraction, they decided to take it on themselves. Sophomores, Maddy Willis, Lilly Hammond, and Raegan Mundy, took on the challenge. After hearing a ton of social media talk over how mind-blowing the maze was this year, the girls knew they had to go and document the moments. Getting a behind the scenes look at all of the rooms opened up their imagination relating to what the maze may contain.
Although being super excited prior to the maze, the girls also had no clue what they were walking into. Raegan Mundy, being the most scared out of the three, was asked about how she felt prior to entering, compared to how she felt at the end. Raegan’s response was, “I cried three times before the maze because I was really scared and I didn’t want to go in, but after the maze, I was laughing and when I look back, the maze was pretty fun!” Throughout the maze, there were many different themes that went with each scarer’s costume, and the decor of the room. This made for an amazing experience because of the dramatic scenic changes. Mundy was asked what her favorite room in the maze was. Mundy says, “The scariest room in the maze was probably the hallway with the hanging bodies and things touching your feet.” There were a lot of moments in the maze that were very graphic and would make a lot of people almost sick to their stomachs. Although scary, this was an amazing opening for the girls to make some core memories. Raegan was questioned about her favorite part of the maze overall. She mentioned, “My favorite part of the maze was the autopsy room, we got to see it before we went through and it was super cool. Seeing it before also made it less scary when we went through it. I knew what to expect, what to look for, and how to get out.” The experience was very unique and something a lot of people would not expect to see from such a small group of people in such a small town.
When the girls arrived at the maze, as mentioned earlier, they were able to go through a few rooms in the maze and get a behind-the-scenes look at what went into the set, and what each character contributed. Lilly Hammond, who helped document a majority of the experience, was the most enthusiastic of the three and remained optimistic throughout the entire preparation to enter the maze. Lilly was asked what she was most excited about when she first arrived. Hammond said, “I was most excited about seeing the behind-the-scenes of the whole thing.” Nerves were in need of calming, so being able to go back into these rooms helped the girls build the courage to actually go through the maze, after questioning and backing out many times (and calling Mrs. Scott for courage) Every haunted attraction has its ups and downs, just so the people visiting can have a break in between the horrific sights. Hammond was asked what she thought was the least scariest room in the entire maze. She mentioned, “ I think the swamp room was the least scary because there weren’t very many jump scares or anything like that.” Even though there are those breaks in between, that means more scary things on the other side of them. Lilly was questioned about if she would return, and what she would do differently. Lilly says, “If I could go back I would actually look up during the entire maze and have the full experience because I was looking down most of the time and I feel like I could’ve been scared more if I was more present.”
If you ever have the chance, when the spooky season rolls around again, make sure you swing by Miami County’s Grissom Maze of Terror. The thrills and spooks will not let you down. So for all of those scary movie lovers out there who are in search of something to fulfill their scaring needs, make the stop. You will definitely not regret it!
