Canobie Lake Park in Salem is finishing another year of its annual haunted event known as “Screamfest,” the event that runs six weekends from late September through October and attracts visitors from around the United States. 

Priced at $49 for Fridays and Sundays, and $59 for Saturdays, it certainly isn’t cheap. On Saturday, Oct. 15, I attended “Screamfest” with four other people and figured that it would be easy to navigate the park, but that was not the case. 

We arrived around 4:30 p.m. and were met by a large line of cars and traffic leading to the parking lot. After being directed into one of the overflow lots, we were finally able to park. 

Upon entering the park, I couldn’t see more than a few feet ahead of me with hundreds of people surrounding the entrance and attempting to bombard their way into the park. 

After making our way past the masses, we rode the Ferris Wheel, which ended up being the only bearable line of the night. 

As night fell, more people were admitted into the park, and it became difficult to walk a straight line with many groups blocking the concrete walkways. 

After an hour, my sister and her friend Julia left, claiming it was overcrowded and boring. I stayed with my group members, and we got in the line for the haunted houses, which were supposedly the main attraction. But lines wrapped far down the park, so far ahead that we weren’t able to see the end of them. 

However, I couldn’t justify spending $59 to do nothing, so we waited an hour in a line with obnoxious middle schoolers, angry middle aged men and line-cutters. One security guard attempted to make his rounds, but did not actually resolve any of the issues. 

After the hour-long ghoulish wait, we entered the haunted house, which was un-frightening, unorganized and sad; nowhere as scary as the wait. A worker with a sad excuse for a frightening costume let everyone into the haunted house at one time, and we walked single-file like kindergarteners and moved at a glacial pace. 

Our line stopped every five seconds, and the occasional employee would jump out from behind a wall or scream, which was their attempt at a jump scare. But it was quite the opposite,  even laughable. 

You would think with all of the money “Screamfest”  makes from their overpriced tickets that they would have better haunted houses or scarier costumes.  But Canobie Lake’s “Screamfest” is getting old and repetitive. So, my advice is to go somewhere else. 

In fact, go anywhere else.