Here is the freak show maze. It’s not the scariest maze as it’s meant to have you making your way through the sideshow which are meant to be eerie as is. However, I think it still works as a scare Maze and features enough unique set pieces and characters to work.
I also included a few tricks I use when building my haunted houses like stimulating all the senses to cause disorientation then giving a reprieve right before the final act that serves to be even scarier as people get used to the comfort and familiar sights and sounds that when none of those things are present anymore, it’s even scarier
“Step right up! Come one, come all to see the most wonderful, the most mysterious, the most exciting and exhilarating collection of oddities and curiosities ever compiled in one place. For just one nickel you too can witness the terrifying Wolf Man, the grotesque nailface, and even the long dead Feejee Mermaid.” Hollers a barker outside of a series of circus tents pitched not far from the outskirts of town. Draped over the tents are posters featuring the acts of the freak show within. The jovial depictions of these freaks are meant to capture your imagination as you walk right up to the entrance of the maze (though no nickels must be paid to partake).
Once inside the queue, you wind through the corral and enter one of the tents under a large painted sign that reads “The Great American Sideshow and Freak Cavalcade” with a stylized series of carts and buggies being drawn by circus animals like elephants and horses as the freaks sit in the backs. Times read below advertising the cavalcade that happens around noontime every day the circus is in town. [Note: This is theming, there is no such daily cavalcade in the park, simply in universe.]
Once inside the tent, the “Entry of the Gladiators” plays on a nearby calliope sitting within the tent as swirling lights cause the pinstripe colors of the circus tents to bend and wave. The distorted vision and repeating music serve to disorient guests as they begin making their way through the maze. Throughout the maze these lights and the calliope’s endlessly looping rendition of the traditional circus song play, though the sound gets more and more distorted and creepy as you make your way through, changing from the jovial tune celebrating clowns and animals to a horrific and eerie harbinger of doom.
The first chamber features simply the calliope with some face masks along the wall featuring grotesque depictions of different freaks, including a Wolf man, a bearded woman, and a clown. However, one of these masks is actually a scare actor with their face pushed through a cutout in the wall. As guests walk by, the actor will reveal themself by opening their eyes and mouth and emitting a shriek, a cackling laugh, or simply by saying something to unsuspecting guests passing by.
Passing beyond the foyer room, guests enter the musty smell of the animal room. The soft padding of animals surrounds you as the March of the Gladiators begins to distort more and more as you make your way through. Passing through this macabre room, we see anomalies of nature and mutants displayed in cases or behind short ropes, specimens like a two-headed calf, a dwarf elephant, a chicken with no head, and the likes, some taxidermied, others, perhaps not even true. This room’s spinning lights illuminate the gruesome animal exhibits showcasing these freaks of nature, but this room also features a tall cage. Here, as guests pass by, the horrific sight is revealed as the Wolfman, a creature said to be half wolf, half man, leaps from the darkness. Luckily, he is contained within his cage as the hairy beast pulls at the bars rattling the entire thing. When he isn’t lunging at guests, you may see the wolfman gnawing on something that looks suspiciously like a human leg. The musty smell of the room swells up as we pass by the Feejee Mermaid, a creature believed to be the only representative of the aquatic monkeys. While we audience members know this taxidermy to be nothing more than a fishtail stitched to a mummified monkey, we are shocked when we pass by the mummified remains only to have the living thing jump out at us, as a scare actor of course.
After the Feejee Mermaid scare, we pass through the tent flaps into the next room, one where tightropes run along the ceiling, unicycles balance against the tent structure, and fog and mist push through. We hear a ringleader barking orders amongst the chaos of the distorted music and perhaps the honk of a horn or the trumpet of an elephant. This room houses a variety of freaks and curiosities, including a pair of conjoined twins, a bearded woman, a lobster man (a man with claws instead of hands), and a girl whose knees bend backwards, allowing her to run on all fours. While these oddities are not inherently scary, the use of noise, fog, flashing light, and bizarre prosthetics and props allow for this room to still create a few startling scares.
The next room is through another set of circus flaps, bending and winding through the corridor as more masks look on, creating a few more jump scares within the walls to get guests as they pass through. As you enter the next room, you’ll come across the serpent’s den. Here, the music becomes ambiguously exotic as pots full of animatronic cobras rise and back down. Here, we pass through snakes and spiders that crawl and slither along the walls through use of projection or animatronics as piles of gold and riches fill the halls. From the piles, guests will encounter the lizard man, a man whose skin is replaced entirely with scales and whose teeth are sharpened. He can pop out anywhere throughout the room, similar to the scare actors of the prior room, so it is unknown where this character appears. In fact, on some nights, there may be two actors of the same character, one waiting to scare you right after you recover from the first. This room also features a large snake puppet that can serve as a terrifying jump scare for those with ophidophobia.
Entering the flaps again and passing down a short hall, we appear in a room that is filled with torture equipment. Here, you will see beds of spikes, an Iron Maiden, stocks, a guillotine, and other terrifying tools of torture. Within this room is one of the most chilling encounters, though it relies less on jump scares than the others. This room actually features “nailhead,” a man who uses a hammer to pound a nail into his head. This effect is done using prosthetics and a false nail that collapses in on itself when being hit so that it doesn’t actually hit the scare actor as he pounds it in. However, in the disorienting swirling lights and the, now eerie again, distorted circus music, many guests will be convinced this illusion is real.
Passing once again through the flaps, we enter into an outdoor segment, seeing the circus tents both behind us and in front. Here, before reaching our next tent, we hear the distant calliope playing and the lights end, helping reorient us, but also give a sense of no comfort. The music and lights have been with us since the beginning, and despite the jump scares accompanying them, they almost added a sense of familiarity. Suddenly being stripped of that and being in the backlot of this traveling carnival in the dark of the night, it’s almost eerier than the interior of the tent. Here, in the darkness, scareactors move about, particularly those dressed as clowns. While we expected the freaks to frighten us, these rogue clowns don’t appear to be a part of the act. Some hold deadly weapons like axes or swords that they drag along the ground, jumping out at people every so often. We hear the calliope from ahead and we rush forward for that sense of security that lies within the tent, not knowing what actually lies before us.
Back within the dizzying lights and sounds, we have entered our final tent, one that houses pictures and paintings of the different people we’ve seen thus far. This room houses a massive puppet of a stone giant. Labeled the “Real Cardiff Giant” it is actually operated by 3 or 4 puppeteers behind the wall it leans up against, allowing the giant’s arms, upper body, and head to move. This figure is scary as it swipes at you, but it is also meant to serve as a distraction to draw in your eyes as other “freaks” pop out from the surrounding area to frighten you. Here, you may see a “ghost girl” with Snow White hair and pale skin, a “real” vampire, and “pig heads” (actors wearing realistic pig masks) amongst others that rotate in and out.
Once past the giant and out into the park’s normal night air, you can take in a sigh of relief as the barker’s voice from the entrance can be heard again and the calliope and flashing lights no longer assault your senses. “Step right up! Come one, come all to see the most wonderful, the most mysterious, the most exciting and exhilarating collection of oddities and curiosities ever compiled in one place.” And you walk away.
