Haunting Party

Sure, you could spend Halloween sitting at home handing out candy and watching the
Addams Family marathon on WGN. But All Hallows Eve falls on a Saturday this year, so it's a good excuse to party if ever there was one. And there's plenty to do if you venture out of your crypt.

Here are some options if you're too old to go trick-or-treating and don't have kids you can tag along with.

Dance The Night(Mares) Away

The Millennium Center is holding the Millennium Halloween Costume Ball in its grand ballroom on Saturday, starting at 8 p.m., with dance tracks spun by DJ Nick Peluso, music by Orangearth, fire performances, belly dancers, burlesque and more. Themed hors d'oeuvres will be available from 8 to 11 p.m.

Admission is $10 or free for people in full costume.

Cash prizes will be handed out for best costume with categories of "Dead Sexy," "Best Couple," "Funniest" and "Best Overall." The grand prize will be $300.

In addition to the action on the main stage, screens will be set up showing horror movies.

At midnight, the festivities will culminate with a screening of the Michael Jackson music video "Thriller."

"We're going to do our best to get the audience to do (the Thriller Dance)," said Greg Carlyle, the owner of the Millennium Center. "It should be fun."

This is the Millennium Center's first Halloween ball.

"We felt like because Halloween fell on Saturday this year, it was a really good time to do it," Carlyle said. "We think this is going to be the annual Millennium Halloween party."

He had hoped to turn part of the Millennium Center into a haunted house. But he couldn't this year because so many rooms are already booked. During the Halloween Ball, three private parties will also be taking place in the building. Carlyle said he is studying other haunted houses and plans to incorporate that next year.

The show is for ages 18 and up. "They have to have an ID and the whole thing, even though the costumes are going to make that a little tricky," Carlyle said.

Be Afraid.… Be Very Afraid

Various haunted attractions are only a short drive away, including Woods of Terror in Greensboro, Spookywoods in High Point and Hacker House in Pilot Mountain. Sure, there may be long lines on Halloween night, but that just builds up the anticipation, right?

Woods of Terror, now in its 18th year, is a sprawling haunted trail that covers 20 acres of land and has a cast of more than 130 performers. It drew more than 17,000 visitors last year, and founder Eddie McLaurin said he expects that number to pass 20,000 this year.

The trail takes visitors more than an hour to get through, if they get through at all; several hundred visitors each year chicken out partway through, McLaurin said.

Brave souls venture through mazes, a cornfield with creatures from the Jeeper's Creepers movies, haunted houses, a pirate ship (which, in a nice touch, rocks back and forth as you walk through it), graveyards and more. There are vampires, zombies, pirates, evil clowns and such movie favorites as Freddy Krueger, Jason, Michael Myers and more.

The trail is too intense for youngsters; McLaurin recommends that no one under 12 go through, and he won't allow the under-5 crowd to go in.

There is a kid's zone at the front of the trail with safe games, along with a gift shop, horror memorabilia museum, photo booth, concession stands and more.

Hacker House in Pilot Mountain keeps all its monsters original -- no movie villains here. Owner Cliff Martin has created an elaborate mythology for the place and set it up on the Web at hackerhouse.com. He said that he's heard from real-life ghost hunters who want to investigate it, not realizing it's all make believe.

Visitors wait in a courtyard for their turn to enter Hacker House, and various ghouls interact with the patrons before they go in, finding the easy targets and evoking shrieks and sometimes laughter -- many of the performers have a puckish sense of humor, and at times the production seems akin to a cross between the Saw films and Monty Python. New this year is an impressive 20 foot tall jack o'-lantern-headed tree monster in the courtyard, our cover ghoul.

The house is about 4,000 square feet but seems much bigger thanks to narrow, winding corridors with elaborate decorations, though some of the details get lost in the dark. Performers such as the cadaverous Digger, a pair of mad scientists, their failed experiments, an elegant butler who would be right at home with the Addams family, and many more bring on the scares. The 48 performers on the staff often get to make up their own characters and back stories. Last year, the show had about 5,000 visitors, Martin said.

Kersey Valley Spookywoods started 24 years ago on an old Christmas-tree farm owned by the family of Tony Wohlgemuth. Tony, then 15, and his friends used to dare each other to enter a spooky old house on the property. After being scared one time by a family of bats, they decided to open their own haunted house. Now it has grown to a 40-plus-acre attraction with 250 actors (150 or so each night, rotating), five themed areas and side attractions.

Donna Wohlgemuth, Tony's wife and the co-owner, said that Spookywoods aims for "high-startle scares" rather than blood and gore. Visitors start with what may be the goriest part, a walk through the house that spooked Tony and his friends in the first place, which has been turned into the farmhouse from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies. Other areas include a darkened forest with hidden ghouls, a ghost town, a haunted cornfield and a spooky old castle.

The tour takes between 45 minutes and an hour, depending on the crowds and how fast the people in your group are running.

Spookywoods will be one of the haunted attractions featured in America Haunts III, a Travel Channel special that will be shown at 8 p.m. and midnight tonight. Adding to the potential chills, when I interviewed members of the Winston-Salem Paranormal Society last year, they told me that they had investigated the property and found it to be genuinely haunted.

Eeek! There's more

• WOODS OF TERROR will be open today through Sunday and Nov. 6 and 7. Tickets are $15 Thursday and Sunday and $25 on Friday and Saturday. "Fast Pass" tickets to avoid lines are $35, or $29 if ordered online. Group rates are available. For more information, go to www.woodsofterror.com or call 286-9396.

• SPOOKYWOODS will be open today through Sunday and Nov. 6 and 7. Tickets are $19 Thursday and Sunday, and $25 on Friday and Saturday. Reservations for specific times are available online. Group rates are also available. For more information, go to www.spookywoods.com or call 285-0548. Side attractions are available for separate admission fees on site.

• HACKER HOUSE will be open Friday and Saturday. Tickets are $15, or $12 each for groups of 20 or more who order online. Fast pass upgrades are available for $5 extra. For more information, go to www.hackerhouse.com or call 351-3275.

• AND EVEN MORE: To find out about more haunted attractions in North Carolina, go to haunthopper.com. And there are plenty of smaller haunted trails, hayrides and more to enjoy. Go to www.scaredypantsnc.com for more details.