For the past 2 Octobers, I’ve driven past a giant clown on a billboard, red-haired and bloody-faced.

This year though, I got to actually see the clown in person, and I had an amazing time. 

Indy Scream Park is in a perfect range of scary. It elicited plenty of genuine screams, but won’t induce chronic nightmares or heart attacks.

The attractions themselves are exhilarating the first time around–the first one we went into, Blackout, actually had us gasping for breath at the end, especially when we were led into a room with tiny corridors connected to each wall, kind of reminiscent of the backrooms. Killgore’s 3D circus was fun too, though somewhat dizzying–almost in a hallucinogenic way (3D glasses definitely didn’t help). I thought the spinning room with the bridge was also a nice touch at the end!

The worst for me though, was Zombieland Unchained. I’m going to write 2 words, and it’ll be self-explanatory: maze and chainsaws. With actors wielding real chainsaws staged at every intersection, this attraction had activated my fight or flight mode, and apparently so had everyone else’s because someone pushed me into the corner of a box or rusty car or something. I think it activated something in me because I started just walking and asking the zombies for directions; I felt so civilized and at peace amongst chaos. It was definitely like endorphins or something. I’m still bruised, but at least I have a story to tell now. 

Beyond the attractions though, the actors walking around Monster Midway were genuinely the sweetest. They tried to be scary at first, but over time would just strike up a conversation, film TikToks, and pose in pictures with us, and generally were extremely willing to interact with visitors. Dolly, Green Mask, and the clown with the red hair get shoutouts, they were so, so lovely. 

The food options there also get a shoutout. The funnel cake with strawberry was fluffy, crispy, and sweet, and the elephant ear with apple was okay, but mostly because the apple filling wasn’t my thing. The nachos were just chips with that kind of plasticky school lunch cheese, which doesn’t sound super appetizing but might’ve been just what we needed after a lumberjack threatened to kill us. So all in all it would get an Ivy gold star.

Overall, I would say Indy Scream Park has a certain chill to its vibe and is great for bonding and hanging out with friends (shared trauma for real). As an exciting blend of spook and sugar, it’s truly perfect for the Halloween season!