Area backyard designed to frighten

Breanna Berkebile

At a Wicked Woods haunted trail in Geistown, visitors are invited t0 walk near a haunted cemetery.

Breanna Berkebile, Editor-in-Chief

A garage along a quiet suburban street is packed full of clear, plastic bins containing mannequin heads and fake body parts. Clothing racks full of costumes are carefully organized around motorcycles.

This garage is owned by Mark Rozich of Geistown, who runs a popular haunted trail called Wicked Woods.

The trail runs through the sides and back of his yard at 129 Seese Drive.

According to Rozich, the Wicked Woods trail is free, and the actors and actresses are all volunteers.

“This year, we had trouble getting enough volunteers at first, but now, we have enough,” said Rozich.

About 18 volunteers are required for the haunted trail to function, and, according to Rozich, a lot of the volunteers are high school students fulfilling a community service requirement.

Volunteers are to dress up in costumes and scare those walking through the attraction from start to finish.

The trail begins at a sign stating “Rozich Cemetery.” Attendees are to walk under this sign, signaling that they’ve entered the trail and there is no turning back.

There is, however, an early exit that allows those who can’t handle the trail’s scares, according to Rozich.

To get the trail to reach its scare potential, Rozich, alongside Luke Rozich, started building and setting things up Labor Day weekend.

According to Rozich, they used to get a lot of help from family and friends, but a lot of them have moved away.

This hasn’t stopped the trail from running at the end of October each year.

Rozich said all the hard work is worth it.

“We really enjoy running Wicked Woods. We’re like big kids.

“We do it for the community…and the neighbors have been really good with it.”

Wicked Woods is to  run from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m.  October 20, 21 and 27. It is to also run Oct. 28 and 31. The attraction is to run from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Oct. 31.

The time it takes to make it through the trail, according to Rozich, all depends on how fast you run.