Scaring little kiddies just for the fun of it

Partly on the request of a friend and partly to satisfy years of personal curiosity and a quest for instilling fear, I opted to be one of dozens of "actors" in the Oconomowoc Haunted High haunted house last weekend.

Every Halloween, I love haunted houses; no matter how predictable or fake in appearance, they scare me to death -- in a good way. So, when the opportunity presented itself, I jumped on board to spend the night as an official military doctor performing a top secret alien autopsy.

Oconomowoc's Haunted High, 550 E. Forest St., is over 65,000 square feet of scary scenes. To increase the fear factor, Haunted High is set in the now-defunct middle school building; a location frightful in and of itself with abandoned lockers, a dusty auditorium and room after room of deserted schoolhouse artifacts.

The event is a fundraiser for the Oconomowoc Public Education Foundation (OPEF). Each and every portion of the maze was created by students, local businesses or community groups. Considering that this is the first year, they've truly outdone themselves.

The 30-minute route takes you through dark mazes, hallways of terror, a ghostly quiet auditorium and of course, a secret science lab. Motion sensors stir up pop-outs, dropping windows, flashing lights and lunging animals for just a portion of the fun. Every night, nearly 50 actors take on the task of scaring the pants off anyone willing to make the trek.

Haunted High runs Friday and Saturday nights from 7 to 10:30 p.m. now through Halloween.