Clifton’s “haunted” bridge lives up to the hype, at least for a few hours during the community’s Haunted Trail event to be held from 7-10 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 25. John & Robyn Witschey
Julie Thompson isn’t a voodoo priestess. But the stay-at-home mother, of Clifton plays, one, one night of the year, in a skit for Clifton’s Haunted Trail.
“Voodoo draws from so many different religions; it freaks people out because you can’t peg it,” said skit leader Sara Holbrook. “Voodoo altars typically have a raised piece in the middle with statue of Virgin Mary, rum bottles all around, a rosary and voodoo dolls.”
Holbrook and Thompson’s skit will be more of an “authentic” installation piece than choreographed skit, due to Holbrook’s extensive research.
“I want to make it as detail-oriented as possible,” said Holbrook, “as visually layered and rich as possible. It’s the same feeling set designers get. That’s the part that appeals to me.”
She doesn’t mind the role-playing and exhilaration of scaring people, however.
“When you realize you’ve disguised yourself so effectively that people look at you and they’re like Whoa, you get a reaction, that’s really cool,” said Holbrook, also a stay-at-home mom living in Clifton. “I have no desire to act in my real life, but it’s fun one night of the year.”
CLIFTON’S ONE-AND-DONE “Haunted Trail” around the eight-acre Buckley Park has been an annual fundraiser for the historic town since 2001.
“It was Civil War-era town,” said Thompson. “A lot of people have said these historic homes, residences are thought to be haunted. We thought this was something cool to embellish.”
The first year included just five skits, performed as visitors are lead around the tiki torch-lit park trail, but over the years the trail has ballooned to nearly two dozen skits for the 2014 fright fest. Each skit includes six to seven people. They span the gruesome gamut.
“This year we’re doing haunted toys, a Civil War scene,” said Thompson. “There’s always vampires, witches, pirates, scary clowns. And someone does kind of a ‘Silence of the Lambs’ thing. He doesn’t call it anything.”
There’s also appearances from a gang of hidden chainsaw operators, a botched (we can’t say how) electric chair execution and periodic appearances from Fairfax County’s own urban legend the Bunnyman.
Upwards of 200 volunteer actors and hospitality crew from Clifton, South County and Centreville High Schools and Robinson Secondary School will put on this year’s event from 7-10 p.m. on Oct. 25. Project manager Steve Bitner said they’re expecting several thousand visitors to come through the town and trail.
“In that three hours, we had close to 3,000 come through a few years ago,” said Bitner. “It’s a big event for the town when you do the math.”
“It’s a great fundraiser for the town,” said Holbrook. “It reinforces that sense of community Clifton’s known for: coming together and seeing what all your friends have done.”
Bitner said the one to two-mile circular loop trail should take about half an hour to traverse. Afterwards, and for children too young (they don’t recommend much below 12 years old) to walk the trail, the Trail team will be showing spooky movies and serving concessions, including food from Clifton’s Italian restaurant Trattoria Villagio.
TICKETS for adults are $15 and children under 12 are $10. In case of inclement weather, the one planned rain date is Oct. 26.
“With 2-3,000 people in one space, there’s a lot of energy that comes with that,” said Bitner. “You have humans that know how to scare, hiding behind trees and tarps. They can be spontaneous. That makes a huge difference.”