Victims either giggled or shivered on their hay bales as the tractor hauling a trailer full of customers lurched to a stop, and a dark voice howled, "Do you want to play?"
The question seems to hang in the cool air as it echoed against the riverbank. This playtime call is the favorite question of the regionally mythical "little person," known best by the area's Wiccan population.
So began the Haunted River Float at Ruby's Landing near Waynesville. Horror enthusiasts from near and far came to Ruby's Landing for the float's fourth season as a growing terror attraction.
"It's the only haunted float we know of in the nation," co-owner Glen Clark said. "Once you're in the raft, there's no turning back."
The adventure also includes a bewildering corn maze and haunted house finale. The float is open at dusk every Friday and Saturday in September. When the water gets too cold in October, the haunted corn maze and house will still be open at dusk every Friday and Saturday of the month.
Hordes of ghouls, witches, zombies and other classic monsters work alongside horror movie celebrities like Michael Myers and Leatherface to offer a thrilling (and safe) experience. Guests can keep the trepidation going by spending the night in the campgrounds, where nocturnal creatures can come calling from the forest shadows and often take photos with guests.
As guests waited to board the rubber rafts, one group was quick to reveal their friend's camping spot and fear of clowns to a blood-drenched harlequin revving a chainsaw. "Mmm, fresh flesh. I'll be seeing you tonight!" the clown maniacally whispered in her ear as the petrified young woman clung to a much smaller companion.
Owners Clark and Pam DeGroot partnered with Ron Adams at Ruby's Landing after a spring flood ravaged the original location at Lay Z Days Canoes and Camping on the Big Piney River. They've worked since June to set up the three-part haunt, and the trio expect to have 1,000-1,400 people go through the route during busy nights.
Clark and DeGroot first devised the Haunted River Float while sitting around a campfire in 2012.
"We had closed up for the day and were sitting around telling wild Halloween stories and thought, 'Hey, why not do a haunted river float?'" DeGroot said. "Halloween is my favorite time of the year, and so we decided to capitalize on it. It's been a fun time listening to everybody scream."
Clark said they opened the haunt well in advance of Halloween to offer the unique attraction before other haunts open for the fall and the river gets too cold.
The river was calm as guests paddled into the pitch blackness beginning the half-mile float. A coffin appeared out of the darkness and tiny flashing lights came into view. "Go back!" someone screamed from the water. That's when the things emerged from the depths.
Among them was the celebrity monster, Pennywise, from Stephen King's "It." The red-nosed, child devouring clown rose from the dark water and gave a cackling "They all float down here!" before he disappeared. Moments later, he leapt from the river and landed on the nose of the raft, reaching for those in the boat. "You'll float, too," he said as people laughed and screamed.
They say, sometimes, Pennywise pulls someone in with him - but don't worry, it won't be you. Clark said nobody is intended to get wet but the actors.
Pennywise was played by a wet suit wearing adrenaline junkie, Adam Hill, who has been working in the scare business for almost a decade. Hill said being in the water is a new challenge because he used to chase victims on land, but he enjoys the opportunity to surprise people from underwater.
"I love scaring people," he said. "I really do. I was in theater in high school and finally got into this. Scaring people is so much fun. I actually scare my fiancee because she hates clowns."
Hill recently watched the new "It" blockbuster, in which Pennywise is the monstrous antagonist, and said he created his aquatic Pennywise with parts of actor Bill Skarsgrd's latest adaptation and Tim Curry's 1990 TV miniseries character, then added a little spice of his own.
"I (watched) the new 'It' the other night with the guy that plays Leatherface," Hill said. "It changed my character. He gave me different dialogue and how to chase people is completely different. I'm trying to put both (versions of Pennywise) together, but I wear the original costume because people aren't used to the new one."
After guests were helped from the raft by employees who appeared to be human, it was on to the 7.5-acre labyrinth of starchy vegetables and mayhem.
Zombies, witches and Leatherface roamed the rows throughout the corn maze's twists and turns. Severed legs jutted into the path as the clanging sound of a nearby guillotine rang through the field.
"That way just loops around," one person said.
"Where do we go?" another asked.
"We are so lost," a guest concluded as a wayward reanimated corpse turned the corner.
In one clearing, human heads were piled around a skeleton on a ramshackle throne. A voodoo witch doctor hid amid the stalks, hissing like a rabies infected feline at passersby struggling to find the exit. Beneath the ghoulish makeup, Michelle "Gypsy" Illichmann was having a blast in her second year as a professional terror.
"I've never missed a Halloween," she said. "Mom said ever since I was 3 years old that I put on a whole show, and I've always continued it. It's an adrenaline rush, but the dressing up is the favorite part."
The voodoo witch actress said she works on her costume and act every day to make it a better experience for the guests.
"I want to make it scarier and make it more fun for myself," she said. "That's what I go to sleep thinking about, and when I wake up, that's what I'm thinking about."
The maze leads to the haunted house, the last stop before guests return to their vehicles or campsites. They can choose between two routes and purchase another ticket if guests would like to try to other side as well.
The house is a residence of hysteria. Disorienting lights flash, cobwebs tickle your neck and screams come from every direction. Young women are locked behind bars, bled out in bathtubs or dismantled with meat cleavers. Undead children look for playmate victims, and wondering dark spirits whisper from the shadows. Hearing your name muttered from what seems to be hell itself can really give a person goosebumps.
Two young men panted at the exit, hearts pounding but faces smiling. They had driven more than three hours from Fayetteville, Arkansas, after seeing an advertisement on Facebook.
"I think the scariest part was definitely the haunted house," Logan Cradduck said as shrieks continued to ring through the doorway.
"No, no, no, no," his friend Brandon Barrett disagreed. "The maze was! We got to the cemetery, and whoa, that guy (Leatherface) cranked up (a chainsaw), and we lost direction and ran in circles."
"The float was really good, too," Cradduck continued. "This was definitely the most fun haunted house we've been to."
"And we've been to dozens," Barrett cut in. "I love them, and this is the best one with the float, the maze and the house."