Get haunted: SE Live reviews some of the scream-inducing sites in Southeast Missouri

If you're planning to hit every haunted setup around Cape Girardeau in one night, you can't. SE Live had the plan to visit all the haunts in the area to be able to rate and review them. We made it to four of the six.

We missed the Phobia Farm near Sikeston, Mo., which sells tickets from 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday for the last time this year and allows people to wander until midnight, and Rocky Holler Haunted Hayrides at the Fruitland exit off Interstate 55, which runs from 7 to 10 p.m. today and Saturday. More details for all of the haunts can be found at semoEvents.com.

Here are summaries and reviews of the creepy retreats we did visit.

~ Chris Harris

The Haunted Trail

At about 10 miles northwest of Jackson, the drive out to The Haunted Trail is almost as scary as the walk through the woods. To get there, you must go through Jackson up to Highway 34 West, take a right on Route UU and follow the signs from there. The modest, family-run trail runs from dark to about 11 p.m. today and Saturday. As one volunteer puts it, "They sort of just find out what people are afraid of and they do that."

A tractor drops you off at the edge of a forest, and you're left to fight your way through strobe lights and homemade tunnels. With more creepy characters than startling frights, this one didn't make us jump much, but the creep factor of being in the woods combined with rock music conjure images of a Rob Zombie movie.

If you live close to Jackson or Burfordville, Mo., this is your haunt.

Scream factor: two screams on a scale of five.

The Haunted Train Car

At first we were going to skip this one because we thought you had to actually board the train and take a ride. Actually, the Haunted Train Car doesn't go anywhere and, according to the story, neither did the souls of passengers on the car when it crashed and was thrown to a swampy demise deep in Southeast Missouri.

The train car, which opens from 7 to 11 p.m. today and Saturday, isn't long, and subsequently the spooky experience is short. But for $3 or $2 depending on age, it's worth the money. Two boys couldn't get past the second room and came back out the way they went in. We inched our way forward through the fog, past different "ghosts" to the end where even though I had been warned about the final scare, I nearly wet myself when it happened.

Like a roller coaster, being in the front ensures the most thrills, and being inside means there's no light of the moon and nowhere to run. You never see what's coming.

Scream factor: four screams on a scale of five.

Black Forest Village Haunted Ghost Town

The line for this one can get backed up, but the owners keep a steady stream of six going through. For $5 for adults or $3 for children 6 to 12, from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. today and Saturday, this haunted villa just north of Cape Girardeau takes people through three themed areas.

One house has disturbing themed rooms and children who come at you out of nowhere -- and we all know how scary small children are. Then you enter a house you think you'll never get out of. This one will be fun for youngsters, but our group of six adults just felt worthless because we could not seem to find our way out. We would never have found the cheese. After that one, the grim reaper leads you to a hay bale maze. We made it out of this one, but only after I and another girl were scared into a crouching position by a worker hiding on the other side of the hay bale wall.

With two inside and one outside component, this trail can justify charging more than they do, but the $5 price tag keeps it competitive and crowded.

Scream factor: three screams on a scale of five.

Haunted Hall of Horrors

At roughly three-times its previous size, the Haunted Hall of Horrors at the Arena Building seems like it will never end. Scared of chain saw-wielding maniacs? Prepare to run. Startle easy? You'll jump a lot.

The Haunted Hall doesn't look like much when you're standing in line on the floor of Arena Building waiting to enter. Once you enter, though, you keep going. And going. The new route takes you through a maze inside the building, then underneath it. Organizers used their surroundings to give you a real chill as you go under the building and wind outside under the bleachers from the grand stand and back inside for one final scare.

Scream factor: four screams on a scale of five.