AREA'S HAUNTED ATTRACTIONS DRAW REPEAT VISITORS

An old Cornish prayer implores the Lord for deliverance from "ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggety beasties and things that go bump in the night."

But for the hundreds of people who crowded into area haunted houses over the weekend, deliverance from goblins and spooks was the last thing on their minds.

"I didn't scream, but I jumped," said Brandon Streiler, a sophomore at Jackson High School, as he emerged from the Jackson Jaycee Haunted House Sunday night.

Streiler toured the haunted house with Amy Overbeck of Jackson and her cousin, Angela Overbeck, of Gordonville. As the three weaved their way through the narrow hallways and darkened rooms of the old house, Amy and Angela Overbeck held tightly to each other and to Streiler and let out an occasional scream of fright when a masked goblin jumped out at them.

At one point in their tour of the house a guide stopped them momentarily.

"Wait just a second so you can get the full effect," the guide said.

"I don't want the full effect," Angela Overbeck said with a quiver in her voice.

But when she came out of the house, she was all smiles and ready to go back in again.

"It's thrilling, it's fun," she said.

The Jackson Jaycees have operated a haunted house tour around Halloween for nearly 25 years, taking off a few years in the 1980s when they did not have a house to use. They have been in the house they presently use on Old Toll Road in Jackson for seven years now, though they change most of what is inside every year.

"It's amazing how the tough ones aren't always so tough when they get in," said Rick Saupe, a Jaycee member.

The Jaycees use the proceeds from the haunted house to help fund activities sponsored by the group throughout the year, including the Christmas parade, the Bundle of Joy Christmas project, the Easter egg hunt and the Fourth of July celebration in Jackson.

The Haunted Hall of Horror in the A. C. Brase Arena Building in Cape Girardeau boasts four chambers which drew nearly 1,500 visitors in its first two nights last weekend, some of them repeat guests.

Kristin Foster, 16, of Advance visited the Haunted Hall for the third time in three days on Sunday night, coming with different groups of friends on the different nights.

"The first night it was really scary," she said.

But even on the third night through, she jumped, screamed and held tightly to her friends as she wound her way through the dark catacombs of the building's basement.

Among the many Halloween figures jumping out at her and the other guests as passed through the dark halls were Hannibal Lector of the movie "Silence of the Lambs," witches and masked figures with buzzing chainsaws.

"But we gave Freddy Kruger the year off," said Scott Williams, recreation supervisor for the Cape Girardeau Parks and Recreation Department. Kruger is a character from the "Nightmare on Elm Street" film series.

The haunted hall, which the Parks and Recreation Department started six years ago, features 40 actual masked or made-up characters, some from the department itself, others volunteers from Southeast Missouri State University's chapter of Alpha Phi Omega.

The hall itself was constructed in the Arena Building, with staff members working from 8 a.m. to after midnight for four straight days trying to complete the project. They put on the finishing touches at 6:58 p.m. Friday night, two minutes before they were scheduled to open.

The effects include organ music like that heard in horror films, screeches, the incessant beating of a tell-tale heart and, of course, the low murmur of chainsaws.

Although the hall is open to everyone, the staff recommends that children under age 7 or 8 should not come.

"Though we've had them here as young as 4," Williams said.

"It's really up to the parents to use their best judgment. And they can always close their eyes and hang on to Mom and Dad," he said.

The Haunted Hall of Horrors and the Jackson Jaycee Haunted House re-open Thursday.