By Ashley M. Casey
Associate Editor
COVID-19 is scary enough on its own, but if you’re looking for a different kind of fright to distract you from the horrors of 2020, the CMC Dance Company’s annual haunted house returns this Friday.
This year’s theme for the CMC Haunted House is “Masks Required,” and the spooky attraction features two trails of terror starring CMC dance students. About 30 families don costumes — complete with gory makeup, fake blood and prop weapons — to scare the pants off Central New Yorkers each October so they can raise money to go to dance competitions.
If you go
WHAT: CMC Haunted House – CMC Dance Company, 6092 Route 31, Cicero
WHEN: Tours take place from 7 to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, Oct. 9, 10, 16, 17, 23, 24 and 30
TICKETS: Admission for all ages will be $13 for one trail or $20 for both trails. RIP admission (VIP status) is available for $25 and provides no wait entry. Group discounts are also available for 10 or more people and must be booked in advance by calling 315-699-2355. Visit cmchaunts.com to purchase tickets.
COVID-19 PRECAUTIONS: Face masks are required. Visitors are encouraged to use hand sanitizing stations throughout the grounds. Keep a distance of at least 6 feet while in the waiting areas, ticket line or haunted house. Stay with your tour group and do not touch the props or actors.
The CMC Haunted House was named “Best Boo for Your Buck” by ScaryCuse.com in 2018 and received the bronze medal for ScaryCuse’s 2019 Best Haunted House contest.
Michael Folsom, whose 10-year-old daughter is a student at CMC, said families have been working on renovations to the haunted house since May.
“We’re changing the whole setup,” he said. “We actually gutted the entire fenced-in backyard. We had some drainage issues in there so people and our actors had to deal with mud. … We leveled the backyard and created a maze setup that actually gives us more opportunities to scare people.”
The attraction has expanded from one trail of terror to two. Folsom said CMC strives to make the haunted house a unique experience from year to year. CMC has held the haunted house since 2002.
To reduce the risk of COVID, the check-in process is rigorous for visitors and staff. Upon arrival, visitors are given temperature checks and directed to designated waiting areas until their tour time. If the waiting areas are getting too crowded, guests wait in their cars and CMC texts them when it is their turn.
“There’s so many moving parts,” Folsom said.
In the time of coronavirus, CMC’s no-touch policy on the haunted trail is more important than ever.
“We have a no-touch policy. We don’t touch them and they are not supposed to touch us,” CMC owner Marj Taylor told the Star-Review in 2019.
This year, CMC’s motto for the haunted house is “so clean it’s scary.”
“We’ll be going through disinfecting high-touch points every night on a regular basis. We’re looking into UV light wants that kill the virus,” Folsom said.
As for the terrifying tours, the attraction is not for the faint of heart, CMC owner Marj Taylor told the Star-Review in 2019.
“It is tremendously scary,” she said. “I’ve had women who’ve had accidents in there, I’ve had people who’ve had to come out and couldn’t make it all the way through.”
For scaredy-cats, CMC offers a no-scare tour of the haunted house, outdoor movies, a bonfire, snacks, photo ops and other Halloween activities.
While many of the actors are dance students, don’t let the idea of innocent dancers fool you. The scares are truly hair-raising, Folsom said.
“[People] have the impression it’s a bunch of 12-year-old girls in tutus and that’s the furthest thing from what it is. We’re legit and we’re proud of it,” he said.
