4 sites make it easy to scare up a frightening time

Ghosts, ghouls, goblins, graveyards — it’s Halloween season, when we have fun screaming, shuddering and getting scared out of our wits. Here are four spine-tingling options.

SPOOKY: HAUNTED STORIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

» Where: Honolulu Theatre for Youth at Tenney Theatre, 229 Queen Emma Square

» When: 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday

» Cost: $20, $10 ages 18 and under, $15 for ages 60 and up. Children 2 and under are free but require a ticket.

» Information: 839-9885, www.htyweb.org

» Notes: For ages 8 and up. An Onstage Workshop, 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, gives kids 5 and older the chance to go backstage and try a bit of performing. Cost is $10.

STORYTELLER Jeff Gere was born on Halloween, so he has an affinity for spooky stuff. On Saturday he’ll share supernatural tales from Japan, Italy, Samoa, Persia and America during hourlong performances that feature a mix of humor, magic and chicken-skin moments.

Mime, actor, painter, puppeteer, director — Gere has been entertaining local audiences for 30 years in venues from bars and prisons to schools and museums.

For this production, he dresses in a cloth tunic with a silvery moon print. Props, accessories and sounds effects are employed as he segues from story to story. Visual elements include a full moon, projected behind the stage, which changes color and serves as a screen for shadow puppets.

"Cool technical achievements enhance the basics of storytelling — one guy, one voice and the audience — with hair-raising, nerve-racking results," Gere said. "We’re going to freak out some folks! And put on some incredible theater."

SPOOKILAU

» Where: Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives, 553 S. King St.

» When: 5 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday

» Cost: $10, $6 for ages 6-12, under 5 free

» Information: 447-3914, www.missionhouses.org

» Notes: Reservations recommended. Bring a picnic to eat on the grounds before the event begins.

ON the museum’s grounds, attendees can have their faces painted as zombies, listen to presentations by Spooky Kine Investigations (www.spookykine. com) and the Hawaiian Island Paranormal Research Society (www.hawaiianislandghosthunters.com), and participate in a short paranormal investigation of the two oldest houses in Hawaii: the 1821 Mission House and the 1831 Chamberlain House.

Two different 30-minute walking tours will point out sites of strange happenings in downtown Honolulu, including Honolulu Hale, the state Capitol, King Lunalilo’s mausoleum at Kawaiaha’o Church and the Kakaako Fire Station, where many firefighters reputedly have experienced the "choking ghost phenomenon."

As they’ve gone from sleep to wakefulness, they’ve been unable to move, and have felt hands tightening around their necks. Those who believe in the occult attribute such symptoms to demons sitting on a person’s chest.

"Spookilau is not your typical haunted-house type of event," said Wayne Takabayashi, director of operations for Spooky Kine Investigations. "We’re not going to jump out of dark corners hoping to make you scream. We’re holding you by the hand, taking you into those dark corners and talking about paranormal events experienced by normal people like you and me. That’s a much more subtle kind of terror that’ll stick with you for months to come."

FIELD OF TERROR

» Where: Waimanalo Country Farms, 41-225 Lupe St.

» When: 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Oct. 31

» Cost: $15 per attraction, $25 for both

» Information: 636-0909, www.waimanalofieldofterror.com

» Notes: For ages 8 and up. Wear covered walking shoes for the maze.

DOMINIC Kadooka and his family enjoy a peaceful life, growing corn at their 52-acre farm in Waimanalo. When the sun sets on three upcoming days, however, their rural home transforms into the Field of Terror: two macabre attractions in one place.

At the Maze of Fear, scary obstacles dot a 2-acre cornfield. Equipped with flashlights, groups have to find their way to safety by avoiding dead ends and more than a dozen eerie creatures of the night.

The Haunted Hayride rumbles through an isolated, overgrown field. Watch out for hanging bodies, spirits of the dead and a 9-foot-tall Grim Reaper who’ll try to whisk hapless souls to the underworld.

For the Field of Terror, co-founders Corey Nishihara and Matt Maghinay expanded and fine-tuned ideas they’ve been using for miniature haunted houses at Hale Nani Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, where they both work in the Recreation Department.

"It takes about 10 to 15 minutes to walk through the maze and 15 to 20 minutes to do the hayride, but it’ll feel much longer than that," Nishihara said. "Expect to see visions from your worst nightmares. We welcome you to confront them — if you dare."

HAUNTED PLANTATION

» Where: Hawaii’s Plantation Village, 94-695 Waipahu St.

» When: 7 to 11 p.m. tonight, Friday through Oct. 28, Oct. 30-31

» Cost: $15, $20 fast pass, $30 VIP (front of the line)

» Information: 677-0110, www.hawaiihauntedplantation.com

» Notes: Not intended for children under 13. Anyone under 16 must be accompanied by an adult. No one in a cast or medical brace or using crutches will be admitted.

THERE are a lot of warnings on the Haunted Plantation’s website: "This event is not for children under 13 years of age," "Pregnant women and people with heart or breathing problems, enter at your own risk," "Do not enter if you suffer from asthma, heart conditions, seizures or any type of … medical problem."

Instead of discouraging most Halloween revelers, however, these cautions up the intrigue for an event described as Hawaii’s ultimate frightfest. More than 50 professional actors wearing Hollywood-quality makeup and costumes are featured in this indoor-outdoor production, which is at once thrilling and terrifying.

"We use fog, low visibility, strobe lights, intense audio, moving floors, sudden actions, wet and damp conditions, and a physically demanding environment to startle you, petrify you, make your skin crawl," said Noa Laporga, the event promoter who created the Haunted Plantation. "Every year, some people, even adults, aren’t able to go through the whole thing because they’re too scared. Seriously, please take our advice and leave your young kids at home."

For those who want to build on the scary experience, Jeff Higa, executive director of the Plantation Village, leads Haunted Hawaii Ghost Stories tours on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week and on Oct. 29 at 7 and 8:30 p.m. Reservations recommended. Cost is $13. Must be at least age 11; adult supervision required for children under 16.

Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based freelance writer whose travel features for the Star-Advertiser have won several Society of American Travel Writers awards.

CORRECTION: The Hawaii Ghost Stories tours are on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and on Oct. 29. An earlier version of this story and the story in the print edition had different dates.