Maze-goers beware: there's someone behind you at the Othello Straw Maze

On a moonlit night, after driving down a dark, dusty road and through a creaky steel gate, dozens lined up in a dimly lit booth to purchase tickets to the evening’s eery event, the Othello Straw Maze.

After a brief explanation, largely consisting of ways to make a quick exit if the attraction proves too much for the faint of heart, guests are sent alone on their way into a pitch black hallway.

Things start slowly, with a loud “thud” to one side, a rustling of the hay to the other. But by the time attendees complete the winding, haunted maze, they’ll have traveled through an attraction so hair-raising, so frantic, they’ll be looking over their shoulders for screaming ghouls and buzzing chainsaws for the rest of the night.

Putting the attraction together is a labor of creepy, crawly love for the Othello Rodeo Association. First opened in 2001, the straw halls of horror have been an annual feature of Othello every October.

After painstakingly designing the maze, over a thousand hay bales are stacked and fashioned into the maze’s framework in a single night. Over the ensuing weeks, volunteers with the “Scare Design Team” plan out and execute their visions for the various rooms, which this year includes the “Children of the Corn,” the “Doll Room,” or the “Cult Room.”

The props are a mix of fun-for-the-whole-family arts and crafts and gothic sensibilities, from the cultist mannequins made of PVC pipe and chicken wire, grim ravens fashioned from black duct tape, and the crushed cars repurposed from a recent derby from which zombie kids crawl out the windows.

Even more impressive are the actors, cobbled from a mix of members of the Rodeo Association, the local FFA chapter and area schools. All but the youngest never fail to stay in character, looming just out of sight for hours on end in order to jump out, time after time, at the most opportune moment.

Beyond the rooms themselves, a variety of small details are hammered out, including the catwalks over the hay bales that actors use to “thump” in the night, just out of sight. Several holes are carved out of the bales as well, from which animated strawmen lurch from the rare hallway that seems, at first, to be a short reprieve.

The event regularly attracts hundreds of attendees every night, peaking on Halloween.

The maze is open Fridays and Saturdays for the month of October, as well as Halloween night, with estimates of up to 1,000 people. On average, the maze takes about 40 minutes to complete, but standing in line during peak times can take almost as long.

The maze hosts a no-scare hour from 6-7 p.m., with actors putting on their spooky game faces from 7-10 p.m. On Halloween night, the maze is open until 11 p.m. It is located at the Othello Rodeo Grounds, 1971 West Fairgrounds Road.