Photos by JUSTIN COOK The Roanoke Times

The entrance to the Trail of Terror in Riner features signs pointing visitors toward "Heaven" or "Hell," straight into the woods.

Marie and Jared March enlisted help from staff at their restaurant, Due South BBQ, and Christiansburg High School drama students for their Trail of Terror and Haunted Barn (above) in Riner.

| Anna L. Mallory

anna.mallory@roanoke.com, 381-8627

If you head to the Trail of Terror and Haunted Barn in Riner this weekend, you might want to take a change of clothes.

The attempt at a petrifying quarter-mile path along 15 acres of Marie and Jared March's property has made a few participants wet themselves, Marie March admits.

The business owners' take on a Southern scare tradition ends Saturday, its fourth weekend this month. They've billed it as "heart-poundin', dry heavin' terror."

The husband-and-wife team had bemoaned a lack of local fright spots during the Halloween season, so they decided to create their own.

The Marches enlisted help from staff at their restaurant, Due South BBQ, and Christiansburg High School drama students. They've made the nighttime production a community affair. After paying the trail's actors, they plan to split profits from the $10 entrance fee among the Auburn High School booster club and a local church. The booster club also is collecting a $2 parking fee at the school and shuttling people to the trail about four miles away.

While fliers for the trail warn of spine-tingling fear, March said the barn and trail are not filled with gore, nor is it based on reality.

"We just wanted it to be fun," she said. "The whole thrill of the event is to get scared at just the right time."

At the start of the trail, signs point visitors toward "Heaven" or "Hell," straight into the woods.

"There could be inbreeds in the woods. There could be a moonshine still down in the woods," she said, calling it a "glimpse into the other side."

Some 20 minutes later, visitors hit the haunted barn, which actors tout as the scariest part of the show.

The Marches and their actors, who might have a hard time keeping their hands away from trembling patrons, spent about three months planning the production. They made costumes and designed characters. Watch out for the creepy old woman at front of the house, the grim reaper and even a few horror-movie types.

But no two visits are likely the same, said CHS senior Tiffany Love, who spends her weekends this month listening to shrieks in the barn's "baby room."

She used improvisational techniques she picked up in her high school drama classes.

"It's just coming up with the stuff and bettering yourself every time," she said.

It helps when visitors are truly frightened, she said. More "macho" visitors ruin the fun for both actors and patrons, she said.

Still, March said it's a tough gig because "it's constant screaming on the property."