NILES CHARTER TOWNSHIP — The Niles Scream Park begins its 46th year scaring the “yell” out of people from 8 to 11 p.m. today, but its seven new attractions are not tired, old scares.

Patrons can spend every weekend until Nov. 2 experiencing all the park’s amenities at 855 Mayflower Road in Niles Charter Township.

Brainstorming began for new attractions one week after the park closed for the 2018 season. Its results have led to dozens of themed rooms, fields and houses created on 44 acres of space, from putrid bathrooms to ice monster caves to a pirate ship.

Yet, owner Pete Karlowicz said each new attraction, and the scream park itself, is steeped in the tradition of accessible fun for the whole family.

The park has something for both its attendees and its volunteers, he said.

The 2019 Niles Scream Park features a hayride, a haunted house, a gold rush walkthrough, a New Orleans walkthrough, an outdoor maze, a blindfolded scare attraction, two escape rooms, a gift shop, a museum, a photo booth and an expanded midway with food and drink vendors.

Each walk-through attraction offers a different level of intensity and scare tactic, but each is outfitted to make sure that volunteers and attendees are safe and happy, said longtime volunteer David Guisbert.

To maximize happiness — or fear — he said Niles Scream Park has gradually moved away from scares spurred by mechanical monsters activated by movement. Instead, volunteers dressed as an assortment of ghouls and ghastly creatures spark the most terror.

“It makes it more interesting,” he said. “I think it’s more enjoyable to go through as a patron if there’s somebody there.”

These volunteers have access to a series of secret doors and back hallways. These not only let them seemingly pop out of nowhere while on duty, but create safe exits in case of fires, health emergencies or wet pants.

Guisbert said upwards of 200 volunteers will help make the Niles Scream Park a reality each night, whether as scarers, maintenance, parking guides, midway help, construction or security.

These volunteers represent dozens of area nonprofit organizations. Each hour contributed at the scream park equates to a donation given by the scream park to an organization.

Last year, $132,767 was donated.

“I just love that fact that I can do something for the community, because this is all volunteer, and everything I do goes to a group,” said Ashley Church, a longtime volunteer representing Make-A-Wish Foundation. “It makes me feel so good that everything I’m doing is not for me. It’s for somebody.”

“And, of course, it’s fun to scare people,” she added.

Attendees walking through the Field of Screams that hear a high-pitched scream may be about to have an encounter with Church. She will volunteer in the outdoor exhibit this season, and she said it is one of the scariest attractions.

Church takes her role seriously.

“It’s not just a volunteer job. It’s your job,” she said. “When you come out to work, all of us actors, we put everything that we are into it. We want all of the people that come through to have fun, get scared.”

Guisbert noted that the Niles Scream Park can give some of its volunteers valuable skills. He volunteers for Boy Scouts of America Troop 541. His scouts join him, some of whom have never held a job before.

“They actually have a leg up whenever they go to their first place of employment,” he said. “They kind of have already been employed before, whether they’re helping with construction, whether they’re parking, whether they’re scaring, whether they’re helping in the midway.”

His troop also learns new vocabulary while scaring, too.

“We do hear amazing combinations of words while you’re working,” he said.

The Niles Scream Park is open 8 to 11 p.m. for the remaining Fridays and Saturdays in September. It is open 7 to 11 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in October and on Thursday, Oct. 31.

In November, the Niles Scream Park will host its “Black Out” nights from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday, Nov. 1 and Saturday, Nov. 2.

During “Black Out” nights, the attractions are dimmed and attendees are given a single glowstick per group.

“When you’re in there scaring, you know when somebody’s coming,” he said. “They can’t see you, but you can see them. You get some of the best scares that way.”

Individual attraction prices range from $5 for an escape room to $13 for the Field of Screams.