BY QUINT QUALLS
Local Halloween destination Millers Thrillers near Spring Hill is nearing the end of its 2016 season and has a concert planned for Oct. 28 featuring the Atlanta-based Christian rock band, Family Force 5.
The Family Force 5 concert is slated for 8:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 28 and admission to the show is included in tickets to the attractions at Millers Thrillers. However, passes for the Entertainment Zone will cost $20 rather than $5 on the night of the concert.
Each weekend throughout October from 7-11 p.m., Millers Thrillers draws in hundreds of guests with its Haunted Woods and Zombie Paintball attractions, which will continue through Saturday, Oct. 29. Additionally, the Haunted Woods attraction will run on Halloween from 7-10 p.m.
For the next two Saturdays, Oct. 22 and 29, the attractions will open up one hour earlier at 6 p.m. in order to allow kids to enjoy the Haunted Woods and Zombie Paintball without the darkness.
Millers Thrillers is now in its ninth year of operation and has about 160 people on staff.
Each Zombie Paintball hayride allows up to 20 people to participate in a sort of mobile shooting gallery, essentially allowing people to play paintball without “getting shot or getting dirty.” The Haunted Woods offers an outdoor experience where guests are able to traverse through a haunted house on foot.
According to David Miller, owner and manager of Millers Thrillers, those who have done the Haunted Woods and Zombie Paintball in the past can still experience something new thanks to the new features that get added to the attractions each year.
“We want customers to return every year to see what’s different,” Miller said. “Even if you’ve been, come again and be blown away.”
The Haunted Woods was expanded this year to include two new sections, a Wild West ghost town and an expanded version of the abandoned phosphate mines. Zombie Paintball also now features zombies on zip lines and trampolines, and even a zombie riding a motorbike.
Miller recently started a new attraction in Franklin, Extreme Escape Games, Extreme Escape Games, which offers interactive, themed rooms that challenge users to escape within 60 minutes. Millers Thrillers features a 10-minute ‘escape game’ at the Haunted Woods.
Guests at Millers Thrillers this weekend can expect to see other added attractions such as a snake exhibit where people can get their pictures taken with six-foot pythons and even tarantulas. There will also be monster truck rides and five performers, including a zombie drum line.
Although the actors at Millers Thrillers do work to be scary, the focus of the attractions is to remain family-friendly and to provide an alternative to the gory, devilish and vulgar aspects of other haunted houses, according to Miller.
“We do put on a good scare, but we are family-friendly,” Miller said. “The Zombie Paintball hayride is 5-and-up and the Haunted Woods is 10-and-up.”
Miller added that the weather for this weekend is expected to be rather chilly, so guests should dress appropriately. The forecast for Friday and Saturday night includes a low of 40 degrees.
Tickets are $20 for either the Haunted Woods or Zombie Paintball and $30 for a combo pass for both attractions. A slash pass, which lets purchasers skip over half the line, is an additional $20 per ticket or an additional $40 per combo ticket.
Millers Thrillers is located at 1431 Carters Creek Pike, about five minutes west of Spring Hill.
For more information, find Millers Thrillers on Facebook, or visit www.MillersThrillers.net.
Quint Qualls covers Spring Hill for Home Page Media Group. Reach him at [email protected].
