Halloween at Sunset
By Michael Brooks
Staff Writer
If you are looking for a truly scary Halloween experience, Halloween at Sunset may be the experience for you. With a trail that offers scares at every turn, Halloween at Sunset is not for scaredy-cats.
“Ours is a bit more intense than the (BRC) Haunted Trail,” Halloween at Sunset co-creator Cynthia Ballin said. Ballin didn’t want to give away any secrets about their new path this year but she did add, “In the past, we’ve had people chasing you with a chainsaw. That together with all the screaming may be too much for some little kids.”
If the experience does turn out to be too much, there is an opt-out point just after the first section, before things turn really scary.
The idea of a scary Halloween project came to the Ballins after a family experience of their own.
“I remember taking my kids years ago to an old house in Ganado and people were chasing them with a chainsaw,”Ballin said. “You don’t have that anymore. We wanted to keep something like that going, especially for the kids.”
An ace in the hole at Sunset is Cynthia herself, a make-up artist. She gives an authentic look to the costumes.
“I do make-up and I do the special effects here and that is something that caught people’s eyes,” Ballin explained. “I have helped out at Judgement House (at First Baptist Church).”
The whole process is a family event.
“We have been doing this for about eight or nine years,” Ballin said. “It started out with just my husband and my sons and chasing people in the street and then more and more people got involved. More family members joined in and it also give the kids something to do to keep them busy.”
Once the decision is made on who the characters will be and the make-up is applied, the walkthrough can begin.
“I try to start with the classic old school characters, like Michael Myers and Freddy,” Ballin said. “We mix in a little bit of what is classic with a little bit of modern. If you go through a cemetery there could be a zombie, and a little further maybe Elm St., and a bit further Chainsaw Massacre.”
The Halloween-at-Sunset event has grown larger and with the Ballins running it on their street in past years, they wanted to expand, and they found a bigger place to hold the event this year. It will also offer plenty of parking.
“This year it will be at 58 CR 412, the same road as the Texana Raceway,” Ballin explained. “The walkthrough will be a quarter of a mile with trees on one side and a chainlink fence. We will start at sunset, and there will be guides with the people to show them where they can and can’t go. We will be open on Saturday, Oct. 30 and Sunday, Oct. 31, although we may close early on Sunday since it is a school night.”
The Ballins have never had to in the past, but they will be charging $5 this year.
“Every penny we make will go to setting up and buying more stuff to make it even better next year,” Ballin explained. “We didn’t want to have to charge but the cost has really gotten expensive. We just tried to make the cost as small as possible so everyone that wanted to could attend.
“We want to provide people a safe fun-filled way to celebrate halloween. And this is from people you know and can trust, so if you want to have a great time here locally, come see us.”