Distinctly Montana Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.distinctlymontana.com/i/1027685
D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A • FA L L 2 0 1 8 68 I've often thought of that haunted house in the years after. Not because I regretted the scene I made, but because I've always been fascinated by where entertainment and fear meet. In fact, it's quite a big business, from the yearly glut of scary movies to the paperback thrillers of King or Koontz. But "haunts", as they are known, are the purest expression of both— after all, a really thrilling paperback may keep you up at night, but it hardly rivals the feeling of turning a real corner and encountering a "real" horror. It is high time, then, that Montana's best haunts get the recognition, shock, and fear that they deserve. Consider, Sandy and Quinn Kirkland's "Field of Screams," which has been terrorizing the good people of Victor, Montana, and its surrounding environs for almost 20 years now. is is not a hyperbole—they sell adult diapers to patrons wise enough to take them up on it—as Quinn points out, "it's not just for giggles. Many people need them because they get so scared." e "Field of Screams" attraction began in 1999, in part because, Sandy points out, there wasn't much for kids and families by JOE SHELTON I 'LL NEVER FORGET THE FIRST TIME I VISITED A "HAUNTED HOUSE" ATTRACTION, BUT THEN I DON'T THINK ANYONE EVER REALLY FORGETS BEING CHASED AROUND BY A GUY WITH A CHAINSAW. I was about 13 years old, trying not to betray my nerves to the girls I had invited. I had a terrible crush on one of them, of course, and in my precious naivete I felt that if I could only endure the annual Havre Jaycees haunted house I would therefore demonstrate my viability as a mate. Too bad, then, that when a hockey-masked lunatic waved power tools in my face, I screamed in a high-pitched register and began to run as hard as I could. Neither of my female companions were impressed. Guillotine along a path in the Field of Screams, provided by Sally and Quinn Kirkland, owners Missoula Haunted House. Credit: Roothead Studios. MONTANA'S SCARIEST HALLOWEEN DESTINATIONS PETRIFIED: