Don't worry about pissing in your pants at this haunted house -- you won't be wearing any.
Pennsylvania's Shocktoberfest offers a "Naked and Scared" tour that lets visitors show off every goosebump, according to owner Patrick Konopelski.
"It's about vulnerability -- people putting their defenses down and not being protected by anything. It allows us to scare them in ways they have never been scared before," Konopelski told The Huffington Post.
For more than 20 years the haunted attraction in Sinking Spring, Pa., has been scaring the pants off visitors, so it seems only natural for the "scream park" to boost its scary reputation by offering customers a bare-skin tour of is haunted house.
"When we started out we just needed some plastic masks and rubber knives, but over the years our customers wanted more," Konopelski said.
From those humble beginnings, Shocktoberfest has grown into multiple attractions, including a haunted hay ride, haunted house, midway games and food. The scares have also grown bigger and better, requiring Konopelski and his team to utilize hydraulics, animatronics and high-tech special effects to create a virtual world of horror for their customers.
The end goal, Konopelski said, has always been to make the scariest haunted house attraction ever built.
"Our haunted house gives the customer an adrenaline rush - something they perhaps first experienced when they were little kids going through their first haunted house. That rush becomes like a heroin addiction and people will chase that high again and again. It's our job to give it to them."
The "Naked and Scared" tour is intended to take scaring the b'Jesus out of folks to the next level. By putting people in a vulnerable position, i.e. their birthday suit, they will not be protected by anything and can be scared in ways they have never experienced before.
According to Konopelski, his inspiration for the nude tour came to him while watching an episode of the Discovery Channel's show "Naked and Afraid," in which two strangers -- a man and a woman - have to survive in the wilderness naked for 21 days.
"I was inspired by the show. It was really creepy. So my team and I sat down and started figuring out how we could [implement something similar] and how it could be done safely," he said.
After talking to his lawyer, who said the idea was legal and a "human rights issue," Konopelski and his team convinced town officials to give them the go ahead.
The team decided to offer the special event to consenting adults, at specific times when regular customers were not present in the park. The customers, not the ghouls, are the only naked participants. The team also decided to provide an option of "nude or prude," meaning participants can go on the tour in the buff or in their underwear.
Couples are welcome on the tour, which Konopelski said will be limited to small groups, in order to ensure safety and security.
"It's an upscale experience," he said.
And no worries, Konopelski said, there won't be any hanky panky going on during the tour.
"It has nothing to do with sex. Inappropriate behavior is not allowed. We have controls in place to ensure that will not be the case," he said. "In our industry we create the illusion of a very chaotic environment, when in fact, it's a very safe and secure environment."
Konopelski said he has received feedback about his new tour from all over the world. While some people have been negative about it, he said the majority of those he has heard from have expressed interest in it.
"We're in America. If it's not for you, don't do it. Because you don't agree, does it give you the right to stop someone else from experiencing something they have the right to experience? Keep in mind this is in a controlled environment. [Participants] will never be in view of minors or non-consenting adults," he said.
The naked tour is being held as a test run this year - an experiment of sorts, Konopelski said, to see how the public responds. If it goes over well, it might be back.
While the idea is certainly unique to lovers of haunted houses, it begs the question as to what's in store next for Shocktoberfest.
"That question has been asked," Konopelski said. "Please, can I please get through this year first? It's the fun and excitement of the business. We all get to be Walt Disney for a month because we create this wonderful thing for people to experience. You'll just have to stay tuned and see what we come up with in 2014."
The "Naked and Scared" challenge will begin Friday at midnight. Tickets can be bought online for $20. Additional information can be found at Shocktoberfest.com.
