Troy Murray can't talk right now; he's too busy running for his life. A swamp creature lurking behind bales of hay scattered across a walkway, brushing past the 15-year-old from Washington, D.C. and scared him into a panicked run hundreds of feet away.

"Oh God, I can't talk now," Murray said. "I have to go this way."

"We're about to go to the haunted house right now," a friend calls out to him.

"The heck we ain't," Murray yells back.

Murray was not stranded in the middle of nowhere but rather inside the confines of Six Flags America. Murray chose to get his annual scare at the Largo theme park's annual "Fright Fest." The park, which has run "Fright Fest" since 1999, will be open from 5 to 10:30 p.m. Friday, 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. Halloween night and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.

"I come here every year," Murray said. "I like it. The bridge of terror is the scariest. The [haunted] train don't have nothing on the bridge."

Random gray-faced ghouls walked up without warning on the "Bridge of Terror," while a man chained to a chair jerked wildly back and forth. The trip across the bridge was capped with a masked man chasing residents out the exit with a chainless chainsaw.

The Bridge of Terror was a little too much for Joseph Thomas Jr.'s brood.

Thomas Jr., 40, of Greenbelt walked out with his arms full of children, with daughter Amirha, 7, cradled in his right arm and son Joseph III, 2, cradled in his left.

His wife, Tresor Thomas, 38, said she had to go back in and check on her husband and kids.

"It was pretty cool," Tresor said. "It's a good experience for the kids."

However, Sharon Doiival, 28, of Greenbelt was ready to go before she stepped inside.

"I wanted to get out in one minute," Doiival said. "I just didn't want them to touch me."

After a four-year hiatus, the haunted train ride, reincarnated as "Paranormal Studios: A Haunted Tour" is back, chugging through the park on a haunted movie set. Throughout the park, regular walks to a roller coaster go awry when attendants are forced to walk through "Scare Zones" such as a haunted cornfield where swamp creatures scuttle across the ground.

Julia Filz, a park spokeswoman, said there are multiple scary elements throughout Six Flags. However, it is possible to go to "Fright Fest" but never interact with anything scary. The park's "Looney Tunes Spooky Town" provides a "Trick or Treat" trail where children can take free stuffed toys and candy as their own goodies and ride the "Not-So-Scary Kiddie Hayride."

Filz said it is also a chance for thrill-ride seekers to enjoy their favorite roller coasters in the dark.

"It's an opportunity to ride your rides, do your thing and experience a spooky thing," Filz said.

"Fright Fest" planning begins in late spring and early summer. When the park was opened to the public for weekdays at the start of September, the staff began decorating the park and its park ghouls, said Tim Wiesemann, Six Flags America's entertainment manager.

Actors performing in scare zones and attractions such as the Bridge of Terror attended "Ghoul School," where they learn in one evening how to properly scare visitors, but also how not to not cross the line, Wiesemann said.

Through "Ghoul School," the ghouls-in-training learn how to create a character and to think of how they became the way they are. Zombies, psycho clowns, scarecrows and escaped asylum patients are just a few examples of ghouls that may start chasing you through the park, Wiesemann said.

"We do a pretty good job as to what is enough," Wiesemann said. "Our ghouls know that if a guest is really terrified of them they back off and let the guest pass by. We don't have scares gone bad here at Six Flags America."

Historically spooked

Those who enjoy a little history with their spook should head south of Largo to historic Upper Marlboro.

The "Mayhem in Marlborough Ghost Walk," running from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday and on Halloween, has been held at Darnall's Chance House Museum for the past nine years, Susan Reedy, museum director said. The tour lasts about one hour and circles around the town.

Historic characters, such as Revolutionary War soldiers and highway robbers, relive moments connected to events in the county's history. The museum is transformed into a haunted house filled with cobwebs, candle lights and the sounds of macabre music, Reedy said.

"You meet some colonial ghosts who are going to help you get out of Upper Marlboro because Upper Marlboro is a bad place to be on All Hallows Eve," Reedy said.

Scenes include two Revolutionary War soldiers sent by the governor to hide court and state records from Annapolis safely in two Upper Marlboro tobacco warehouses, and pirates who would steal tobacco from farms and sell it for a profit.

This year's walk will feature two men performing simulated pistol duels that took place on the Bladensburg Dueling Grounds.

"Each one has a story to tell," Reedy said. "Some are sad. Some are funny. Some are poignant. It's really a history program with Halloween fun."

Reedy said the crowd is split among children and adults and that the program is not for children who are younger than six years old.

Spooked on your own street

Children of all ages looking for a good Halloween haunt may not have to look any further than their own street. And if they live next to Lanham resident Ted Adelman, they know exactly where to find him.

For the past 20 years Ted, 70, who lives with wife Eileen, 67, has been decorating the outside of his home with a bevy of witches, white ghosts, a variety of inflatable pumpkins and spiders and countless scarecrows.

"My purpose here is to do this display, to make people happy [and] to remind people what the season's all about," Ted said.

Visitors are asked not to step directly inside the display, which would be a feat in itself. Two large inflatable daddy long-legs spiders, one purple, one black, sit on both sides of the "Temple of Doom." Inside the temple — a wooden box on its side — is a grim reaper surrounded by broom witches and cornstalks.

Illuminated white ghosts, headstones and pumpkins line the Adelmans' half-circle driveway. An inflatable Dracula stands next to a grim reaper riding a red and black inflatable horse drawn carriage.

But behind the spooky features are 150 hours of labor done by Ted and an assortment of children, in-laws and grandchildren to pull items out of the crawlspace and assemble them on the lawn and roof. There are 56 electrical outlet plugs on the outside of the house and 27 on the roof alone, Ted said.

"We could never sell this house," Eileen said. "They always think it's going to go up in smoke."

Over the years Ted has acquired decorations from K-Mart, Sears, Lowe's, Home Depot and the now defunct Hechinger home improvement store. One of the hardest parts of the set up is assembling the candy cane fence, used for both Christmas and Halloween decorations, which takes two days to put up, Ted said.

"It's over 800 pieces," he said.

The candy canes are a precursor to the Adelmans' Christmas decorating season. The wooden box housing the "Temple of Doom" transforms into the Christmas Nativity scene in December, Adelman said.

"Christmas is three times as big as this," Ted said. "This is miniature compared to Christmas."

Ted said he frequently gets people who stop all the time and thank him for the annual display. He added that he always tells people that "We're going to do it one more year every year." He said he will do it as long as he can.

"Everyone will know when it's going to stop," Ted said. "There will be a sign out front that says ‘For sale at the end of this month.'"

"And you'll cry like a baby," Eileen said. "I can't see you doing that."

E-mail Natalie McGill at nmcgill@gazette.net.