Recently while enjoying a walk in the park, I couldn’t help but notice there were arrows painted on the ground. Asa, having an overactive imagination, immediately assumed the arrows pointed the way to a friendly elderly woman who lives in the woods in a house made of treats for good little dogs, and headed off to follow them. It being October, and knowing how blondes tend to fair poorly in these types of situations, I decided to follow him to make sure this adventure didn’t turn into a Halloween horror movie cliché!

As we followed the arrows across the park’s lawn we came to a sign, “Warning: Fall Hazard.” Clearly this must be a low budget horror story. If this was truly a plot from Stephen King, Maine’s master of the macabre, this is the point in the movie where a creepy guy with a thick Maine accent, would appear from the woods and give some cryptic words of advice. Like in Pet Sematary, when Jud Crandall said, “Sometimes, dead is better.” But here we just get an ominous sign.

The arrows led up the hill past a suspicious wood platform. Asa, once again with his imagination on overdrive, assumed it was a stage. I, being much more savvy, recognized right away this was a trap. I’ve watched Silence of the Lambs enough to know a trap door with a dry well beneath it when I see one. Thankfully Asa was focused on what wonderful things the arrows could lead to that he ignored the trap, sparing me from what could have been a gruesome show.

At the top of the hill we were confronted with another obvious horror movie setting, a school. Was that squirrel taunting us to enter the gymnasium because there was a dance, and the cool squirrels were planning to go all Carrie on Asa? Or was this school a portal to the world where the creatures from the Upside Down hang out in Stranger Things? Either way, I wasn’t about to go anywhere near that school or the squirrel to find out!

That’s when I saw an object too curious not to investigate. In the Vincent Price classic, House on Haunted Hill, humans can’t resist the lure of $10,000 just for spending the night in a haunted house. Whoever set up this trail of arrows knew no dog would fall for that trick. But what we can’t resist is the 10,000+ smells emanating from an antique fire hydrant! You wouldn’t believe my surprise to see that relic on this hill, with a date on it from 1880. However, before I got drawn too far into the centuries old sniffs, I was quickly brought back to reality when I realized Asa had wandered off!

I found him standing beside another horror story fixture, the creepy old tree. Is this snake-like tree similar to the one in Poltergeist? Will it grab and then eat my brother? Or was it a Whomping Willow as seen in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, ready to attack poor innocent Asa for walking too close to the secret it concealed? That school may not be Hogwarts, but you have to admit the proximity of this odd tree to it is a bit concerning.

After waiting a moment and seeing nothing happen to Asa, I ventured closer. That’s when we were confronted by the devious mastermind responsible for leading us here on this trail of arrows! Was it a chainsaw wielding serial killer? A menacing clown? A witch or a warlock? Nope, it was none of the usual villains of Halloween. Instead a small dinosaur appeared from behind the tree! HA! I never thought of Jurassic Park as a Halloween horror movie, but perhaps from now on I should?

While I pondered if Jurassic Park fit into the horror movie monster genre along with Godzilla, Asa quickly made friends with the little fellow and gave him a ride on a swing. I didn’t let this game go on for too long though, in case there was a ginormous Tyrannosaurus Rex waiting to attack. Thankfully, the remainder of our stroll at this park was relatively uneventful.

Although Asa was disappointed he never did get to greet his imaginary nice elderly woman who lives in the woods in a house made of treats for good little dogs, I’m just glad I didn’t let my imagination run away from me and become the starring characters in a Halloween horror movie cliché!