Deranged clowns, possessed children and chainsaw-wielding masked men await visitors to the Skokie Park District’s Scream Scene haunted house.

The house, located at the Skokie Water Playground, 4701 Oakton St., features more than 20 rooms, each with a uniquely frightening design.

“Ideas pop out of everywhere,” said Scream Scene designer Corrie Guinn. For three weeks after the playground’s Labor Day closing, Guinn and a small team of designers worked to transform the small space into a twisting series of corridors connecting the various rooms.

He said a few of the ideas for the Scream Scene came from his time designing haunted houses in Norridge Park—others came from online research—but the majority are concoctions of his own mind.

“I guess it’s just creepy ideas that come out of my own head,” Guinn said.

For the role of chainsaw killer, blood-soaked butcher or any of the other characters one encounters at the house, Guinn said he found willing actors in local high school students.

“I’d say 85 percent of the actors are high school kids,” Guinn said. “They get service hours, but these kids had enough service hours their freshman year.”

“They do a fantastic job,” he added.

The group of Niles North High School freshmen, who toured the house with a somewhat-brave Triblocal.com reporter, agreed with Guinn’s assessment.

“It was awesome,” Michelle Barkho, 14, said.

“The guy with the chainsaw really scared me,” Helen Zoumaya, 14, said. “The whole thing was really scary.”

Scream Scene is open from 7 to 10 p.m. every Friday and Saturday in October. The house is also open from 7 to 10 p.m. Oct. 29. Tickets are $8, $6 for groups of 15 or more, and can be purchased at the house.

—Jonathan Bullington, Triblocal.com reporter