EAST Lancashire’s newest and scariest tourist attraction opened last night.

The Hex in the Harvest is set in a corn maze at Hawkshaw Farm Park, Longsight Road, Clayton-le-Dale.

Participants take 40 minutes to walk through the maze in the darkness and encounter live actors and effects taken from the scenes of horror films.

I was one of the first people to experience the attraction, which will run for four days over the Hallowe’en period, and found that an overactive imagination was the only guide within the ‘cursed cornfields’.

Groups soon discover only a single wind-up torch stand between them and the figures in the corn.

Every known phobia was exploited, as guideless we struggled ahead.

Holding the shoulders of the person in front — the torch threatened to go out at any moment and highlig-hted horrors too late.

We had been warned. But leaflets handed out in the warm waiting area, hadn’t been taken seriously.

We knew to expect Carnival Diablo; a travelling Victorian freakshow who had risen from the grave but not the rest. Children, anyone with a nervous disposition, a heart condit-ion or advanced pregnancy had been barred — and with good reason.

The carnival’s blind fortune teller stopped our stumbling conga line to tell us trouble was brewing. “Especially for Joanna”, she said, to one woman’s distress.

Our photographer also got a telling off: “Will the man with the magic lights not do that again?” she asked sternly, mid-prediction.

In the six-acre field, some freaks were mute, pleading silently as we rushed past.

Others became unstable without applause for their antics. Some were simply murderous from the start.

As we emerged, shaking from more than cold, a guide in a bright flourescent jacket greeted us with a bright smile to do a quick head-count. “Oohh”, she said in surprise, “There should be two more. Is everyone here?” But everyone just hurried past as the chainsaw sound in the centre of the cornfield came closer.

A spokesman for Hex in the Harvest said: “This is the UK’s first outdoor Hallowe’en scare show.

“It is an intense walkthr-ough horror experience.”

The attraction is open tomorrow, Hallowe’en, Saturday and Sunday.

Entry is every 10 minutes from 6.30pm to 10.30pm. Visitors must wear appropriate clothing and footwear for potential cold and wet conditions.

Visit www.hexintheharvest.com or call 08444 771000 for tickets, which cost £10.50.