By Kim Seon Ah
Photos = Kim Seon Ah

Skin that has decayed to black, eyes without focus, broken joints, and torn clothes smeared in blood...

Such are the sights of zombies that appear within flashes of light between gun sounds. This place is a prison where a bizarre genetic engineering professor conducted his research.

Here in the dark "zombie prison" where you cannot see at all, you have to avoid zombies and look for clues to find a hidden mask.

But rather than finding clues, much time is spent being totally shocked by zombies hitting visitors' shoulders or grabbing their ankles. It felt like having your life shortened by 10 years out of fright.

A Korea.net staff writer visited the "Ghost Park Awake" event at 6 p.m. on Aug. 15, held at Hapcheon Film Park in Hapcheon, Gyeongsangnam-do Province. The event is the nation's sole horror festival and was held every day from 6 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. from July 29 to Aug. 18. It attracted more than 1,000 visitors on the first day alone.

The event resumed for the first time in five years since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was inspired by the tale of the Hapcheon Five Clowns' mask performance. The story is about when calamities such as infectious diseases or floods strike, someone wears a mask from a wooden crate and brings peace.

The event has a setting in which an unexplained catastrophe once again strikes the Earth in 2024, a sealed mask restores order and participants must find pieces of the mask within the ghosts around the world to ward off the calamity.

Clues to the mask’s pieces were available in the main attractions such as the City of Screams and Zombie Prison.

There are also subsidiary attractions such as The House of the Spirits of Vindictive Ghosts, Dracula's Mansion, Ghosts Cage and Class of Nightmares with various themes, including interactive facilities, dressing rooms and places to put on makeup to disguise oneself as a ghost.

This year's event had a "ghost coin" system to shorten participants' waiting time.

Collecting coins is possible via participation in subsidiary attractions or events or purchases of food from food trucks. Participants are charged 10 coins when using the main interactive facilities. 

A total of 24,194 people attended the Ghost Park Awake event and fully enjoyed the horror and thrills. It is a perfect event to attend if one wishes to experience the utmost horror and ward off the heat during the hot summer night.

sofiakim218@korea.kr