In a crowd of seven or eight people, choose the person that looks the most scared. Come up when she doesn’t expect you. Sniff the nape of her neck and growl. Watch her squirm.

Scott Kelley does things like this on a nightly basis.

Kelley owns the Haunting of Elsinore, a haunted attraction at Rockome Gardens. He is also one of the actors in the Haunting.

The events contribute to the Coles County Festival of Frights, which takes place this weekend.

Kelley and Jayne Ball-Saret came up with the idea to advertise what is going on in Coles County for Halloween. Then they had to get Coles County to hold a lot of events to advertise. A committee formed and met every two weeks since January.

Eighteen to 20 businesses are involved in the festival, which they hope to make an annual event, Kelley said.

“Halloween is the second largest retail holiday of the year,” he said. “We wanted to bring some of that to Coles County.”

The goal is to get people to come to the area for the Halloween events and stay the night because so many events are going on at once, Kelley said.

This tourist attraction brings business money to the area, which area businesses can benefit from.

Visitors can plan to spend at least two hours at Rockome Gardens, said owner Bob McElwee.

Rockome Gardens is a 208-acre amusement village with the haunted barn, where the Haunting of Elsinore takes place.

“The main objective is to scare a 21-year-old male, but we’re also trying to create a fun atmosphere for families,” he said.

Ideas come from all over the place, including other haunted houses, staff members and movies. The idea isn’t just to be scary but to be fun at the same time, McElwee said.

Kelley’s ideas for the Haunting of Elsinore came from his fears as a child. Though he said he doesn’t get scared anymore, he does get startled. This is the specialty of the haunted house industry.

“We get ’em from where they don’t think it’s coming,” he said. “We creep people out; do things they would never expect.”

The actors at the Haunting of Elsinore know to look for the person who shows the most fear. That single person reacts, causing the rest of the group to react, Kelley said. The people who aren’t really scared will enjoy the fact that their friend is so scared, he said.

The key to scaring is simple, as Kelley tells his actors.

“Scare ’em at the very beginning very good, and then it gets worse from there. We don’t really scare them any worse, but their imagination will take them the rest of the way.”

Preparation every afternoon takes about four hours for the events at Rockome Gardens, McElwee said. This includes roping off certain areas, adding fog and transforming the village into a haunted atmosphere.

The Charleston police aren’t anticipating any problems this Halloween weekend.

“In the past, things have been relatively quiet-no more problems than usual,” said Deputy Chief Mark Jenkins.

Officers on campus seem to feel the same.

Halloween isn’t really a big event here at Eastern, Eastern Police Chief Adam Due said.

Hopefully, with more activities available for people to attend because of the Festival of Frights, people will be occupied and stay out of trouble, he said.

The festival began Thursday, and events will conclude on Sunday.