PROSPECT — The scary clown sightings all around the country may be someone’s idea of a sick prank, but they are damaging the reputations of clowns both good and evil everywhere. 

By day, Andy Hall, 27, and Jeremy Sawyer, 28, are a post office clerk and a custodian, respectively. But every weekend in October when night falls, they don their oversized shoes and horror makeup. But make no mistake, these “scary clowns” are not the same as the ones marauding and terrorizing neighborhoods.

The two started off as friends at Searsport High more than 10 years ago, where they first shared the same love of dressing up as horror clowns for Halloween. Then, Sawyer had the idea to formalize their shared hobby. When they had enough clowns (to presumably fill one small car) the group named itself CarnEVIL, for the purpose of providing entertainment at Fright At The Fort, the Knox biggest Halloween haunted tour in Maine.

The one thing CarnEVIL does not do is go rogue. The “scary clown” phenomenon first developed in South Carolina with police reports of clowns trying to lure kids into the woods. The internet caught on and soon clown sightings spread to other states, including, naturally, the most haunted state in the U.S.— Maine—home of Stephen King’s penultimate evil clown Pennywise in the novel “It.”

For Sawyer, the phenomenon is not funny.

“Whatever these people are doing is overstepping boundaries, peeking in windows and getting in people’ personal space,” he said.

“The thought of people dressing up as clowns and going out to scare people alone and not part of some controlled situation for entertainment is something I can’t understand,” added Hall. “There’s a legitimate phobia of clowns as it is; it’s called coulrophobia. So, if these people dressed up as clowns coming out of the woods are trying to scare people randomly because they are bored or they’re trying to get attention, I don’t think it’s right. They’re not helping our group at all. It just perpetuates a stigma against our group and the Shriners. The Shriners dress up as clowns every year, not to be scary, but to volunteer at events and parades. They’re doing really good things for the community. If you think of a five-year-old kid who has been hearing about all of these scary clowns wandering in the dark, it doesn’t help us or the Shriners. We’re just trying to give people in a unique setting a good experience.”

Hall said his group has discussed the recent events of scary clown sightings in Maine prior to their Fright at the Fort appearances throughout October. Last week, police in Waldoboro investigated a report from multiple students at Medomak Valley High School who saw scary clowns on Manktown Road. Before that, a clown confronted a woman in Auburn, pointing his finger at her as though it were a gun and said “bang.” In response, the woman drew a handgun on the perpetrator and scared him off. Hall said, “I followed that story as well. My group has been concerned about it.”

There is one room dedicated to scary clowns at Fright at the Fort, and this year, Sawyer said, “We’re going to know everyone in that room and who is behind each costume. I’ve had to have extra precaution this year because of this.”

Though the Fright at the Fort events always have security and police monitoring the crowds and prohibit people from bringing in any weapons, Hall said the flight or fight in people is so strong in a haunted house environment that they are always prepared for inadvertent contact, probably even more so this year than any other year. “We’ve always been trained never to touch any of the participants of Fright at the Fort, but in the past, we’ve been punched and we’ve been hit. But, we’re ready for it and we have an amazing amount of volunteers who also keep an eye out for any trouble.”

He’s part of the 100 volunteers who orchestrate the haunted tour each year as nearly 8,000 people make their way through the Fort’s creepy corridors.

“I’m part of a group of 15 people who do what I do,” Sawyer said. “We all get along and have a lot of fun doing this each year. We’re very supportive and we help teenagers [who volunteer with CarnEVIL] get through high school with service hours.”

Keep that in mind lest you think this is all funny business.

To find out more about Fright at The Fort visit: fortknox.maineguide.com/Fright/

Related story: http://www.penbaypilot.com/article/freak-show-gonna-scare-you-silly/22428

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com