Scaremare draws record crowd, featured by British news service

Liberty University’s Scaremare, the original “House of Death,” celebrated its 40th anniversary this year with record-breaking crowds and international media attention.

Over the course of three weekends (Oct. 11-27), the event, sponsored by Liberty’s Center for Youth Ministries, welcomed (and spooked) more than 26,000 guests. In all, more than 3,500 people responded to the gospel.

Scaremare has often drawn national attention, but this year it was featured by U.K. news service “The Guardian.”

In the Guardian’s video report, Gary Younge explores Liberty’s Halloween tradition of using things like funhouse rooms and thought-provoking images of death and violence to present the Gospel. He also spoke with Scaremare staff and volunteers, who used the interviews as a platform to share their beliefs.

The U.K. report features a myriad of frightening scenes and disturbing characters and concludes with a look inside the “preaching tents” where volunteers present each visitor with a clear Gospel message and an invitation to accept Jesus Christ into their life.

“Our objective is to present that message of Christ to the (visitors),” Steve Vandegriff, professor of Youth Ministries, told the Guardian. “Not everyone is going to respond to that, but we have had thousands that have. Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father except by me.’ We think there is an exclusiveness to the promise that Christ gives, that is why we do (Scaremare).”