Each year about this time, visitors to the Field of Screams in Olney, Md., encounter roaming zombies, homicidal maniacs, deep- fried Twinkies and “all of the creatures from your worst nightmares.”
But for organizers of the wildly popular Olney Boys and Girls Community Sports Association’s Halloween fundraiser, there is something much scarier going on. A Pennsylvania attraction by the same name has asked a federal judge to declare it the true Field of Screams and ban the nonprofit association from using the name.
The Mountville, Pa., Field of Screams, which was started in 1993, says it had the name first.
The Olney group, which started its Field of Screams in 2002, says in court papers that there’s plenty of fright to go around and that the two venues, about a two-hour drive apart, aren’t competitors. They found at least 25 other Field of Screams attractions. Besides, Olney says in the court papers, Field of Screams is “a common and generic description for a haunted attraction.”
