It might be a clown, a spider or a dentist — or it could be Stephen King’s axe-wielding Jack Torrance that sends you screaming back to your car.

Either way, it’s the job of hundreds of volunteers to scare (or at least entertain) at the 12th annual Nightmare at Beaver Lake.

Volunteers last weekend began the task of setting up the popular event, laying out stacks of 4 feet by 8 feet panels that will make up some of the 33 sets.

Set up will continue over the next four weeks.

Nightmare at Beaver Lake will open Oct. 16 and continue Thursday through Sunday through Halloween, Oct. 31.

In all it, it costs about $95,000 between the Rotary Club of Sammamish and Scare Productions, which partner with the city to put the event together. Last year, the haunt grossed $184,000. After costs, the rest of the revenue is donated, as it’s a charity event.

Scare Productions has been involved with Nightmare at Beaver Lake officially since 2006, but Dana Young, a Sammamish resident since the early ‘90s and art director of the haunt, has been involved with Nightmare at Beaver Lake since its start in 2004.

The nonprofit teaches volunteers everything from set construction to improvisation acting skills.

On any given night there will be between 65-70 actors, and they might play a different character every night, Young said.

“Instead we teach you how to be that character,” said Young. “It’s not even the same twice in one night.”

From night to night and year to year, the haunted park is different every time. This year, for example, one of the new sets will feature a dentist’s office.

Parking will be available on 244th Avenue Southeast where people will purchase their tickets. People will be guided by poorly lit lights down a dark wooded path.

“It’s almost creepy on its own and then we add monsters,” Young said.

Along the way, actors and the first several “theatrical” sets will be inspired by Stephen King novels, Young said.

The time it takes to complete the roughly three quarters of a mile tour varies. Young estimated the average time is about 30 minutes, but people have made it in 10 minutes; those are the ones who run through.

“They just scream and run,” Young said.

Even in its first year the event was popular, said Cary Young (no relation to Dana Young) of the Rotary Club of Sammamish. She is the president of the haunt.

Shortly after the city incorporated, city officials reached out the Rotary and asked for it to create an event that would keep the children out of trouble on Halloween.

After the first year drew in about 3,000 people, Cary Young knew they were onto something. Now, many of the volunteers are local high school students. Some have even used the event for their student projects, Cary Young said.

Due to the extensive nature of the creative team — volunteers work practically year round brainstorming new set ideas, constructing props and sets — students involved with the process were preoccupied with the October scare starting in the spring.

The family scare, a milder haunted park route, will be from 7-7:45 p.m. Tickets during the family scare are $12 per person. During this family time, there isn’t as much blood and gore, and some of the more “intense” actors stay hidden, Cary Young said.

Full scare begins at 8 p.m. Tickets for full scare costs $18 per person.

“This is a night out,” Cary Young said. “You don’t just hop into a haunted house.”

To find out more about Nightmare at Beaver Lake and ticket discounts, visit www.NightmareAtBeaverLake.com.