Witches and warlocks greet Haunted Tunnel visitors at Daggett Farm in Pawtucket.

The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

Everything is haunted.

Suddenly nowhere seems safe. Ghouls and goblins are everywhere.

They’re in haunted houses, of course, but also in churches and parks and other places you’d think could keep out the supernatural riffraff.

Go ahead, find refuge on a friendly family farm. Then when you realize those aren’t cows crashing through the corn toward you, run for your life!

It’s October. Talk about ghosts gone bad.

Of course, most of these ghosts are theatrical. However, some are historical.

“Last year I heard a woman’s voice call my name loud and clear,” says Lydia Rapoza, president of the Cranston Historical Society. “And there was no one around. I wasn’t imagining things.”

Gulp.

Let’s consider the theatrical ghosts first.

In West Greenwich you’ll find Field of Screams, a theatrical Halloween three-fer: a dungeon, a hayride and a maze.

“We have people who just can’t take it,” says Tim Leyden, host of the Halloween operation on the family’s Christmas tree farm. “I’ve seen dozens of people running away in a night.”

Leyden, who actually calls himself a “hauntrepreneur,” says the operation, now in its 14th year, has added a new feature, “The Dungeon of Doom.” It’s a 5,000-square foot covered facility with dozens of costumed characters and numerous animatronic devices. “It is a high-scare environment.”

This feature joins two others: the Haunted Hayride, which passes through a “state farm penitentiary where a peculiar plague has broken out and the prisoners are running rampant,” and the indoor 4D Haunted Maze: “We’ve painted our actors, adding a fourth dimension.”

This is the only time of the year that the farm is “haunted,” Leyden says.

“We are a tree farm. But we do have some trees that talk and move. They look exactly like the ones in the Wizard of Oz.”

Field of Screams, 179 Plain Meeting House Rd., West Greenwich, (401) 884-7369 and field-of-screams.com. It’s open Thursdays through Sundays through Halloween; 6:30 to 9 p.m. on Thursdays and Sundays; 6:30 to 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Admission is $15 to all three attractions.

If you’d like to seek cover, try a bomb shelter, and Slater Memorial Park in Pawtucket.

“We have an area where you would have seen the deer and the antelope play,” says Bill Mulholland, superintendent of parks and recreation. “We’ve covered it. Now it looks like a bomb shelter.”

Incoming! (Ghosts and ghouls.)

Daggett Farm is in the former zoo section of the park; there you’ll find the Haunted Tunnel and the Pumpkins in the Park. The pumpkins aren’t a problem. It’s the tunnel you need to worry about, a windowless concrete structure.

“It is very scary. And we did take it up three or four notches of terror this year for our 10th anniversary. . . . It’s like going through an old sewer system.”

Inside are several rooms, each with costumed characters.

“There are people who pop out. But no one gets touched.”

After Halloween, the “ghosts” go away. And the site, Mulholland says, is no longer haunted, “as far as I know.”

The Haunted Tunnel and Pumpkins in the Park is at Slater Memorial Park off Newport Avenue in Pawtucket. It’s open Oct. 23-24 and Oct. 30, 6:45 to 9 p.m. Admission is $5. It is not recommended for those younger than 10. For more, visit daggettfarmhauntedtunnel. com.

If you really want to feel safe, barricade yourself in a fort, but not Fort Adams in Newport. Fortress of Nightmares is back for the fifth year, offering its usual Tunnels of Terror Haunted Maze, and new this year, Fortress Ghost Hunts.

“We wanted to let older folks who aren’t up to being startled, and younger folks who don’t want that either, an opportunity to see the fort at night,” says Robert McCormack, the fort’s director of visitor services.

The hunt will be conducted by members of the local RISEUP Paranormal research group.

“They’ve done some investigation and seem to think they’ve discovered some paranormal activity. We’ll let people experience what they may.”

If the hunt you go on finds nothing, you might imagine otherwise.

“The fort in and of itself in the dark is quite a creepy atmosphere. We almost don’t have to do much to scare people.”

Fortress of Nightmares is at Fort Adams in Newport Oct. 23 to 25 and Oct. 30 through Nov. 1, 6 to 9 p.m. Tickets are $10 per tour, or $15 for both tours. For more, call (401) 847-0707 or visit fortadams.org.

Go to jail, the Old Washington County Jail in Kingston, home of the Pettaquamscutt Historical Society.

“It’s an opportunity to tour the jail at a time of day when there’s not a lot of natural light,” says Lori Urso, the society’s director. “It’s a little spookier.”

On the upper level, the jail has six cells. On the lower level, it has eight cells, made of granite blocks and with iron bars on the windows.

“It’s cold and dark down there. It’s chilling when there’s no sunshine coming through the windows.”

The jail was established in 1792, and its main cell block was built in the 1858 and decommissioned in 1956. Adolescent docents in period attire will be your guides.

“The junior docents all have a theatrical bent. They’re very well versed in the history of the facility and the characters who made up its storied past.”

Also you just may meet some current residents of the jail.

“For those of us who work here day after day, we are all definitely alerted to the presence of other-worldly residents.”

Sometimes, Urso says, staff members report hearing pacing where there are no people; noises in the basement in the summer, when the furnace is off; cold spots in cells; and balls that mysteriously roll across the floor.

“We do have uneven floors but not to the point where balls would roll across them.”

There appear to be ghosts in the building, Urso says. But no attempt has been made to try to confirm that.

“We’re not sure we want to investigate. It’s their home and we don’t want to bring in a Geiger counter.”

The Old Washington County Jail, 2636 Kingstown Rd., Kingston, is open for tours on Oct. 29, 5:30 to 8 p.m. Admission is $3, with a maximum of $12 per family. For more, call (401) 783-1238 or visit pettaquamscutt.org.

Lydia Rapoza, president of the Cranston Historical Society, reports a long history of ghostly goings on in its building, the Governor Sprague Mansion. The claims go back to the 1920s, she says, when a Mrs. Duckworth reported seeing a ghost in the basement wine cellar.

“It’s very spooky down there.”

Since then, Rapoza says, lots of people have reported lots of other ghost sightings — of specters going up and down the stairs and standing in the cupola.

There have been reports in the mansion of candle smoke where there are no candles, of cigar smoke where there are no cigars. One of the ghosts goes by the name of Charlie. And it’s in his name the society’s having a party, “Charlie the Butler’s Ghost Party.”

But Charlie isn’t the only ghost in residence.

“We had ghost hunters come the other night. We asked them, ‘How badly is the house haunted?’ They said it has 11 ghosts.”

Visitors are welcome to walk around the mansion, mix and mingle with the other guests and, perhaps, with the resident ghosts.

“We are not going to manufacture ghosts. But I can’t guarantee the ghosts will be there. It’s up to them.”

Charlie the Butler’s Ghost Party is Oct. 28 at 7 p.m. in Governor Sprague Mansion, 1351 Cranston St., Cranston. Admission is $15. For reservations, call (401) 944-9226 or visit cranstonhistoricalsociety.org.

brourke@projo.com