This year, the lunatics will get a shot at upper management at the asylum.

Or something like that.

The annual Great Salt Bay School Fall Harvest Fair is scheduled this year for Halloween, and with that spooky date the eighth graders have started packing in the scares.

“Each year there's a different theme and this year's theme is going to be different,” said Grace Canny, who is one of the GSB eighth graders in charge of running the haunted house. “We're going to have an insane asylum theme.”

Like FX's show “American Horror Story,” this year the school's haunted house is headed in a crazy direction.

Canny said haunted-house-goers can expect some of the staples of asylum movies and shows, but didn't want to give away too much information.

“We'll probably have someone in a cage, and a doctor, but I don't want to have any spoilers,” she said.

The proceeds for the Harvest Fair go toward funding the school's annual trip to Boston. In that regard, the Harvest Fair is the eighth grade's largest fundraiser.

“We want to make enough money so we don't have to do any other (fundraisers),” said Sandra Thelander, who is working on food preparation for the Harvest Fair.

The food will include not just baked goods and other sweets, but hearty food such as fish chowder.

In addition to buying tickets for the haunted house and the food, there will also be a silent auction and games and other family-friendly activities.

Stuart McNaughton is in charge of games and activities. He said that they were tossing ideas back and forth before the big day.

“It will mostly just be stuff like face painting — we don't have any definite ideas yet,” he said. “But every year there is a big cage for the kindergarteners to second graders.”

While the plan is to have the asylum be scary, which the students have designed and built themselves, that doesn't mean it won't be open to younger children. Canny said the experience can be tailored to the age group so the frights can be dialed back.

“There are different levels, so for (students in the) fifth to eighth (grade) they can go for level four, which is the scariest,” she said. “For the younger kids, there's level one, which isn't as scary.”

Eventually all that money will be used to send Great Salt Bay's 40 or so eighth graders to Boston, where they will visit Faneuil Hall, the Museum of Fine Arts and have a sleepover at a local school. The goal is to raise $8,500 for the trip.

Harvest Fair will be Saturday, Oct. 31, at the Great Salt Bay gym from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

It is free to attend the Harvest Fair, but there will be tickets and food for sale, in addition to the silent auction. The silent auction will feature various items from local businesses as well as services.

Because Halloween is less than two months from Christmas, the Harvest Fest has long been the time to start picking up poinsettias and trees. There will be a chance for people to reserve trees, which also benefit the class trip, and to order poinsettias from the Friends of Music program. There will also be tickets available for sale for the Nov. 7 swing dance.