Funny enough, I'm just now getting into this series starting with manga volumes. I hope it's as freaky as people have been telling me.
If it's up my alley I'll definitely check out the VN soon enough.

We here at Japanator love Higurashi like it's nobody's business. Whether it's Jake's obsession with yandere girls, or the rest of us loving to get scared out of our minds. So, in order to share the love with the rest of you, we want to get you into the whole Higurashi series by giving away part of the visual novel.
Teaming up with our friends at MangaGamer.com, we've got five copies of the fifth chapter of Higurashi: When They Cry visual novel to give away. Winning this is the perfect reason to go ahead and pick up the other four chapters of the game and really start delving into things.
The way the contest works is pretty simple: register an account over at MangaGamer.com, and then e-mail me at brad[at]japanator[dot]com with your username on Japanator and your MangaGamer account name, so we know who to give it to. That's about it. We'll pick five random winners on February 24th. We'll then send you a download code for the Higurashi game shortly thereafter.
Isn't that easy? Register and send in your entries today!