This article Hauntworld will rate the best and scariest haunted houses in America 2015.
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The fastest growing industry in America is the Halloween industry. We’ve seen it grow over the last ten years from a 1-billion dollar industry to a near 15-billion dollar industry. Halloween has grown to levels no one ever expected. Today, we see millions of home owners decorating their houses, turning their garages into haunted houses, changing their backyards into cemeteries and inviting people from around the neighborhood into their own personal HAUNTED HOUSE! Today tens of thousands of home owners buy zombies, monsters, tombstones, and crypts and even use specialized lighting to display and showcase their masterpiece. Many even create CGI FX in their windows. The days of Halloween being a kid’s holiday all about trick-or-treating are OVER! Even moms are getting into the act buying Halloween themed decorations to make the interior of the house Halloween themed as well.
Now that Halloween 2015 is here it’s time to find the best, the scariest, and the biggest over the top haunted houses and Halloween attractions in America. Prepare yourself for the biggest screaming season in Haunted history.
Haunted House owners and operators have created attractions that are so detailed they remove you from the realm of reality and plunge you into a haunted World you never knew you could experience. So finally, we present you some of the best traditional haunted houses, real haunted houses, haunted hayrides, corn mazes and more. If it’s an attraction opening during the Halloween season, you’ll find it here on www.hauntworld.com. Now sit back for the best 15 haunted houses in America for 2015.
Hauntworld.com was the first website and publication to produce a Top 10, Top 13 or Top 31 haunted house list to help America find attractions. Now many websites and publications produce such lists, but there is only ONE website that helps you find every haunted attraction in the nation... www.hauntworld.com. We invite you to find a haunted house near you and subscribe to our printed Haunted House Magazine www.HauntedHouseMagazine.com, plus join our Facebook Page or join our Haunted House Forums at forum.hauntworld.com/. Have the scariest Halloween ever with the help from your friends at www.hauntworld.com
1.Haunted Overload - Lee, New Hampshire- www.hauntedoverload.com:Haunted Overload is an original out door haunt in a class of its own. It blends astounding handmade sets, gigantic monsters and spellbinding costumes with spectacular sound and lighting to create the Ultimate Halloween Experience. The vibrant, organic design, set in an eerie dark New England forest, creates an assault of the senses for its patrons. Every year brings new terrors to life, as the crew work tirelessly to add to an already amazing attraction. Haunted Overload was also crowned America’s scariest haunt by ABC’s Great Halloween Fright Fight. The $50,000 first prize was donated in full to the Cocheco Valley Humane Society, a local animal rescue to whom the attraction annually donates a percentage of its profits. Haunted Overload is America’s best haunted house because it embodies everything Halloween with its massive oversized props, unique creativity and simply put Haunted Overload just screams HALLOWEEN.
2.Headless Horseman’s Hayrides and Haunted Houses - Ulster Park, New York- www.headlesshorseman.com: Headless Horseman Hayrides and Haunted Houses is a unique, immersive experience with a theme that changes each Halloween season. Ten attractions featuring: a theatrical one-mile hayride, corn maze, 7 haunted attractions which include: The Lunar Motel, Glutton's Diner & Slaughter House, Slither's Pet Shop, Dark Harvest Corn Maze, Night Shade Nursery & Greenhouse, Dr. Dark's Black Spider Sideshow, The Feeding, Dahlia Blood's Manor, with skilled stunt actors and a magic-illusion side show starring Ryan Dutcher. New for 2015 the creators of Headless Horseman Hayrides and Haunted Houses are proud to present a new concept of interactive, immersive entertainment. A real life escape experience "The Great Room Escape". Headless Horseman continually evolves with unusual monsters, amazing illusions, stunning special fx, unique and original costumes, makeup, animations and frightening detail created by our sister company American Made Monster Studios. Only the courageous will survive the intense encounters with the infamous Headless Horseman.
3.The 13th Gate - Baton Rouge Louisiana- www.13thgate.com: The 13th Gate is all about Extreme Ultra-Realism. The artists behind the massive dark attraction are experts at blurring the lines between horror and reality, and guests frequently wonder between screams whether what they are experiencing is real or not. The Attraction’s level of detail, set design, and effects combined with their impressive actors and incredible makeup effects can only be compared to a Hollywood movie. The attraction features a real snake-infested Louisiana Swamp, nightly voodoo shows, claustrophobic cellars, hidden subterranean passages and even a prehistoric ice cave all seamlessly woven together and nothing short of masterful. The haunted house is constantly changing and growing from year to year so guests never know what to expect around the next terrifying corner. If that wasn’t enough, adjacent to the 13th Gate is their secondary attraction, Necropolis Haunted Cemetery. This 40,000 sq. ft. outdoor New Orleans style cemetery has over 400 zombie-infested crypts and mausoleums that guests must explore. Upon entering the attraction, visitors are sent 13 steps down an open grave into dark underground catacombs where they must find an alternate escape up and out into the graveyard where the terror continues! 13th Gate Haunted House is one of the Scariest, most elaborate haunted houses in the country.
4.The Dent Schoolhouse - Cincinnati, Ohio- www.frightsite.com: The Dent Schoolhouse is one of the most tightly themed haunted attractions in the US and takes place in an actual haunted schoolhouse. Re-live the legend of a murderous Janitor who is said to still haunt the halls of the old schoolhouse. Jammed with Hollywood styles sets, animatronics, and award winning makeup, The Dent Schoolhouse has made it an easy choice one of the top haunts on Haunworld.com's list. It's like hopping into a real horror movie that you get to take part in. Amazing set design brings your childhood memories of going back to school to a whole new level of fear and beyond. Who would want to conjure up the fear of an old teacher, principle or gym teacher trying to take your soul to the underworld? Visit the Dent Schoolhouse and find out! What makes the Dent Schoolhouse so scary is the real old abandoned schoolhouse it doesn’t get any more real or scary.
5.Netherworld - Atlanta, Georgia- www.fearworld.com: NETHERWORLD Haunted House is a self-guided, dark attraction known for its over-the-top special effects, intense make-up, elaborate costuming, skilled stunt actors, unique monsters, unusual themes and chilling detail! To put it simply NETHERWORLD is the total package - an extremely high quality immersive event that merges SCARY, FUN and COOL into a safe environment. More importantly NETHERWORLD is ever changing - coming up with new effects, scares, characters and story lines every Halloween season, while still retaining the Halloween feel that brings back guests year after year!
In 2015 Netherowrld presents two new terrifying haunts sure to melt your mind, THE ROTTING in which dark spirits released from the NETHERWORLD create a supernatural plague and VAULT 13 Unearthed, a secret base buried deep within the earth unsealed by an unknown force! New effects and features include a massive over the top elevator simulator, an attacking giant robot, A huge variety of new illusions and ghost effects, massive new giant monsters seen nowhere else, an alien lab with an animatronic elder thing, new stunts, new sets, armies of new costumes and creatures, an 18 foot tall multi-path arena, a completely re designed cue line and a series of massive new outdoor facades for starters!
6.13th Floor - San Antonio, Texas- www.13thfloorsanantonio.com: This haunts creative and quality really sets us apart. 13th Floor features dynamic and interactive scares as well as continual improvements to the show including cutting edge tech and interacting animatronics. This Halloween season, your nightmares will become a reality, when the creators of the 13th Floor Haunted House return with one of the smartest, safest and most dynamic, theatrical, high-tech and bone-chilling attractions in San Antonio. Favorite icons from years past will roam the halls of the haunted house, accompanied with new terrifying faces from first-time attractions Burial Ground and Into the Void.
13th Floor feartures all new haunts in 2015 including ‘Burial Ground’ where a hotel manager whose basement has been tunneled out to make room for the remains of the outcast experiments and victims of those who reside in the upstairs mansion as part of the “secret society.” If you’re lucky enough to make it through the Burial Ground and find the secret passage, you’ll make it Into the Void. There, you’ll come face-to-face with the newest 13th floor icon, Prophet, in all his bald, slimy, and bloody glory.
7.Bennett's Curse - Baltimore, Maryland- www.bennettscurse.com: The legendary Bennett's Curse Haunted Attraction, now in their new location for 2015 in the shadows of M&T Bank Stadium Baltimore, MD is an assault to the senses. Over 40,000 scare feet awaits thrill seekers looking for the very best in Haunting entertainment! Known for its incredible array of giant monsters, skillfully themed shows, and an over the top team of movie quality costumed monsters, Bennett's Curse has reached a level only a handful of haunts can claim. This year, experience even more fear, with the addition of the all-new show "Legends of Halloween"! Four amazing shows at one location under one roof, come experience the best Haunted attraction in the Mid-Atlantic and one of the best in the world! Bennetts’s Curse is one of the best haunted houses in America because of the unique monsters, giant animations, and over the top monsters who roam, lurking and seeking souls!
8.Erebus - Pontiac, Michigan- www.hauntedpontiac.com: Erebus is located in the heart of the haunted attraction capital of the world. This means competition is fierce, which forces Erebus to be unique and different. With staff working year-round Erebus Haunted Attraction's engineers create innovative designs showcasing state-of-the-art special effects. 95% of the props are designed and fabricated in-house... you won't see anything like this anywhere else! Erebus invades your comfort zone with creatures that will bite you, grab you, and land on top of you and even bury you alive! How long can you hold your breath?! New this year, the Dungeon of Dread filled with unnerving, tormented souls that are sure to make your blood run cold. And the Undead Dolls Quarter, where toys that once filled the dreams of children are now a living nightmare for adults! Edward and James Terebus have spent three and a half decades plotting terror that assaults all five of your mortal senses. Opened in 2000, they have fortified Erebus as their empire in Downtown Pontiac. Named after the Greek god of primordial darkness, Erebus is a four-story, half mile journey to the center of your worst fears. Fun fact: .since the Grand Opening, 7,092 people have chickened out (not made it all the way through) and 912 is the running total for wetters, pukers, and fainters according to the official Wimp-Out Scoreboard! Are you next?
9.The Bates Motel - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania- www.thebatesmotel.com: The Bates Motel celebrates 25 Years of Fear! This high action, haunted attraction theme park includes their famous, 25 minute, heart pounding, haunted hayride through the dark forests of Arasapha Farm, filled with high tech animatronics, 26 huge, Hollywood quality sets, 75 actors, and more pyrotechnics than a rock concert. The Cornfield haunted trail, takes you back in time as you walk through the tall corn, and enter ghost towns, graveyards, the slaughter house, and other full scale sets. With over 25 actors in full custom makeup and costumes, and long, dark corridors, this event is sure to send shivers up your spine. The cornerstone of this trilogy of terror is the Bates Motel. A huge Victorian mansion filled with computer controlled animatronics, digital sound and lighting, amazingly detailed rooms and top quality actors make this event one you will always remember. All three events boast custom digital soundtracks, computer controlled animatronics, DMX lighting and fog, and a host of professional actors. Consistently ranked as one of the best attractions in the country, The Bates Motel is one show you won't want to miss! Located only minutes from Philadelphia, Wilmington and the Main Line, it won't cost you an arm and leg to get there.
10.The Darkness - St. Louis, Missouri- www.scarefest.com: The Darkness is considered by some to be the very best haunted house in America because it features a combination of amazing special fx, animations, and incredible Hollywood set design. The Darkness features over the top one of a kind scream fx that impact an entire groups at the same time such as massive falling walls, moving floors, giant saws and more. The Darkness also features several stunt actors who fly across the top of the customers or leap down at them then disappear. The Darkness also features the World famous Terror Visions in 3D where crazed clowns lurk around every corner. The Darkness also has a massive outdoor scream zone, animated singing bands, large movie screens showing horror movies, and a monster museum filled with Hollywood memorabilia. The Darkness is also host to the entire haunted house industry each year for the annual Haunted House tradeshow, and serves as an inspiration to haunters across the World. More haunted house owners have toured The Darkness than any other haunted attraction in America. If you dare enter The Darkness prey you see daylight before your soul is consumed by the death which dwells inside its walls.
11. Cutting Edge Haunted House - Fort Worth, Texas- www.cuttingedgehauntedhouse.com: What if there was a show that was exciting, terrifying, electrifying, entertaining and chilling? A show that built your anticipation of excitement actually from the moment you began to approach it. The location seems like any other old building, its massive structure is dark and decrepit. But unlike most old buildings, this one has a profusion of search lights mounted on its roof as well as a colossal 50' Gargoyle holding vigil for almost two months out of the year. The expectation of The Cutting Edge Haunted House, "3X Guinness World Record Winner," starts your heart racing from miles away. You can feel the excitement building just pulling into the parking lot. Built in an old abandoned Meat Packing Plant in the lower east side of an area known as the "Hells Half Acre" district. The structure was built more than 100 years ago during Fort Worth’s booming cattle era and still houses the original meat hooks and conveyor system used during the meat packing process. The image of the bldg alone is enough to make you shiver. As you arrive, the atmosphere is thick with music, entertainment and the anticipation of the dark and forboding journey waiting just beyond the Giant Skull Entrance. Bring your courage and someone to hold on to because you are about to brave an "experience you can only hope to forget". This adventure takes almost an hour to complete and has been referred to as “the longest adrenaline rush money can buy”.
12.Kersey Valley Spookywoods - Greensboro, North Carolina - www.spookywoods.com: Kersey Valley Spookywoods celebrates 30 years in the business of fear in 2015. What started out as a small haunt has exploded into 60 acres of year round entertainment? Day time attractions include the massive corn maze with educational field trips for schools, jumping pillows, bungee trampolines, cow trains, tram rides, tree house village, dinosaur discovery pit and pumpkin patch. Spookywoods is more than just a haunted house with everything from ziplines to an all new 3 level high ropes challenge course. New for 2015 are the Escape rooms and a new 3 story Haunted Manor. The haunted manor sends guests into a 50,000 square foot haunted maze featuring monsters, ghouls and zombies. Over 150 original costumed characters reside in movie quality sets throughout Spookywoods just waiting to make you scream. Kersey Valley Spookywoods is one of America’s best Screamparks because they offer everything from WORLD class SCREAMS to everything a family would want from a fall themed attraction.
13.House of Torment - Chicago, Illinois- www.thehouseoftormentchicago.com: The nationally recognized House of Torment comes to Chicago! House of Torment introduces a new brand of fear in Chicago this Halloween Season! One of the biggest, baddest haunted house experiences in the country is finally in Chicago to chill, thrill, and horrify you. This Hollywood quality haunt features terrifying monsters and tormented souls from the underworld that are ready to horrify Chicago this Halloween.The legendary House of Torment, a multilayered psychological thriller, is more like a trip through a modern horror movie than just a haunted house with detailed sets, iconic characters and chilling environments. As you make your way through this epic haunted house, don’t be surprised if the sets and characters begin to seem more real than your most vivid nightmares. This Halloween SCREAMS blow through the Windy City who will survive?
14.Hex House - Tulsa, Oklahoma- www.tulsahexhouse.com: When you think of Oklahoma, you probably don’t instantly think of haunted attractions, but Tulsa, Oklahoma happens to be the home of one of the nation’s most intense hidden gems: The Hex House. The Hex House is based on a true story involving of one of Tulsa’s most notorious residents: Carol Ann Smith. It’s a true tale of mystery, murder, and the occult from Tulsa’s dark past and a real sense of terror permeates every inch of every eerily lit corridor and ghastly room in Oklahoma’s premier haunted attraction. The Hex House is truly an original, featuring unique set designs and one-of-a-kind scares manufactured in-house. The scares come in all forms and from all angles, providing a truly unnerving and frightening experience. A trip through Carol Ann Smith’s “Hex House” is a horrifying descent into one of the darkest recesses of the human mind… and also one of the best haunted house experiences you can dare to take this Halloween season. If you like your haunts gritty, intense, unique, and loaded with fright, then the Hex House is certainly one you’ll want to add to your bucket list. It will undoubtedly leave you… hexed.
15.Fear Experience - Cleveland, Ohio- www.thefearexperience.com: Cleveland has suffered thru the horrors of failure by its sports teams and now they are haunted by the Fear Experience one of America’s best and certainly Cleveland, Ohio’s biggest, best and scariest haunted house. The Fear Experience has grown way beyond just a haunt adding zombie laser tag, where the guests are allowed to hunt and kill zombies. The Fear Experience also features amazing set design, animations, and highly skilled professional actors who present an amazing interactive experience like nothing Cleveland has ever seen before. Every season Fear Experience expands their haunted house adding new attractions such as this year adding BioTeck Solutions a trip thru a genetic research lab filled with monsters.
Fear Experience also features other interactive haunts including Centralia County Fair an abandoned carnival, District 13, and The Estate a haunted mansion. Cleveland has something new to make them scream!
