This article Hauntworld will rate the best and scariest haunted houses, Halloween attractions, haunted hayrides, screampark, most extreme haunted houses, biggest and longest haunted attractions and even the SCARIEST horror movies to watch in 2014. Which haunts have the scariest actors, or features the most extreme screams in 2014. We rate them all!
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 11-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.
Halloween is not an official holiday. They don’t call off school and work for Halloween. You don’t have to buy anyone a gift or cook a turkey or take your spouse to dinner with cards & chocolates. Halloween is a holiday that millions upon millions of Americans CHOOSE to celebrate and everyone celebrates in different ways. Some take their kids to pumpkin patches and Fall Festivals. Many enjoy decorating their house and yard. Others become obsessed with the haunting of the holiday. Some even build their own haunted house experience right in their own home. And millions visit America’s best and scariest haunted houses to celebrate the holiday! In fact, haunted houses and Halloween attractions now make up more than 1 billion dollars of the ever growing Halloween industry.
Every year in March, haunted house owners and operators across America converge in St Louis, Missouri for the National Halloween and Haunted Attractions tradeshow produced by Transworld Exhibits, where these haunt owners can view and purchase new products, monsters, animations, special FX, and more. Additionally, there are numerous educational seminars and round-table discussions with other haunted house owners to plot and plan how to make America scream even more than the previous year! So what do haunted houses across America have planned for you this year? How are haunted attractions planning to keep up with movies, videos games and other interactive events? Do video games and movies even compare now to the live and very interactive experience of a haunted house?
Haunted Houses are going over-the-top bigger, better, and scarier than ever. In fact, haunted houses no longer just compete with other local haunts in their area, but haunted houses across the country. Visiting, attending and traveling to haunted houses is now an America phenomenon as people are using sites like www.hauntworld.com to find the best haunted attractions in the World to travel to attend. America has spoken, and they want HAUNTED HOUSES in the Fall not horror movies and not videos games. They want live, in-your-face scares combined with high tech scares for the utmost in lifelike scares. They want what a roller coaster can’t deliver no matter how high or fast they’re built. It really is strange how big the haunted house industry has become because only a few short years ago the Halloween retail industry wanted the haunt industry removed from their show now they want them back… too late!
We are now also seeing film makers creating horror movies inspired by haunted houses, or film makers utilizing haunts in the off season as film sets for horror movies. Films such as Zombieland rented haunted houses to utilize their unreal sets to film their movies. SYFY Channel recently rented out 13th Gate to film an entire movie. It wasn’t that long ago that horror movies where the staple thing to do during the weeks of October but now the biggest horror films open during other parts of the year. We live in a day and age where content for a digital World is sought and the haunt industry provide the richest forms of drama, colorful characters, and exciting backgrounds for reality television to tv specials. Lastly we are seeing the haunt industry splinter off into all different types of attractions from EXTREME to ESCAPE puzzle solving attractions to Zombie Hunts. Last season we saw haunts promoting the concept of going thru naked to another haunt that wanted customers to wear bags over their head and travel thru in the dark to zombie runs to everything between. The bottom line is no matter what someone dreams up the concept of scream based attractions are here to stay and who knows where it leads us to next. No matter what gimmick someone dreams up you can always count on the tried and true haunted attraction who’s focus is sending guests in naked but rather MAKING YOU SCREAM LIKE A BABY! This is what haunted houses do this is our passion and we present to you a list of can’t miss haunts.
Now that Halloween 2014 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 haunted houses in America 2014.
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. Pennhurst Asylum - Spring City Pennsylvania - www.pennhurstasylum.com: Pennhurst Asylum, located in Spring City, Pennsylvania, is housed in the original 1908 Administrative building of the old State Mental Institution. Boasting four major attractions, Pennhurst Asylum was rated as the scariest Haunted Attraction in America by USA Today and Hauntworld magazine. The Asylum is a hospital themed walk through haunted attraction with high-tech animatronics, seasoned actors, and digital sound that’ guaranteed to scare. Wind through the labyrinth of old cells, dank damp halls and see the human experimentation that went wrong in The Dungeon of Lost Souls. Details and special effects add to the incredible illusions that will leave you repulsed and in awe. The Tunnel Terror, located underneath the grounds of the facility originally named Pennhurst Home for the Feeble Minded and Epileptic, is a 900 foot-long gauntlet filled with catacombs, swamps and monsters. The fourth attraction, Ghost Hunt, is a self-guided tour of the Mayflower Dormitory, reportedly the most active building for paranormal investigations. Featured on Ghost Adventures and Ghost Hunters, only the most courageous enter, only the living are allowed leaving. Don’t let the name fool you; we give you a flashlight and you’re on your own.
2. The 13th Gate - Baton Rouge Louisiana - www.13thgate.com: The owners of the 13th Gate have taken advantage of the booming film industry in Louisiana, recruiting the top special effects artists around, and in turn, creating one of the most realistically themed haunted houses in the country. This extreme detail includes amazing movie-quality set design, animations and special FX with over-the-top makeup artists and over 200 professional actors. The attraction features a 30 minute walk through 13 differently themed areas from the fog-filled streets of London to the lost underwater city of Atlantis and a claustrophobic cave system infested with hundreds of live snakes.
If that wasn’t enough, next door is the sister attraction, Necropolis 13. Necropolis is an outdoor replica of a New Orleans Cemetery featuring a 40,000 sq ft labyrinth of over 400 zombie-infested crypts, underground catacombs, and a nightly voodoo fire show that literally will have the dead crawling right out of the ground in front of you.
The 13th Gate is celebrating our 13th year so the scares will be over the top for 2014! New areas include an abandoned Haunted Lair of a serial killer clown called “The House” and major new scares and effects added to our infamous Hellvators, London, Haunted Forest, and Swamp scenes!
3. Netherworld - Atlanta, Georgia - www.fearworld.com: Netherworld Haunted House is 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 storylines every Halloween season, while still retaining the Halloween feel that brings back guests year after year. In 2014 Netherworld is presenting Season Of The Witch, a classic extremely scary haunt brimming with the supernatural, and Spliced, a Science fiction/Medical gory mash up with tons of unique monsters!
4. House of Torment - Austin, Texas - www.thehouseoftorment.com: The scare specialists at House of Torment–Austin’s oldest and most spine-tingling haunted house–are launching an all-out horror assault on Central Texas as they open up for their most hair-raising year yet. Continually recognized as one of America’s top haunts, House of Torment is striking fear into the hearts, minds and guts of those brave enough to face the gore. Fear fans will meet their match with the new storylines and unimaginable monstrosities that await them at 3 separate haunts: Blackthorne District: Realms Collide, Cursed: The Coven, and Slaughterhouse: The Feeding.
5. The Darkness - St. Louis, Missouri - www.scarefest.com: The Darkness is considered by many the single best haunted house in the entire haunt industry because of its amazing set design, detail, and over the top animations. One of the things we can say without a doubt is Darkness has the best 3D haunted house in America called Terror Visions. The Darkness has three attractions in one location for one price including the two floors of Darkness, Terror Visions in 3D and the Monster Museum. Each year The Darkness is renovated to open in March during the annual Transworld Haunted House Tradeshow. The Darkness is critiqued by the entire haunt industry so each year it’s renovated prior to March with spectacular special fx and one of kind sets. The one thing which makes Darkness different is over the top massive effects which scare large groups at one time such as the falling barrel wall, moving swamp house, and many more. The Darkness is totally renovated each year with new animations, computer animations, set and more… put The Darkness on your must see haunts this Halloween.
6. Erebus - Pontiac, Michigan - www.hauntedpontiac.com: Erebus is the result of Dr. Colber who worked for the government to build a time machine. After leaving the government, he worked on the time machine on his own. Successful at sending people back into time, with only one glitch, the time period looked at the people as a virus and wiped them out. Determined to over come this glitch he sent in group after group of his own personnel. Unsuccessful, he ended up broke and lacking the proper personnel to run his machine. Dr. Colber came up with a brilliant idea to disguise his time machine as a haunted house and have the general public help fund his project and use the people going through as human guinea pigs.
Michigan is the haunted attraction capital of the world with more then 70 haunts in a 50 mile radius. Because of that fact we can't buy the standard props from the trade show because 25 other haunts will have it in this market. We pride ourselves as one of the most unique haunts in the country by designing and building almost all of our own props in house. You will see things here that were born from the imaginations of a couple of guys that have been thinking about scaring people for over 34 years! If you can conceive it, believe it, you can achieve it! That is a motto of success, we just applied it to scaring people!
7. The Dent Schoolhouse - Cincinnati, Ohio - www.frightsite.com: The Dent Schoolhouse changes over a third of the attraction every year. New for 2014: a body filled cafeteria, an auditorium that is frozen in time with a live prom dance, life size dolls have taken over the school’s nursery, the boy’s shower is molding over and the water won’t stop running, wind through the cafeteria line to grab something rotten, and see the ghosts of Dent past on monitors in the a/v storage of Dent. Also, every ticket includes the Queen City Slaughter Yard. This open air attraction has been fully renovated for 2014. More blood, more bodies, and more intensity! Let the butchers of Queen City show you how to properly bleed a pig… or maybe become the main course! The Dent Schoolhouse is one of the most tightly themed and detailed attractions in the U.S. and the theme revolves around the legend of a murderous janitor that started killed the student body in the 1950’s. Going through The Dent Schoolhouse is like reliving a horror movie.
8. Kersey Valley Spookywoods - Greensboro, North Carolina - www.spookywoods.com: Kersey Valley Spookywoods is a haunted attraction by night each Halloween Season and a full-scale Scream Park year-round. Entering its 29th season, Spookywoods utilizes natural outdoor environments to play on every fear. Originally a Christmas tree farm, Spookywoods offers guests a multi-feature haunted attraction that is certain to scare the most stoic guests. Scares lurk around every corner from the moment customers arrive. Kersey Valley offers a Halloween Zip Combo ticket which allows guests to enjoy a VIP Fast Pass admission to the haunt and a Coach Tour on the zip line attraction. The property offers two year-round attractions; Kersey Valley Zipline and Kersey Valley Laser Tag. Kersey Valley Zipline is North Carolina’s premier zip line attraction boasting 1.5 miles of cable across 14 lines of zipping fun. Set your sites on fun at Kersey Valley Laser Tag which offers outdoor laser tag fields with the most advanced taggers in the industry. Each fall, Kersey Valley’s Maize Adventure offers fun for the whole family. Treasure hunt through the amazing corn maze, ride the cow train, jump on the giant jumping pillows, pick out the perfect pumpkin and take home a bag of kettle corn. What’s the next big thing? Spring 2015 Kersey Valley will open a ropes course perfect for daytime fun, corporate outings and team building activities! Live Your Adventure at Kersey Valley!
9. Headless Horseman’s Hayrides and Haunted Houses - Ulster Park, New York - www.headlesshorseman.com: Headless Horseman Hayrides and Haunted Houses gallops into its 22nd year with 10 Attractions - presenting "The Witching Hour" for the 2014 season.
Dare to discover a dark and supernatural world of the Coven of Witches that exist in Crow Hollow as you travel a one mile theatrical hayride journey. Expose their secrets and hidden desire to achieve the power to control the Horseman. Additional attractions include: Lunar Motel, Glutton's Diner and Slaughter House, Slither's Pet Shop, Dr. Dark's Side Show, Dark Harvest Corn Maze, Night Shade Greenhouse, The Feeding, Dahlia Blood's Manor and Illusion and Magic Stage Show. In addition, there are 4 eateries and Magic Moon Gift Shop, Scareware, Fear Gear and Witchy Women Gift Shops. Headless Horseman Hayrides and Haunted Houses is located on a historic 45 acre farm in Ulster Park, New York.
Our attraction is designed and built by professionals from the lighting, costume, sound, set design, special effects, and make-up industries. We employ over 350 actors and staff trained to provide a memorable and enjoyable evening for the whole family.
10. Cutting Edge Haunted House - Fort Worth, Texas - www.cuttingedgehauntedhouse.com: Cutting Edge Haunted House is a dark attraction filled with terrifying live actors, amazing special effects and incredible monsters. Celebrating its new Guinness World Record, this intense, cutting edge, multi-story, multi-themed haunted attraction is widely considered to be one of the best Haunted Houses in the nation, full of chilling detail and unbelievable scares!
Located in a 100-year-old abandoned meat packing plant in a section of Fort Worth historically dubbed as “Hell’s Half Acre,” the Cutting Edge Haunted House is built upon a foundation of fear. The meat packing equipment from the Old West is still in use, but now it is a two-story human processing area. Realistic looking human mannequins are hoisted up to the second level and brought through the entire meat packing process until the conveyor system brings the butchered corpses back to the first level. The old meat-packing plant in downtown Fort Worth is a great home for the fantastic special effects that our loyal customers have come to expect.” It takes visitors an average 55 minutes to explore Cutting Edge Haunted House. The walk-through is replete with frighteningly-realistic props.
Cutting Edge Haunted House has established a reputation for being one of the best haunted houses in the nation. The new Guinness World Record has helped to solidify Cutting Edge Haunted House’s standing as one of the country’s best and largest haunted houses. Come see what new horrors lurk in the twisting corridors of Fort Worth’s ultimate haunted house.
11. The Bates Motel - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - www.thebatesmotel.com: Located outside of Philadelphia PA, the Bates Motel and Haunted Hayride is entering its 24th season and includes three major attractions. The Haunted Hayride is a heart pounding ride through the dark forest of Arasapha Farm, and is filled with huge, detailed sets, giant monsters and more pyrotechnics than a rock concert. With new sets, and a new digital soundtrack, the Hayride is better than ever. The Haunted Corn Trail is a terrifying walk through a tall corn field that’s filled with buildings, detailed sets, tons of animatronic monsters and over 30 actors in full makeup and custom costumes. The cornerstone of this attraction is the Bates Motel. A huge, Victorian mansion that is filled with amazing detail, 25 seasoned actors and unexpected scares. The realism in the Bates Motel is astonishing, and is guaranteed to wow even the most discriminating haunted house enthusiast. The Bates Motel and Haunted Hayride have been consistently ranked as one of top Haunted Attractions in America over the past 15 years, and it only gets better.
12. Bennett's Curse - Baltimore, Maryland - www.bennettscurse.com: What makes Bennett's Curse stand amongst the top Halloween attractions in America is it's dedication to creating a totally immersive environment for it's guests. No other haunted attraction in America can match Bennett's Curse strong reputation for creative theming, and painstaking execution. While other attractions are content to follow current trends, Bennett's Curse is a trendsetter that raises the bar and sets the pace for offering premium terror for a new and demanding generation of thrill seekers! If you have visited Bennett's Curse in the past, be prepared to throw away all preconceived notions of what you can expect to experience. If this year will be your first time visiting or you've looked elsewhere for the highest quality Halloween entertainment and haven't experienced the fright of your life, then this is the year to visit! For 2014, Bennett's Curse will deliver 3 shows the likes of which you will not experience anywhere else.
13. 13th Floor - Chicago, Illinois - www.13thfloorchicago.com: In a city that sets the bar high for its entertainment options, 13th Floor fits in as it sets a new benchmark for haunted houses in the Chicago area. The 2 haunted houses you experience at the 13thFloor Chicago are built on a scale like none other and from a designer’s perspective are drop dead gorgeous and awe inspiring. From the architectural detail on the massive facades to the thoughtful set pieces in every room it’s easy to tell that the scenic work was executed by veteran set dressers and designers from Hollywood and New York sound stages. It’s easy to tell the depth of engineering and design that went into the construction of the massive environments. The lighting and sound design is spot on creating a space where the detail of the setting can be appreciated, where the mood is properly set, but the stars of the show are the performers that interact with and scare you. They reach, grab, slide, vault, and drop, in impressive performance sequences and stunts. The scares themselves are innovative, creative, and unexpected and the performance style jumps between off the charts intensity to bits of well-placed theatrical dialogue that unravel a story throughout your journey. When you are done you're out of breath and excited, thrilled and terrified. You've had a great time with your friends and you feel like you experienced not just a good haunted house but a great one.
Halloween doesn’t end there… now here is our list of the next best haunts thru 31.
There are 31 nights of Halloween so we offer you 31 haunts.
14. Field of Screams - Lancaster, Pennsylvania : www.fieldofscreams.com
15. Creepyworld Haunted Screampark - Fenton, Missouri : www.scarefest.com
16. Terror Behind the Walls - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania : www.easternstate.org/halloween
17. Burial Chamber Haunted Complex - Appleton, Wisconsin : www.burialchamber.com
18. Asylum / 13th Floor - Denver, Colorado : www.getscared.com
19. The Fear Experience - Cleveland, Ohio : www.thefearexperience.com
20. Reindeer Manor - Dallas, Texas : www.reindeermanor.com
21. Legends A Haunting at Old Town - Orlando, Florida : www.legendsoldtown.com
22. Thrillvania - Dallas Texas : www.thrillvania.com
23. Basement of the Dead - Aurora, Illinois : www.42fear.com
24. Pure Terror - Orange County, New York : www.pureterror.com
25. Georgetown Morgue - Seattle, Washington : www.seattlehaunts.com
26. Nightmare on the Bayou - Houston, Texas : www.nightmareonthebayou.com
27. Dark Side - Lebanon, Wisconsin : www.thedarksidehaunt.com
28. Fright Town - Portland, Oregon : www.frighttown.com
29. Darkwood Manor - Luray, Virginia : www.darkwoodmanor.net
30. The Mortuary - New Orleans www.themortuary.net
31. Hex House – Tulsa, Oklahoma : www.hexhouse.com
There are many unique haunted houses in America and haunts who are unique for a reason such as multi stories, unique themes, different ways the actors interact with the customers, to the themes of the attractions themselves. Many haunted houses buy a lot of the same props, special fx and animations from the same vendors each year during the Haunted House tradeshow. However there is a list of haunted houses that go against the grain and do something different to make their customers scream and run in real terror. So who has the most extreme haunted houses in America and why? Take a lot our list of the most extreme haunted houses in America 2014.
1. Erebus - Pontiac, Michigan - www.hauntedpontiac.com: Erebus is by far the most unique haunted house in America because they have monsters, animations, and props that touch the customers some even swallow customer’s whole. Erebus is a multi-story haunted house with special fx you’ll see no where in the World but at Erebus near Detroit Michigan.
2. Pennhurst Asylum - Spring City, Pennsylvania - www.pennhurstasylum.com: This haunt had to fight the entire town against opening because of the scary and unique background of the attraction. Pennhurst is located in a real Asylum closed down by the government decades ago and now is open to the public. This place is scary!
3. Netherworld - Atlanta, Georgia - www.fearworld.com: Netherworld really isn’t an extreme haunt it’s more of an amazing attraction. However, Netherworld is extreme because they hire nearly 150 actors, probably 50 of them roam the parking lots making people scream who didn’t even pay… now that is extreme.
4. Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum - Weston, West Virginia - www.trans-alleghenylunaticasylum.com: Imagine roaming around thru one of the scariest real asylums in America. This event has year around ghost tours, zombie paintball, haunted houses and above all else a real horrific past.
5. The Dent Schoolhouse - Cincinnati, Ohio - www.frightsite.com: The Dent Schoolhouse is located inside a REAL closed down school and the entire theme centers around going back to school to face detention of the dead type! After seeing this attraction you’ll never want to go back into a school in your life!
6. The Abyss Under Lemp Brewery - St. Louis, Missouri - www.scarefest.com: The Haunting of Lemp Brewery is located deep underground in real caves and caverns, under a historic brewery where the entire family committed suicide. The caves and caverns look like a real gothic castle! Guests go underground in the dark all alone lost and confused. People panic and want out all night long.
7. Bennett's Curse - Baltimore, Maryland - www.bennettscurse.com: This attractions features EXTREME monsters and animations custom made just for Bennett’s Curse. This event has been featured on national TV multiple times because of the extreme lengths they will go to create over the top monsters that swallow guests live. They feature three different attractions in one location and each attraction features extreme animations.
8. Terror Behind the Walls at Eastern State Penitentiary - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - www.easternstate.org/halloween: Located in Philadelphia PA, you enter a real historic prison in maybe the most unique location in America a place murders, gangsters, once called home.
9. House of Shock - New Orleans, Louisiana - www.houseofshock.com: There is no doubt this attraction is extreme they take satanic themes to the extreme. They also feature a flame show to rock music.
10. Dead Acres - Columbus, Ohio - www.deadacres.com: Dead Acres is extreme they might be too extreme with suicide scenes to satanic rituals. Dead Acres is beyond extreme it’s a heavy metal overload.
You might be wondering how does this list differ from our list of America’s best Haunted Screamparks, but here we focus strictly on who has the best haunted hayride or haunted trail. Our best Screampark list was focused strictly on who has the best overall mega Halloween Screampark, but here we are focused on just one single beloved attraction… the best haunted hayride or the best outdoor haunted trail. Hayrides have been a Halloween tradition for decades. Although a haunted hayride is usually as scary as a haunted house, there’s simply no other experience than a wagon ride through the woods with your friends. In the older days, haunted hayrides were nothing more than just that an eerie ride through dark, desolate woods, and haunted trails were not much different. In days past, they were mainly a walk through the woods after dark. Today, these events are HIGH TECH with OVER THE TOP actors, sets, special FX and so much more. Some haunters have taken haunted trails so over-the-top, you believe you are in another World, inside a Hollywood movie, being stalked by real demons, killers and monsters. Haunted Hayrides, Haunted Woods & Haunted Trails offer an experience that an indoor haunted house cannot: running in the dark under a pale moonlight, with real crickets, wind blowing, a chill in the air, and the fear of the unknown! Today’s haunted hayrides and haunted trails really bring the SCREAMS in a major way, so this year find a good haunted hayride or trail and prepare for a true authentic Halloween experience like no other.
1. Headless Horseman’s Hayrides and Haunted Houses - Ulster Park, New York - www.headlesshorseman.com: Headless Horseman is one of the biggest Screamparks in the Nation with tons of haunted houses, gift shops, boutiques and more, but their main attraction is their Haunted Hayride theme based on the Headless Horseman. The sets, the FX, the screams and the actors are so theatrical and professionally produced, that it’s a haunted hayride without a rival.
2. Haunted Overload at Demeritt Farm - Lee, New Hampshire - www.hauntedoverload.com: Haunted Overload started as a home haunt that outgrew the neighborhood! It now resides on a historic farm deep in the woods with massive sets, props and themes that have set a new standard for the entire industry.
3. Creepyworld Haunted Screampark - Fenton, Missouri - www.scarefest.com: Creepyworld is one of the nation’s longest and most entertaining haunted Screamparks with 14 haunted attractions all for one price, plus a very unique Zombie Paintball Haunted Hayride. These specialized hayrides are always a fan favorite.
4. The Bates Motel - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - www.thebatesmotel.com: The Bates Motel attraction offers an iconic Bates Motel haunted house, a massive haunted corn maze, and an action packed haunted hayride as their main attraction. This producers of this haunted hayride stop at nothing to pull the screams from its victims. In fact, the Bates Motel Haunted Hayride was the first in America to offer pyrotechnic FX.
5. Kersey Valley Spookywoods - Greensboro, North Carolina - www.spookywoods.com: Spookywoods offers a dark trek thru haunted woods as well as a haunted tram ride. The producers of this event take pride in developing new and unique scare tactics. If you’re not screaming, you’re crying at Spookywoods!
6. The Dead End Hayride & Haunted Attractions at Pinehaven Farm - Wyoming, Minnesota - www.thedeadendhayride.com: Dead End offers all the scariest in haunted attractions: a haunted cornfield, a haunted trail and of course…The Dead End Haunted Hayride! Through the use of special effects, strobe lights, fog and even fire, Dead End is able to create a disorientating atmosphere perfect for the ultimate scare!
7. Fear Fest Haunted House - Columbia, Missouri - www.fearfesthauntedhouse.com: The producers of this haunt actually create zombie hayrides for haunters all over America, and their own haunted paintball hayride features massive sets and tons of live actors!
8. Wiard's Night Terrors Haunted Thrill Park – Detroit, Michigan - www.hauntedhousemichigan.com: Wiard’s is a massive screampark with six attractions in on location including The Asylum, Haunted Barn, Alien Clowns, Mine Shaft, Splattertown, and the granddaddy of them all The Hayride of the Lost. This even also features Scareyoke, and a bakery with homemade cider, caramel apples and much more.
9. Field of Screams - Lancaster, Pennsylvania - www.fieldofscreams.com: Experience terror like no other as you board and ride the Field of Screams Haunted Hayride where they take pride in developing unique horror character bios sure to make your hair stand on ends. This is one of the longest running haunted hayrides in America!
10. Jason’s Woods - Lancaster, Pennsylvania - www.jasonswoods.com: Jasons Woods features several attractions, but their hayride is one of the longest haunted hayrides in America, and this year the all new Horrifying Haunted Hayride is simply mind blowing!
What is a Screampark? The term Screampark is something we want to educate the public about. It’s a haunted event that features several attractions all at one location. Typically, the staple attraction is a hayride, but not always. Screamparks are usually found on farms, within amusement parks, or on huge plots of land. Most Screamparks feature different types of attractions such as hayrides, haunted houses, corn mazes, haunted trails, blacklight 3D haunted houses, live shows and more. So who has the best Screampark in America? We are judging this category by the mass amount of different attractions and the quality of them all. Some Screamparks do not live up to their marketing hype when their “multiple attractions” are mostly small and gimmicky. However, there are several who are beyond your wildest dreams immense and action-packed with horrific fun. Our list of BEST Screamparks not only provide hours of entertainment, but leave you gut wrenching and heart pounding. The biggest operational difference between a screampark and a haunted house is most screamparks have to set up everything each year. In comparison, an indoor haunted house is usually a permanent location, so the sets, animations, and FX are typically better and more detailed. However a Screampark makes up the difference with sheer number of attractions, actors, and time spent at the event. So who has the best Screamparks in America and why?
1. Kersey Valley Spookywoods - Greensboro, North Carolina - www.spookywoods.com: Spookywoods is the best Haunted Screampark in America, because they are the biggest with the most unique attractions in America from pumpkin patches, corn mazes, haunted tram rides, haunted houses, and even zip lines. They have a multitude of daytime events for kids, attractions for children and much more. Spookywoods is America’s biggest and best Screampark in America 2013! When visiting Spookywoods you can come by night for frights or by day for authentic fall fun. It’s truly a Halloween Fall Festival by day and fright by night.
2. Headless Horseman’s Hayrides and Haunted Houses - Ulster Park, New York - www.headlesshorseman.com: Headless Horseman is our second best haunted Screampark 2013, because they have the best haunted hayride in America. Additionally, they are one of the only Screamparks in America with themed food shops, unique gift boutiques, live theatrical shows, and even the real Headless Horseman riding around on horseback. The detail and creativity in their haunted hayride is something you don’t see in 99% of other hayrides. It’s truly something to see!
3. The Bates Motel - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - www.thebatesmotel.com: The main attraction at this haunted Screampark is their massive hayride with real tombstones, meat packing conveyor hooks, pyro effects and more! The Bates Motel Hayride would be better compared to the backlot tour at Universal with one major special effect after another all towards the utmost in haunting entertainment for their guests. Additionally, the Bates Motel Haunted House is an iconic haunted house with detailed rooms and sets, and also included is a massive haunted corn maze leaving customer screaming for their lives!
4. Field of Screams - Lancaster, Pennsylvania - www.fieldofscreams.com: With four intense attractions and a fun-filled entertainment area, Field of Screams is unlike any other haunted attraction. Field of Screams provides Lancaster PA and all nearby east coast cities with the most horrifying experiences around. Field of Screams features one of the longest hayrides deep into a haunted cornfield where darkness falls just a little deeper, featuring a massive 20-foot pumpkin demon. It’s the perfect place for nighmares to become reality!
5. Creepyworld Haunted Screampark - Fenton, Missouri - www.scarefest.com: Creepyworld is by far the best overall screampark for creative haunted houses and haunted attractions with the utmost in extreme actors. Creepyworld features 10 haunted attractions in one location, plus an all animated Ghoul Band and one of America’s largest Carved Pumpkin Displays. Creepyworld is a massive production that includes Zombie Paintball Hayride, the ever iconic Silo-X Haunted House, an award-winning 3D Haunted House, an attraction themed around an old abandoned Drive-In 666 movie theater and much more!
6. Spookyworld Presents Nightmare New England - Litchfield, New Hampshire - www.nightmarenewengland.com: Nightmare New England offers the most variety of entertainment options for its customers. Located along the eerie banks and forest of the Merrimack River, this Screampark offers something for everyone with five haunted attractions, restaurant, bar, an expanded Monster Midway of roaming monsters with nightly music, Zombie Paintball, go-kart racing, mini-golf, batting cages, tarot card readings and much more.
7. Jason’s Woods - Lancaster, Pennsylvania - www.jasonswoods.com: People from all over the east coast flock to Jason’s Woods to experience several haunted house attractions like the all new Chamber of Horrors, Pirate’s Revenge, Lost in Jason’s Woods, or Carnival of Fear, but the most sought after attraction is their Horrifying Hayride where iconic horrific characters force you to revisit those childhood nightmares of the past. And don’t forget to visit The Grand Jason’s Woods Theater where they creatively combine film with horror haunted attraction!
8. The Dead End Hayride & Haunted Attractions at Pinehaven Farm - Wyoming, Minnesota - www.thedeadendhayride.com: This event features three attractions including a massive hayride called The Dead End plus Departed Oaks Sunnyvale Asylum and Site 66. For years Minnesota has been lagging behind the rest of the country with haunted attractions but now with Dead End Hayride on the scene Minnesota has been put on the map with outstanding screams. Their slogan is the land of 10,000 SCREAMS and we believe it.
9. Field of Terror - East Windsor, New Jersey - www.fieldofterror.com: Field of Terror is NJ’s Premier Haunted Attraction Farm. It’s everything a Screampark should be, but at this 100 acre farm, they do everything over-the-top! With a haunted corn field, haunted hayride, haunted barn, 3D haunted house plus food, DJ, dancing, concessions, bonfire and even fireworks (on designated nights), Field of Terror is certainly a BEST haunted Screampark by all accounts. Also, check their website regularly for Zombie Mud Run events too!
10. Hysteria Screampark at Connors Farm – Salem, Massachusetts - www.hysteriadanvers.com: Hysteria features five different attractions in one location including The Fields, Cirque Du Dement, Burial Grounds, Maze of Darkness and a Zombie Hunt where guests shoot paintballs at zombies. Salem Mass is one of the best places in the World to go during Halloween so making a trip to this location is a double dose of Halloween fun!
Which haunted houses in operation today have the best and scariest crew of actors, monsters, zombies and creatures that make you SCREAM? Hauntworld unveils the best places to find the scariest actors in America, so be warned if you dare enter these attractions and prepare to see the most realistic make up, monsters, acting and scream machines on EARTH! What makes a haunted house great is their staff. It’s the actors who make unbelievable believable. The actors are the ones who make their victims’ skin crawl. They can make you run for your life, begging for mercy. They are the ones who make a haunted house the legend they have become! Some actors are so extreme and over-the-top, they have the ability to instill such fear that results are blood curdling screams, panic attacks, and even wetting of the pants! If you are brave enough, we dare you to entertain the idea of attending every haunted house on this list. But if you do, prepare to donate your soul at the door, because these actors will certainly rip it from your body! The scariest haunted houses with the scariest actors in America…here is our list:
1. Netherworld - Atlanta, Georgia - www.fearworld.com: Netherworld has the wildest actors in the industry with an over-the-top make up department, custom icon characters, sliders, actors running the parking lot, and 100’s more actors inside all to make you scream! Netherworld has the best actors in America.
2. House of Torment - Austin, Texas - www.thehouseoftorment.com: House of Torment takes pride in their actor group with their own band of icon characters, custom costumes and crazy actors making some people so scared they never attend a haunted house again.
3. The 13th Gate - Baton Rouge Louisiana - www.13thgate.com: 13th Gate features some of the best makeup artists in America, plus icon characters, custom molded masks, and theatrical costumes. What makes them most unique is all the different style actors, because they have to fill 13 different themes within the attraction.
4. Thrillvania - Dallas Texas - www.thrillvania.com: Thrillvania has some of the oldest actor troops in America serving Verdun Manor for over 20 years. The same faithful groups of actors return each year to haunt the fears of Dallas Texas.
5. Headless Horseman’s Hayrides and Haunted Houses - Ulster Park, New York - www.headlesshorseman.com: Located outside New York City, Headless Horseman features the best costumes in America with their own year round costume department of make up FX artists who create unique costumes for the attraction year after year. Their best and most notorious haunt actor is of course the headless horseman who rides up and down the hayride haunting the town of Sleepy Hollow.
6. The Dent Schoolhouse - Cincinnati, Ohio - www.frightsite.com: When you visit the Dent Schoolhouse prepare to come across some amazing actors who all play the rolls of evil janitor, principal, teachers, coaches, cheerleaders and dead students. Every bad nightmare you still have of high school you must relive at Dent SchoolHouse.
7. Erebus - Pontiac, Michigan - www.hauntedpontiac.com: Erebus has a limitless haunt where the actors and animations are allowed to touch their customers for the ultimate “hands on” approach to scaring, and this takes unique training on the part of the actor management staff. Their victims LOVE this extreme approach to haunting!
8. The Darkness - St. Louis, Missouri - www.scarefest.com: The Darkness is celebrating its 20th Year of Fear and some actors, like Scary Gary, have been there haunting all 20 years long! In order for any haunted house to be successful for 20 years, their actors play a huge role. The haunt now features year around actor training that includes hands on costuming training too. The Darkness staff believes awesome costumes lend great assistance toward achieving the ultimate screams out of its victims.
9. 13th Floor Haunted Houses - www.13thfloorhauntedhouse.com: These attractions are located in four different cities including Denver Colorado, San Antonio Texas, Phoenix Arizona and now Chicago Illinois. The actors are very well trained year round, and in each city, they bring a fear factor unlike anything the cities have seen before. With the best actors and actor trainers in America, these haunt promoters are dead set on making their haunts ROCK!
10. Bennett's Curse - Baltimore, Maryland - www.bennettscurse.com: Bennett's Curse has custom silicon masks and costumes made for these extreme scream monsters. Bennett’s Curse monsters mostly fit the gothic themes of the overall event and they pull it off in scream fashion.
There are many year round haunts not only in America but around the World. They don’t have to be haunted houses to be a haunted attraction they can be a ride, a restaurant, anything with a Halloween or horror theme. Most haunted attractions across America are open only during the Halloween season, but there are dozens which are open for most of the year or year round. Here is the list of the places to find Haunted Attractions 2014 no matter what time of the year. Other attractions we are going to list are open different parts of the year but still open often enough to make our list.
1. 13th Floor Haunted Houses - Denver, Phoenix, San Antonio, Chicago - www.13thfloorhauntedhouse.com: These attractions aren’t open daily however they do open year around for special events, they open for different holiday events including Valentine’s Day, Scream Break, every Friday the 13th and other events throughout the year. Check their website for their special opening times.
2. Disney Haunted Mansion in Magic Kingdom - Orlando, Florida - www.disneyworld.disney.go.com/attractions/magic-kingdom/haunted-mansion: This is the oldest and biggest haunted dark ride in the World and by far the most famous. This attraction inspired the entire haunted house industry. Open year around.
3. Ghostwood Estates - Pittsburg, Pennsylvania - www.kennywood.com: Ghostwood Estates is located inside Kennywood Amusement Park. It’s a haunted mansion dark ride where riders shoot ghosts to score points. The attraction features several digital FX and much more. Open March to November.
4. Haunted Ravens Grin - Mount Carroll, Illinois - www.hauntedravensgrin.com: This haunt should have made our most extreme haunt list because its bizarre and at the same time WORLD FAMOUS! There is no haunted house in the World as crazy as this one and its open every day year around. Visit their website and prepare to experience something totally unusual.
5. Gateway Performing Arts Playhouse - Long Island, New York - www.pacsc.org/hauntedhouse/online: This group puts on shows and performances of the scary nature throughout the entire year. Check their website for their special screaming good events.
6. Eastern State Penitentiary - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - www.easternstate.org: One of the oldest prisons in America is open year round for ghost tours. Open year round. They also run a massive haunted attraction during Halloween season called Terror Behind The Walls.
7. Pennhurst Asylum - Spring City, Pennsylvania - www.pennhurstasylum.com: A closed down asylum, this is one of the most haunted places in America. Pennhurst operates year round for ghost tours and during October it operates a massive haunted house event.
8. Ripley Haunted Adventure - San Antonio, Texas - www.ripleys.com/sanantonio/: Ripley’s is more than just Believe It Or Not. Ripley’s Haunted Adventures are located in several different cities but the best one is in San Antonio.
9. Legends: A Haunting at Old Town - Kissimmee, Florida - www.legendsoldtown.com: The biggest tourist city in America hosts one of our best year around haunts open every single day not far from Disney World sits Legends at Old Town. This is a multi-story haunted houses featuring amazing detail, sets, and animations plus incredible actors. Make a visit to Legends whenever you visit Orlando.
10. Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum - Weston, West Virginia - www.trans-alleghenylunaticasylum.com: This REAL haunted site, formerly known as the Weston State Hospital, once served as a sanctuary for the mentally ill. The history of the building holds fascinating stories of Civil War raids, gold robbery and more. Today, you can tour this nationally recognized landmark year round. And this haunt season, the Asylum presents Aberration Haunted House, www.theasylumwv.com, for even more horrific fun!
11. Ghostly Manor of Lake Erie Fearfest - Sandusky, Ohio - www.ghostlymanor.com: Located in Sandusky Ohio near Cedar Point, Ghostly Manor is open year round with attractions like a motion ride simulator, mini golf and skating. The attraction has recently been renamed the Lake Eerie Fearfest.
12. Rolling Hills Asylum - East Bethany, New York - www.rollinghillsasylum.vpweb.com/default.html: Located in East Bethany, New York, this haunted attraction is a historically haunted site. They offer public and private tours as well as flashlight tours. Rolling Hills Asylum has been featured on Travel Channel's Ghost Adventures & Paranormal Challenge and is a documented hot bed for paranormal activity. Rolling Hills Asylum is TRULY haunted.
Well before I was editor of Hauntworld, I was always interested in the haunted houses, horror and science fiction. As a kid I watched everything from Bela Lugosi Dracula or Christopher Lee to Frankenstein or Mummy. My all-time favorite horror creature is Lon Chaney Jr. in his portrayal as The Wolfman. I would watch him battle Frankenstein over and over hoping for a different outcome each time!
Horror movies have changed a lot from the infancy when Universal made Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolfman, Mummy or the cult classic Creature From The Black Lagoon. I believe slasher movies like Texas Chainsaw Massacre made people afraid to enter an old house. Films like The Exorcist created fear of the devil and demonic possessions. Perhaps many of todays best horror movies can be traced back to Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Exorcist.
For many Americans, watching a good scary movie is a favorite pastime and great for a first date or a way to celebrate the Halloween season. We love horror movies and now I present our top 13 bone chilling, scream machine horror movies that will make your skin crawl and give you nightmares. Share your top 10 or top 13 scariest horror movies on our facebook page. CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR FACEBOOK PAGE
1. The Exorcist :
This is the film that gave folks nightmares, sent people running to church to find God and invoked fear of demonic possessed. This is the most celebrated horror movies of all time for a reason; it causes fear of something people believe CAN happen!
2. Sinister : A sequel for this film is finally on the way. This movie more or less found its fame on home video like many horror films. I think most of the scariest films are supernatural, and this film reminds me in many ways of Sixth Sense just scarier with its many twists and turns. Sinister might be one of the scariest movies ever made.
3. Insidious :
This is a good old fashion modern version of classic film making with no CGI, no frills, just hard core supernatural screams! Insidious is another film in the Exorcist vein and something that perhaps could happen to you, which makes us all the more frightened. Insidious also features an amazing sound track that adds to the screams.
4. Texas Chainsaw Massacre :
This is the first non-supernatural film on the list. This flick is simply BLOODY. Plus, the title and marketing of this movie had people thinking it was based on a true story, making it all the more horrific. When a film takes on a life of its own and builds its own mythology, then its a classic. Texas Chainsaw Massacre launched a new genre of slasher films, but it still ranks as BEST.
5. Trick R Treat :
This film is a combination of supernatural and slasher, mixed with anthologymeaning several stories wrapped into one story. Trick R Treat was never released theatrically which made NO SENSE to me, and I would definitely rank this as THE #1 BEST horror movie that never released on the big screen. Trick R Treat mixes all the best elements of horror and was done in a very stylish way. Im one of many who are hoping for a sequel.
6. The Conjuring : This is a more recent movie that borrows from many films too, including Insidious, Sinister, & Exorcist. With the backdrop of ghost hunters helping to solve supernatural mysteries, this film has a special charm and a very high scare factor.
7. Halloween : Who isnt afraid of a man in a mask (especially one so simple as a plain William Shatner mask)? This film sticks with movie goers, because we can easily understand the fear of a serial killer. Running around, breaking into houses and killing people for amusement, Michael Myers had no rules, making him all the more terrifying. Leatherface in Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a serial killer too, but Michael Myers is a serial killer who possesses almost supernatural elements to him like Freddy, Jason, Pinhead, Candyman and many others who followed Michael Myers.
8. Alien : This film is the only science fiction movie on the list, but its a horror movie also. This movie is very much unlike the sequel Alien movies, because we have people trying to survive against a creature they have no weapons to fight, no way of escaping and no knowledge of what is actually trying to kill them. The Alien appears in the movie very little which keeps movie goers on the edge of their seat.
9. The Shinning : This is another supernatural movie, and many make the case that its possibly the best of the bunch. Its the story of a man losing his mind while left alone in an old haunted hotel. The idea that no one can hear you scream, no one knows youre in danger, youre all alone with creepy supernatural house gueststhats scary. Undoubtedly, the acting in this film is the best of any of the films on this list.
10. The Grudge : Its another supernatural film, resides in the RING family. Several movies where produced close to each other (all based on Japanese films) and this one makes the list as the best of the bunch. This movie is simply creepy. Spirits drive the main characters to the brink of insanity and death. Scary!!
11. The Thing : This movie is definitely one of my favorite horror movies of all time. Its scary, fun, exciting, and filled with AMAZING MONSTERS! Unlike the CGI & FX filled movies of today, The Thing produced practice monsters made just for the film. The movie is gross, disgusting, scary, and the actingsimply amazing! The Thing is one of the best outright horror movies ever made. More recently a prequel was made by Universal, and I give that movie high marks as well, but nothing stacks up to John Carpenters The Thing.
12. Poltergeist : You can really trace many of todays movies like Paranormal Activity & Insidious back toPoltergeist. Some say it was actually directed by Steven Spielberg but credited to Tobe Hooper. (Based on the films Tobe Hooper would direct later, I might agree that Steven Spielberg might have actually directed this classic.) Regardless, Poltergeist is the original breakout hit about a house which is haunted. Amityville Horror shortly preceded this film, however Poltergeist got it right with classic lines like theyre here. After watching Poltergeist, everyone was afraid to look under their bed.
13. Dracula : Universal Studios original Dracula film has withstood the test of time. Many might disagree, but if you look back at history and the hysteria this film created, you must concur. Very few films ever created that degree of public hysteria and utter fear Jaws did for sharks, The Exorcist did for demons, And YES Dracula and Bela Lugosi did for vampires. Following the release of this movie, people had true fears of vampires. Think about how many vampire based movies and shows have been made since. They can ALL be traced back to the original vampire horror movie, Dracula. Dracula had people covering their windows with garlic. It created real fear, real hysteria about vampires. People actually began believing in vampires after watching this movie. Dracula is
not that scary today, but its the film that started horror as we know it now!
