Hauntworld - America's Best Haunted Houses
Review by: Hauntworld Magazine
Eerie corners and horrific scenes of blood curdling fright await all who enter their local haunted houses during the 2009 Halloween season. Haunted houses have now become bigger than anyone could have ever imagined with some haunted attractions bigger than entire football fields and costing millions of dollars to produce. The haunted house industry is a multi-million dollar industry with major vendors like Scarefactory, Distortions, Ghost Ride and so many more who provide innovative animations, special effects, costumes, and products. This is an evolved industry from simple blood and guts scares to now real life versions of a top dollar Hollywood horror movie experience.
Haunted attractions have gotten so big that most major attraction owners no longer need to hold full time jobs to make ends meet. They’ve quit their normal 9-5 job and now work year round on their haunted houses, pushing the boundaries to make America scream. In this day and age of high tech movies, video games, and interactive entertainment, the Halloween Attraction industry has had to take its game to new FRIGHTS! For decades America celebrated October by carving pumpkins, taking their kids trick-or-treating, or taking in a Hollywood horror movie to get their scream on. Today things have changed. Visiting a local haunted house is NOW the traditional way to celebrate the Halloween season. Sure parents still take their kids trick-or-treating, but adults who were mere teenagers when the haunted house industry blossomed 10 or 15 years ago are still visiting haunted houses today, along with a new generation of haunted scream fans.
Haunted Houses have more guest attendance than ever before to the tune of over ONE BILLION DOLLARS. In comparison, Hollywood movies gross 9 billion annually. Yet the Halloween Attractions industry, in only one month can gross 1/9 that of the movie industry’s annual intake…WOW! Aside from haunted houses, the Halloween Attraction industry also includes corn mazes, pumpkin patches, hayrides, amusement parks and even zoos that celebrate with Halloween events and attractions.
Scream seekers want LIVE action. They want to feel the sensations of being stalked of being terrified. They want to literally feel fear as it wells up in their throats and experience it live. No horror movie, no roller coaster, nothing you could experience could replace the sensations you will experience this year inside a haunted house!
Every season Hauntworld Magazine and Hauntworld.com (the World’s #1 Halloween and Haunted House website providing haunt-seekers annually with the most comprehensive haunt directory on the web) produces a top 13 list to find some of the best haunted houses in America. Make no mistake, those haunts on our lists are not the only scary haunted houses in America. There are haunts we have not yet experienced or discovered, but our lists change every year as we learn more about new haunted houses near you! We rely on our users and guests of our website to point us to new haunted houses and Halloween Attractions. Some perhaps we’ve never seen nor heard of prior. Others could be new haunts preparing for their first year of fear. If you know about an awesome haunted house near you TELL US, WRITE US, we want to know what makes your local haunted house one of America’s best haunted attractions. We encourage EVERYONE to find a haunted house NEAR YOU, not necessarily ones simply listed on our annual Hauntworld Top 13 Lists.
Use Hauntworld.com to shop by state for haunted houses near you. The home page, interactive map of North America will assist you to find over 2,000 unique haunted attractions from haunted hayrides, haunted woods, haunted trails, haunted mazes, corn mazes, and more!!!
Now we present you with our annual guide to some of America’s Best Haunted Attractions 2009!
If you know of a haunted house we should review and rate for our 2009 list feel free to email us. Lastly remember this is NOT the only best haunts in America, make sure you visit a local haunted house near you by using our Haunt Directory located on the Front page of www.Hauntworld.com.
HAUNTWORLD TOP 13 HAUNTED HOUSES LIST / Top 31 Haunts One Haunt For Everyday in October
1.13th Gate Haunted House – Baton Rouge, Louisiana, www.midnightproduction.com. 13th Gate haunted house is rated once again as the best haunted house in America two years running by Hauntworld.com, because this haunt has it all. Not many haunted houses in America have the level of detail, set design, incredible Hollywood makeup artists, special effects, all rolled up into one big massive scream factory! 13th Gate delivers on all levels and guarantees all who enter 13 levels of fear and fright.
2.Netherworld Haunted House – Atlanta, Georgia, www.fearworld.com. Netherworld is one of those haunted houses that take live actors to a new FRIGHT. Netherworld is one of the few haunted houses that dedicate an army of monsters to scare patrons while they wait in line and hundreds more waiting for you to enter the door. Netherworld has more giant monsters than the island Godzilla lives on! Netherworld is a haunt you do NOT want to miss!
3.The Beast – Kansas City, Missouri, www.kcbeast.com. The Beast Haunted House, one of the biggest and best indoor haunted attractions in the nation, spans FIVE FLOORS of fear with set design, ghost illusions, and detail to match the largest big-budget movies out there. The Beast is simply a ‘beast’ of a haunted house packing so much terror into an enormous building large enough for 10 typical haunted houses. You’ll be asking yourself, “Will this nightmare ever end?”
4. The Darkness Haunted House – St. Louis, Missouri, www.scarefest.com. The Darkness is a powerhouse haunted house with Hollywood quality special effects, live actors, hundreds of animations, and amazing set design detailed throughout two floors of fright. New for 2009, The Darkness now includes a secondary attraction, Terror Visions in 3D, which many in the haunt industry deem as the best 3D haunt ever created. Also included is a Hollywood Horror Museum.
5.House of Torment – Austin, Texas, www.houseoftorment.com. House of Torment (HOT) is a haunted house Hauntworld discovered back in 2008 and featured on the cover of our magazine. HOT brings you an unmatched in-your-face FEAR and takes it to new horrific heights with icon monsters, over the top marketing, edgy scenes and blood-curdling screams!
6.Dent Schoolhouse – Cincinnati, Ohio, www.frightsite.com. The Dent Schoolhouse is new to our top 13 list and we’ve discovered a goldmine of FEAR with this one! The Dent Schoolhouse features incredible story telling, horrific set design, and amazing fright inside one of the creepiest buildings for a haunted house. Was that a costumed monster or the haunting of a REAL ghost?
7.Bates Motel – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, http://www.thebatesmotel.com. The Bates Motel is more than just a haunted house. It’s a major league SCREAM PARK with detailed haunted houses and a massive haunted hayride that’s sure to have you screaming in fear! Bates Motel is quite well known for its haunted hayride featuring the most amazing pyrotechnics ever included in a haunt!
8.Haunted Schoolhouse – Akron, Ohio, www.hshlab.com. The Haunted Schoolhouse and Lab is the oldest running haunted house in America with over 30 years under their belt! Haunted houses nationwide revel at their longevity. The Haunted Schoolhouse features five floors of sheer terror and offers some of the best set design we’ve ever seen! The Haunted Schoolhouse is sure to boggle the mind and give you the ultimate creeps!
9.Bayville Screampark – Long Island, New York, www.bayvillescreampark.com. Bayville Screampark features the best outdoor façade of any haunted house we’ve ever seen. The façade to Bayvilles main haunted house was designed and created by major production companies, at installed at a cost of several hundred thousand dollars and that’s only the façade. Bayville Screampark is owned and operated by the same company which owns Jekyll and Hyde Restaurant in New York. Bayville Screampark features 5 haunted houses from a mansion, 3D clown maze, haunted forest and much more.
10.House of Shock – New Orleans, Louisiana, www.houseofshock.com. House of Shock isn’t simply the most controversial haunted house in America but it’s also one of the best haunted houses in America. House of Shock features the most elaborate pryo stage show before you enter what might be the most intense haunted house you’ve ever experienced.
11.Dead Acres – Columbus, Ohio, www.deadacres.com. This makes our list as the absolute most insane haunted house in America and probably the craziest website to boot! This haunted house comes after you with everything they got. They never let up. And, the actors are just as intense as the theme, set design and special effects. For an experience like no other in America visit Dead Acres this Halloween season!
12.Headless Horseman – Ulster Park, New York, www.headlesshorseman.com. Headless Horseman is a force not to be reckoned with. It includes one of THE BEST haunted hayrides in America where the Headless Horseman himself chases you over an old rickety bridge! Also included in this massive Halloween event are haunted houses, a cornfield maze, gift stores and so much more. Headless Horseman is nestled on an old eerie farm providing an authentic Halloween experience that’s sure to terrify all who enter.
13.Graystone Manor - Killen, Alabama, www.graystonemanor.net. When your local haunted house is located in a town named Killen, you know you’re in for the fright of your life, and Graystone Manor does not disappoint! Graystone Manor is an amazing haunted house with horrific actors, intense scares, awesome detail, sets, and animations! Get down to Killen, Alabama and let the killing begin!
The List Doesn't End There... `14th through 31st listed below: Turn the number 13 around and you come up with 31 so the list goes on to list the rest of the top rated haunted houses in America. There are 31 DAYS in October so we list our best haunts for each day in October.
Best Scream Parks / Haunted Hayrides in America 2009 by Hauntworld.com
A Scream Park style haunted attraction is kind of like an outdoor shopping mall of haunts. They typically include several haunts at one large outdoor location with a possible combination of haunted hayrides, haunted midways, sideshows, trails, corn mazes and more. Most offer their entire package of horror for one low price.
Best Places in America to get SCARED Are You looking to find the scariest places on Earth to get scared? Find our list of America's Scariest places listed by Hauntworld.com below.
1. Salem, Massachusettswww.salem.org. Salem is the best place in AMERICA to get scared because Salem has more haunted houses, ghost stories, witch museums, and Halloween events than any place in America! Salem is our hands down pick to visit if you love Halloween!
2. Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada www.cliftonhill.ca. Niagara Falls has more haunted houses in one area than anywhere in the continent. Several haunts are found up and down the old Clifton Hills. Even the wax museum has a makeshift haunt s as part of the show. Plus, not far from Niagara Falls is Buffalo, New York which has even more haunted attractions like Fright World, House of Horrors, Haunted Catacombs and more.
3. Winchester Mystery House, San Jose, California, www.winchestermysteryhouse.com. This mystery house is filled with endless rooms. Turn off the lights and try to find your way out. Legend has it that ghosts inspired the original owner to keep building onto this house, the house that never ends.
4. New Orleans, Louisiana. Visit New Orleans and see some of the scariest graveyards in America with crypts, voodoo shops and YES several haunted houses too! House of Shock and 13th Gate Haunted House are sure to please, but another nearby haunt is located in a REAL mortuary. Check out The Mortuary Haunted House at www.themortuary.net.
5. Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville, Kentucky www.therealwaverlyhills.com. This place looks so scary, you might just second guess stepping even one foot inside the door. They offer real ghost tours and an elaborate haunted attraction in October. Several people have actually died in this place, and I don’t doubt for a second it’s filled to the brim with actual ghosts!
Top 10 Amusement Park Halloween Haunted Events
Amusement parks are now full blown into the Haunted House business putting on some of the biggest haunted events in America, but some amusement parks do haunting better than the rest. Most amusement parks we’ve found do a half hearted effort to produce a haunted event in an attempt to extend the amusement season. However, some take it to another level; some amusement parks put real fear into their Halloween attractions. Here is our list of the best amusement parks producing a Halloween event this October 2009.
America's Best Haunted Houses, Haunted Tourist Attractions, Halloween Attractions and Events, year around haunted houses and America's Scariest Attractions can be found on Hauntword.com. Every single year Hauntworld Magazine rates their favorite and top haunted houses, Halloween Attrations, real haunted houses, home haunts, and even the best haunted amusement parks like Univeral Studios, Knotts Scary Farm and many more. Every single year you can count on Hauntworld.com to help you locate the best haunted houses near you useing our haunt directory located on the front page of www.Hauntworld.com. We encourage everyone to not only visit the haunted houses on these lists but all haunted houses in every city and every state across America and Canada. Lastly if you know of an awesome haunted house that we did not review or rate for our lists please contact us and tell us about them. We want to know!!! In the meantime listed below you can find the most recent lists or you can read about past lists. The further down you scroll the older the lists. Happy Hauntings Hauntworld Magazine.
HAUNTWORLD TOP 13 HAUNTED HOUSES 2009 Coming Soon!
Hauntworld's TOP 13 HAUNTS of 2008
Find More Haunted Houses Nationwide by going to www.Haunworld.com and find a haunted house near you.
Hauntworld rates the best haunted houses in America each year and our lists have been published all over the web including USA Today, AOL, About.com, and many more. Hauntworld has its finger on the haunted house industry and we help you find and locate the best haunted houses from around America and haunted houses near you.
Welcome to HauntWorld
Home Of America's Best Haunted Houses 2007
HAUNTWORLD MAGAZINE ANNOUNCES TOP 13 HAUNTED ATTRACTIONS NATIONWIDE List Highlights New Standards of Fear and Fun at Leading Haunts
St. Louis, MO – September 5, 2007 – To kick off the 2007 Haunt Season, Hauntworld Magazine, the haunt industry’s leading trade publication, today announced its list of the Top 13 Professional Haunted Attractions in the country. These attractions are being recognized for their attention to detail, high-quality special effects, and overall scare factor.
Ranging from haunted hotels and prisons to spooky hayrides, the list represents the best haunted attractions the nation has to offer, as selected by the editors at Hauntworld Magazine. In an industry that has reached the multi-billion dollar mark, these haunts are leading the way in scream-inducing innovations.
“The haunts we’ve included are as expertly produced as any major motion picture today,” said Editor-in-Chief of Hauntworld Magazine, Larry Kirchner. “They have behind-the-scenes teams of master Hollywood special effects technicians, make-up artists, set designers, and trained actors. We’re an industry that exists to make people scream and laugh at the same time – and these haunts do just that, and more.”
About Hauntworld Magazine:
Hauntworld Magazine (www.hauntworld.com) is the premier haunted attraction magazine in the industry. Coupled with its online component, hauntworld.com, Hauntworld provides insider access into the world of haunted houses and attractions. Readers can find information regarding the top haunts around the country and internationally, Halloween vendors, manufacturers, events, tips and forums. Originally created to serve haunted attraction industry members through its unique editorial content and discussion boards, Hauntworld now helps nearly four million people find the best haunts each Halloween season. The magazine/website and its editors have been featured in publications such as USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and Time and on the National Geographic Channel, among other media outlets.
Hauntworld Top Thirteen Haunted Houses 2006
By Hauntworld Magazine
Hauntworld.com the WORLDS #1 Haunted website and leading industry magazine is proud to announce our 13 best haunted houses and top 5 amusement park haunted events for the 2006 Halloween season.Our list of the best haunts in the United States represent a very wide variety of attractions from professional haunted houses, hayrides, home haunts to even haunts on steamboats.
So now prepare yourself for the most ghoulish attraction you can visit this October listing them off backwards from thirteen to number one.Coming in at #13 we have a split decision with two haunts tying for the most unique places to build a haunted house…first up we have USS Nightmare a haunted house built on a turn of the century steamboat.There are several haunts now built on boats from Nautical Nightmare to a haunted event build in the bowels of the famous Queen Mary.But USS Nightmare takes our prize tied with another unusual haunt built in the most unlikely of locations…inside semi track trailers. In Vegas locations are impossible to find so haunters reverted to taking old semi truck trailers and turning them into haunted houses.The best of the best is two owned and operated by Rich Strelak…haunts built in truck trailers and Steamboats.These are truly unique locations and they come into a tie at number 13.
At number 12 we have our first home haunted house…yes this haunted house is built inside and outside of their home in New Hampshire.This is by far the most elaborate home decoration anyone could conceive…this event has more care and attention to detail than 90% of professional haunted attractions and they hit our list at number 12.
Coming in at number 11 is a MASSIVE haunted event in Cleveland, Ohio called ‘Seven Floors of Hell’ due to the fact it features seven different haunted houses.Attention to detail, tons of animations, and creativity abound at 7 Floors of Hell.This might be the longest haunted house by linier walking feet in the United States.Coming in at number 10 is a haunt that claims it’s the longest indoor haunted house in the nation…Erebus haunted house is known as being one of the most unique attractions in the industry. Erebus is not like any other attraction as they touch the guests, monsters try to eat the customers and if you survive this attraction - it’s just barely!We’ve all heard the slogan ‘If you Survive’ and at Erebus they actually mean it.
Hitting our chart at #9 is another new entry: Dead Acres of Columbus, Ohio.Dead Acres has some of the most incredible attention to detail of any haunt in the nation.This attraction is both indoors and outdoors in the elements.Dead Acres is one of those haunts flying under the industry radar screens but not anymore.Ben Armstrong of Netherworld haunted house says this is one of the best he’s even seen.
Our next haunted house at #8 is another home haunt of sorts…Dr. Lady Horror Hotel in Chatfield, Ohio.This is truly a home haunted house because Laura and David Lady live inside the attraction year around, every day of the year with their cobwebs, monsters, and blood dripping from Bela Lugosi’s fangs.Horror Hotel is probably the most unique attraction in the industry, and owned and operated by a real life Adam’s Family. The attention to detail at Horror Hotel and the museum style sets are unlike any other attraction in our industry.Although their haunt is inside their haunt its still a professional attraction that charges guests for a tour.
Lucky number seven is Fright World of Buffalo, New York…Fright World features five different haunted houses all inside one massive 50,000 square foot building.All five attractions are original, clever and downright bone-chilling scary.Next on our list is Shocktoberfest in Reading, Pennsylvania, which features three haunted attractions including a 3D maze, a massive haunted prison and one of the best haunted hayrides in the industry.Shocktoberfest also produces other events on the property such as a major Christmas attraction.There is no question that Shocktoberfest is one of our industries best operated and most successful haunted houses.
Now we’re down to our top five haunted events…at #5 we feature Rocky Point Haunted House owned and operated by the legendary Cydney Neil.Rocky Point to some is known as the best haunted house in the nation. However, this will be Rocky Points last season.Rocky Point features over 50,000 square feet of realistic Hollywood based themes, sets and scenes featuring tons of real props from real movies.The best part of Rocky Point is the Hollywood make up artists they employ each October, who transform normal teenagers into realistic terrifying monsters.
Bates Motel hits our list at #4 because of their awesome hayride that features more pyrotechnics than a KISS concert.Bates Motel located just outside Philadelphia is more than just a haunted house it’s a massive haunted event with arguably the best haunted hayride in the industry.At #3 is The Darkness, which was ranked #3 by AOL.com last year as one of the “most scary” places in America.We posed the following question to the industry: Name your favorite haunted houses. The Darkness turns up on nearly everyone’s list thanks to its unmatched scenic design.Every single inch of The Darkness is themed, with 100+ animations, 50 live actors, and over 40 realistic Hollywood quality sets The Darkness hits our list at #3.The Darkness spends over $150,000.00 each year simply renovated the sets from the previous season.The Darkness has been featured on AOL, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and even NFL Network came to The Darkness to shoot footage.If you’re even in Saint Louis stop by and visit the all-new Darkness.
Now our top two attractions…at number 2 we have Netherworld of Atlanta, Georgia. We had an opportunity to visit Netherworld last November and what else can be said but AWESOME.They buy standard animations and props from the same vendors but they re-create them, re-invent them, and make anything inside unique, creative and horrific.Additionally they might have the best make up crew in the industry, creating monsters so life like even Rick Baker might not be able to tell the difference.When you add up all the parts of Netherworld you have one of our industries best haunts.
Drum roll please…the number one haunted attraction for the second voting year in a row is ‘Headless Horseman’ in Ulster, New York.Headless Horseman gives guests that authentic Halloween event feel, being outdoors, a galloping headless horseman prowling around, an incredible haunted hayride, massive corn maze, several haunted houses and more Halloween gift shops than anywhere else in the WORLD.Headless Horseman is just the total haunted package and they take our top prize again.
There are many other deserving haunted houses, hayrides, home haunts, and attractions out there and with future lists we just may feature them.Our goal was to find a diverse group of attractions from home haunts to the biggest of the big mega haunted events and roll them all into one list.We featured over nine new entries with this year’s list of best haunts and we hope you visit them this October and learn why they made Hauntworld.com top 13 haunted house list for 2006.
Top 13 List with Haunt Name, City, State and Website address.
10Terror on the Fox, Wisconsinwww.terroronthefox.com
9Terror Behind The Walls, Pennsylvaniawww.terrorbehindthewalls.com
8House of Shock, Louisianawww.houseofshock.com
7Bates Motel, Pennsylvaniawww.thebatesmotel.com
6Netherworld, Georgiawww.fearworld.com
5Edge of Hell, Missouriwww.kcbeast.com
4Thrillvania, Texaswww.thrillvania.com
3Rocky Point Haunted House, Utahwww.rockypointhauntedhouse.com
2The Beast, Missouriwww.kcbeast.com
1Headless Horseman, Ulster Park, New Yorkwww.headlesshorseman.com
Hauntworld is the biggest website on the web to help you find haunted houses, haunted house by state, city or by zip code. Hauntworld.com also features hudreds of haunted hayrides, Halloween attractions, corn mazes, ghost tours, haunted tours and much more. Hauntworld.com also includes trick or treat safety tips, free pumpkin carving patterns, haunted news, horror movie reviews, featured articles on haunted attractions and links to vendors, other haunt related websites and so much more. Guests can also create accounts on Hauntworld.com and rate, review their favorite local haunted houses. Create an account today and start rating and reviewing haunted houses. Hauntworld is publishs a magazine called Hauntworld Magazine and you can subscribe at www.Hauntedhousemagazine.com. Hauntworld is also a proud supporter of HHA (www.hauntedhouseassociation.org). Hauntworld also supports several haunted house tradeshows and you can find a complete list of upcoming trades on our haunted house tradeshow page. Hauntworld.com is the most advanced haunted house website on the planet featured on www.Google.com, www.Yahoo.com, www.USAtoday.com, www.Myspace.com and has been featured on Travel Channel, National Geographic Channel and many more.
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