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. Watch Hauntworld Video of the Show here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XGBQzsNYCo

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.. 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. This is what haunted houses do this is our passion and we present to you a list of can’t miss haunts.  The Haunted House industry has been made BEING SCARED a MULTI BILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY from escape games, haunted houses, corn mazes, hayrides, zombie runs, escape rooms, to even horror based TV shows to fill the void left when haunts close their doors at the stroke of midnight each October 31st.

Now that Halloween 2016 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 31 haunted houses in America for 2016.

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
 

2. 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 after 20 years in the business NETHERWORLD is still ever changing - coming up with new effects, scares, characters and story lines every season, while still retaining the Halloween feel that brings back guests year after year. World famous, massively attended, and highly respected NETHERWORLD is without a doubt one of the most successful haunted attractions of all time!

MONSTERS
This Year Featuring: The Flying Angel! The Lair of The Sea Witch! The Feasting Vampires! The Goloth Invasion! The Attacking Harpy! The Transformation Chamber! The Cavern of The Werewolves! The Blood Beast of the Arena! The Boogeyman’s Return! The Chapel Of The Gargoyles! The Cyclopean Soul Eater and The Doom Stone Unearthed! Experience an incredible avalanche of never ending horrors sure to shock during NETHERWORLD’S 20th year celebration!
 
MELTDOWN
This year featuring: The Xenomorphic Terror! The Collapsing Missile! The Blast Off Inferno! The Bride of Proteus! The Melting Core! The Radioactive Roach Infestation! The Mega Slammer! The One Million Volt Tesla Coil! The Spinning Kill Floor! Machine Gun Zombies! Crazed Automatons and the return of the Toxic Foam Room! Total Terror and SCI-FI Thrills Reign during NETHERWORLD Haunted House’s 20 Year Celebration!
 

3. The 13th Gate - Baton Rouge Louisiana - www.13thgate.com: Blurring the lines between reality and horror, this massive haunted attraction frequently has its guests wondering between screams whether what they are experiencing is real or not. The Attraction’s level of detail, set design, and special 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, claustrophobic cellars, hidden subterranean passages and even a prehistoric ice cave all seamlessly woven together into one of the scariest Haunted Attractions imaginable. If this wasn’t enough, adjacent to the 13th Gate is their secondary attraction, Necropolis Haunted Cemetery. This huge outdoor New Orleans Style cemetery has underground catacombs, nightly voodoo shows and over 400 dark zombie-infested crypts that guests must explore to reach the exit.
 
New for 2016, guests must wade through a dark flooded sewer littered with the bodies of Jack the Ripper and later make it to the end of a long dark train tunnel before one of two ghost trains make an appearance.

The 13th Gate is one of the Scariest, Most Elaborate Haunted Attractions in the Country! www.13thGate.com

Also located next door is 13th Gate Escape, Louisiana’s Ultimate Escape games. Featuring some of the most detailed escape games in the country, 13th Gate Escape is open year round, 7 days a week. www.13thGateEscape.com
 

4. The Darkness - St. Louis, Missouri - www.scarefest.com: The Darkness is one of the biggest haunted houses in America spanning nearly 60,000 SCREAM FEET!  The Darkness in 2016 has doubled its size by adding a zombie themed haunted house called Silo-X and 3 High Tech Escape Rooms.  The Darkness also features Zombie Laser Tag where guests hunt, shoot and kill REAL zombies!  The Darkness also features an outdoor scare zone, monster museum, and Terror Visions 3D where crazed clowns are looking for blood.  The Darkness itself spans over two floors and features some of the most amazing detailed sets in the World.  The Darkness also features over 200 animated special fx, moving floors, falling walls, and monsters around every single corner.  The Darkness has been hailed by many in the haunted house industry as the best haunted house in America.  The Darkness has been filmed and featured more times on national television than any other haunted house in America because of its amazing realistic Hollywood style sets and fx.  The Darkness is located in downtown St Louis and features sister attractions in town called Creepyworld and The Abyss which is under an old brewery.

5. Headless Horseman’s Hayrides and Haunted Houses - Ulster Park, New York - www.headlesshorseman.com: Headless Horseman Hayrides & Haunted Houses, named #1 in America, gallops into its 24th season. Headless Horseman Hayrides and Haunted Houses is a unique, immersive experience with a theatrical theme that changes each Halloween season. This year featuring: The Horseman’s Spawn, a theatrical one-mile hayride, Dark Harvest corn maze, in addition to 7 haunted attractions which include: The Lunar Motel, Glutton's Diner & Slaughterhouse, The Horseman’s Tomb, Night Shade Nursery & Greenhouse, Dr. Dark's Black Spider Circus Sideshow, The Feeding presents “The Pain Killer”, Two Raven’s Manor, and illusionist Ryan Dutcher Stage Show.

Headless Horseman continually evolves with unusual monsters, amazing illusions, stunning special fx, unique and original costumes, makeup, animations and frightening detail. Only the courageous will survive the intense encounters with the infamous Headless Horseman. In addition, 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" featuring Houdini’s Work Shop and Poison Plum Lab. A first for the Historic Hudson Valley.

The attraction also includes line actors, four themed gift shops: Magic Moon Gift Shop, Scare Ware, Fear Gear, and Phantom Photo, and five food options: Evil Eatery, Witch Hazels, Croaked Crow, The Coffee Cauldron, and Deadly Donuts. We employ over 350 actors and staff trained to provide a memorable and enjoyable evening for the whole family.
 

6. Erebus - Pontiac, Michigan - www.hauntedpontiac.com: The theme is time travel 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 the only one glitch the time period looked at the people like 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 yet Erebus prides itself 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 guys that have been thinking about scaring people for over 37 years!
 

7. The Bates Motel - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - www.thebatesmotel.com: The Bates Motel and Haunted Hayride is celebrating their 27th season of screams and fun. Always on the cutting edge, this year’s show has more monsters and pyrotechnics than ever. The Bates Motel is unique in that we build our own sets, props, costumes and makeup in house, so you will only see them here. With incredible attention to detail, stellar acting and unique special effects, The Bates Motel is heads above the competition.  Bates Motel also includes a massive Christmas lights display, bonfires, escape rooms, pumpkin patches and much more.
 

8. Bennett's Curse - Baltimore, Maryland - www.bennettscurse.com: The legendary Bennett's Curse Haunted Attraction, 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 characters, Bennett's Curse has reached a level only a handful of haunts nationwide can claim. This year, experience even more fear, with the addition of the all-new bonus show Coulrophobia and expanded asylum themed Ravenbrook Asylum Plus three other 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 characters, giant animations, and over the top monsters who roam, lurking and seeking souls!
 

9. The Dent Schoolhouse - Cincinnati, Ohio - www.frightsite.com: The Dent Schoolhouse is one of the tightest themed haunted houses in the nation.  Taking place in an actual haunted schoolhouse from the 1800's, the schoolhouse follows the legend of its murderous janitor.  Detailed to the max, each scene is right out the 1950's and looks just like a horror movie.  The Dent Schoolhouse is full of state of the art animatronics that make each scene better than the next!  The attraction's theme also is taking place during a vintage Halloween.  Carved out human faces, 120 + carved light pumpkins, and an old trick-or-treat stage show greets guests before they get into the attraction.

10. Haunted Overload - Lee, New Hampshire - www.hauntedoverload.com:  Haunted Overload is a haunt like no other. Described  as The Ultimate Halloween Experience, it blends spectacular handmade sets and oversize creatures with lush sound, lighting and award-winning costumes for a terrifying experience that is utterly unique. Haunted Overload can be found every year on various best haunts lists both nationally and internationally, and in 2014 won the grand prize on America’s Great Halloween Fright Fight on ABC. in 2015 it was listed as Hauntworld’s #1 haunt. Set in an eerie forest in New England, it brings to life the true feel of vintage Halloween terror. Every Halloween the dedicated Haunted Overload crew creates entirely new twists to its trails, and takes each added scene to unimagined heights. Last year the Victorian-themed Abaddon Hall stunned patrons with its detail. In 2016, its incredibly over-the-top Sinister Circus will give horrifying new meaning to the term “Big Top”. Haunted Overload is partnered with the Cocheco Valley Humane Society and gives a percentage of its proceeds to help local animals. It’s located at DeMeritt Hill Farm, a traditional stop for apple picking, blueberries, pumpkins and home-made goodies from the farm store. The farm also offers seasonal holiday hayrides and classes.

11. Hundred Acres Manor - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - www.hundredacresmanor.com: Hundred Acres Manor Haunted Attraction in Pittsburgh, PA has been featured on the Travel Channel, LA Times, forbes.com, USA Today, Good Morning America and dozens of other national and local news outlets for over 13 years! Hundred Acres Manor features 6 attractions spanning almost 1 mile long leaving patrons begging for a way out for over 45 minutes. Hundred Acres Manor features state-of-the-art technology and special effects throughout all 6 attractions including a dropping elevator simulator and rooms that rock, as if you are in a bayou in Louisiana. Hundred Acres Manor in 2015 also sent its design and built team over to Dubai in the United Arab of Emirates to build the first haunted house in the world famous Dubai Mall.  Hundred Acres Manor is a 501c3 non-profit that has donated over $1.5 million to two Pittsburgh charities, The Homeless Children’s Education Fund and Animal Friends. Hundred Acres Manor also features two multi-room horror escape rooms, The Meltdown and Alchemy.

13. Basement of the Dead - Aurora, Illinois - www.basementofthedead.com: Basement of the Dead Haunted House proves why everyone has a FEAR of going down into old basements! A top attraction in both Illinois and America, this haunted house is located deep in the Basement of a hundred year old building in downtown Aurora, Illinois -  just thirty short miles outside Chicago. Fire dancers, stilt walkers, and grotesque characters roam outside the Basement while a live DJ creates a sinister Halloween atmosphere. But immediately upon entering and walking down the steps of the building, it is clear this place would be frightening even if there was not a haunted attraction inside. The decrepit brick walls, old pipes, eerie creaks, along with its cinematic makeup, costumes, and sets make Basement of the Dead a truly terrifying experience. Come down to discover the true stories of the deadly boiler room explosion, mysterious mass murders, occult sacrifices, and demonic hauntings that makes the Basement legendary. The Basement of the Dead also features Shattered 3D, another world class haunted attraction. This circus themed house will keep you screaming with devilish delight. Shattered 3D 2016 features a unique twist, but what would be the fun in telling? Shattered and his clowns dare you to see for yourself!