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The fastest growing industry in America is the Halloween industry. We’ve seen it grow over the last ten years from a 1-billion dollar industry to a near 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.
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. Simply the best, scariest, ultimate haunted houses in America 2014 feature attractions from across the United states. Prepare to scream!
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: “25 Years of Fear” Since 1990, Cutting Edge Haunted House has been a first class Haunted House that has been living up to its name for twenty-five harrowing Halloween Seasons. Starting out in Austin, Texas on 6th Street, Cutting Edge Haunted House now calls Fort Worth its home. Located in an abandoned meat packing plant, built over one-hundred years ago in a section of Fort Worth historically dubbed as "Hell's Half Acre," Cutting Edge Haunted House is built upon a foundation of fear. Cutting Edge is filled with over one-hundred live actors, amazing special effects and animatronics, incredible monsters, a human maze as well as a stomp-esque style drum performance and an award winning soundtrack. Celebrating its 25th season this year, this intense, multi-story, multi-themed haunted attraction is widely considered to be one of the best Haunted Houses in the nation. The walk-through is replete with frighteningly-realistic props and dark foreboding scares that takes visitors an average of 55 minutes to explore, garnering a Guinness World Record for “World’s Largest Haunted House”… Twice. Come see what new horrors lurk in the twisting corridors of Texas’ 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.
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