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.. 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. 

The Haunted House industry has been made BEING SCARED a MULTI BILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY from escape games, haunted houses, corn mazes, hayrides, zombie runs, 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 2015 is here it’s time to find the best, the scariest, and the biggest over the top haunted houses and Halloween attractions in America.  Prepare yourself for the biggest screaming season in Haunted history.

Haunted House owners and operators have created attractions that are so detailed they remove you from the realm of reality and plunge you into a haunted World you never knew you could experience. So finally, we present you some of the best traditional haunted houses, real haunted houses, haunted hayrides, corn mazes and more. If it’s an attraction opening during the Halloween season, you’ll find it here on www.hauntworld.com. Now sit back for the best 15 haunted houses in America for 2015.

Hauntworld.com was the first website and publication to produce a Top 10, Top 13 or Top 31 haunted house list to help America find attractions. Now many websites and publications produce such lists, but there is only ONE website that helps you find every haunted attraction in the nation... www.hauntworld.com. We invite you to find a haunted house near you and subscribe to our printed Haunted House Magazine www.HauntedHouseMagazine.com, plus join our Facebook Page or join our Haunted House Forums at forum.hauntworld.com/.  Have the scariest Halloween ever with the help from your friends at www.hauntworld.com
 

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1. Haunted Overload - Lee, New Hampshire - www.hauntedoverload.com: Haunted Overload is an original out door haunt in a class of its own. It blends astounding handmade sets, gigantic monsters and spellbinding costumes with spectacular sound and lighting to create the Ultimate Halloween Experience. The vibrant, organic design, set in an eerie dark New England forest, creates an assault of the senses for its patrons.  Every year brings new terrors to life, as the  crew work tirelessly to add to an already amazing attraction. Haunted Overload was also crowned America’s scariest haunt by ABC’s Great Halloween Fright Fight. The $50,000 first prize was donated in full to the Cocheco Valley Humane Society, a local animal rescue to whom the attraction annually donates a percentage of its profits. Haunted Overload is America’s best haunted house because it embodies everything Halloween with its massive oversized props, unique creativity and simply put Haunted Overload just screams HALLOWEEN.
 

2. Headless Horseman’s Hayrides and Haunted Houses - Ulster Park, New York - www.headlesshorseman.com: Headless Horseman Hayrides and Haunted Houses is a unique, immersive experience with a theme that changes each Halloween season. Ten attractions featuring: a theatrical one-mile hayride, corn maze, 7 haunted attractions which include: The Lunar Motel, Glutton's Diner & Slaughter House, Slither's Pet Shop, Dark Harvest Corn Maze, Night Shade Nursery & Greenhouse, Dr. Dark's Black Spider Sideshow, The Feeding, Dahlia Blood's Manor, with skilled stunt actors and a magic-illusion side show starring Ryan Dutcher. New for 2015 the creators of Headless Horseman Hayrides and Haunted Houses are proud to present a new concept of interactive, immersive entertainment. A real life escape experience "The Great Room Escape". Headless Horseman continually evolves with unusual monsters, amazing illusions, stunning special fx, unique and original costumes, makeup, animations and frightening detail created by our sister company American Made Monster Studios. Only the courageous will survive the intense encounters with the infamous Headless Horseman.
 

3. The 13th Gate - Baton Rouge Louisiana - www.13thgate.com: The 13th Gate is all about Extreme Ultra-Realism. The artists behind the massive dark attraction are experts at blurring the lines between horror and reality, and guests frequently wonder between screams whether what they are experiencing is real or not. The Attraction’s level of detail, set design, and effects combined with their impressive actors and incredible makeup effects can only be compared to a Hollywood movie. The attraction features a real snake-infested Louisiana Swamp, nightly voodoo shows, claustrophobic cellars, hidden subterranean passages and even a prehistoric ice cave all seamlessly woven together and nothing short of masterful. The haunted house is constantly changing and growing from year to year so guests never know what to expect around the next terrifying corner. If that wasn’t enough, adjacent to the 13th Gate is their secondary attraction, Necropolis Haunted Cemetery. This 40,000 sq. ft. outdoor New Orleans style cemetery has over 400 zombie-infested crypts and mausoleums that guests must explore. Upon entering the attraction, visitors are sent 13 steps down an open grave into dark underground catacombs where they must find an alternate escape up and out into the graveyard where the terror continues! 13th Gate Haunted House is one of the Scariest, most elaborate haunted houses in the country.
 

4. The Dent Schoolhouse - Cincinnati, Ohio - www.frightsite.com: The Dent Schoolhouse is one of the most tightly themed haunted attractions in the US and takes place in an actual haunted schoolhouse. Re-live the legend of a murderous Janitor who is said to still haunt the halls of the old schoolhouse. Jammed with Hollywood styles sets, animatronics, and award winning makeup, The Dent Schoolhouse has made it an easy choice one of the top haunts on Haunworld.com's list. It's like hopping into a real horror movie that you get to take part in. Amazing set design brings your childhood memories of going back to school to a whole new level of fear and beyond. Who would want to conjure up the fear of an old teacher, principle or gym teacher trying to take your soul to the underworld? Visit the Dent Schoolhouse and find out!  What makes the Dent Schoolhouse so scary is the real old abandoned schoolhouse it doesn’t get any more real or scary.
 

5. Netherworld - Atlanta, Georgia - www.fearworld.com: NETHERWORLD Haunted House is a self-guided, dark attraction known for its over-the-top special effects, intense make-up, elaborate costuming, skilled stunt actors, unique monsters, unusual themes and chilling detail!  To put it simply NETHERWORLD is the total package - an extremely high quality immersive event that merges SCARY, FUN and COOL into a safe environment.  More importantly NETHERWORLD is ever changing - coming up with new effects, scares, characters and story lines every Halloween season, while still retaining the Halloween feel that brings back guests year after year!
 
In 2015 Netherowrld  presents two new terrifying haunts sure to melt your mind, THE ROTTING in which dark spirits released from the NETHERWORLD create a supernatural plague and VAULT 13 Unearthed,  a secret base buried deep within the earth unsealed by an unknown force! New effects and features include a massive over the top elevator simulator, an attacking giant robot, A huge variety of new illusions and ghost effects, massive new giant monsters seen nowhere else, an alien lab with an animatronic elder thing, new stunts, new sets, armies of new costumes and creatures, an 18 foot tall multi-path arena, a completely re designed cue line and a series of massive new outdoor facades for starters!
 

6. 13th Floor - San Antonio, Texas - www.13thfloorsanantonio.com: This haunts creative and quality really sets us apart. 13th Floor features dynamic and interactive scares as well as continual improvements to the show including cutting edge tech and  interacting animatronics. This Halloween season, your nightmares will become a reality, when the creators of the 13th Floor Haunted House return with one of the smartest, safest and most dynamic, theatrical, high-tech and bone-chilling attractions in San Antonio. Favorite icons from years past will roam the halls of the haunted house, accompanied with new terrifying faces from first-time attractions Burial Ground and Into the Void.
 
13th Floor feartures all new haunts in 2015 including ‘Burial Ground’ where a hotel manager whose basement has been tunneled out to make room for the remains of the outcast experiments and victims of those who reside in the upstairs mansion as part of the “secret society.” If you’re lucky enough to make it through the Burial Ground and find the secret passage, you’ll make it Into the Void. There, you’ll come face-to-face with the newest 13th floor icon, Prophet, in all his bald, slimy, and bloody glory.
 

7. Bennett's Curse - Baltimore, Maryland - www.bennettscurse.com: The legendary Bennett's Curse Haunted Attraction, now in their new location for 2015 in the shadows of M&T Bank Stadium Baltimore, MD is an assault to the senses. Over 40,000 scare feet awaits thrill seekers looking for the very best in Haunting entertainment! Known for its incredible array of giant monsters, skillfully themed shows, and an over the top team of movie quality costumed monsters, Bennett's Curse has reached a level only a handful of haunts can claim. This year, experience even more fear, with the addition of the all-new show "Legends of Halloween"! Four amazing shows at one location under one roof, come experience the best Haunted attraction in the Mid-Atlantic and one of the best in the world!  Bennetts’s Curse is one of the best haunted houses in America because of the unique monsters, giant animations, and over the top monsters who roam, lurking and seeking souls!
 

8. Erebus - Pontiac, Michigan - www.hauntedpontiac.com: Erebus is located in the heart of the haunted attraction capital of the world. This means competition is fierce, which forces Erebus to be unique and different. With staff working year-round Erebus Haunted Attraction's engineers create innovative designs showcasing state-of-the-art special effects. 95% of the props are designed and fabricated in-house... you won't see anything like this anywhere else! Erebus invades your comfort zone with creatures that will bite you, grab you, and land on top of you and even bury you alive! How long can you hold your breath?! New this year, the Dungeon of Dread filled with unnerving, tormented souls that are sure to make your blood run cold. And the Undead Dolls Quarter, where toys that once filled the dreams of children are now a living nightmare for adults! Edward and James Terebus have spent three and a half decades plotting terror that assaults all five of your mortal senses. Opened in 2000, they have fortified Erebus as their empire in Downtown Pontiac. Named after the Greek god of primordial darkness, Erebus is a four-story, half mile journey to the center of your worst fears. Fun fact: .since the Grand Opening, 7,092 people have chickened out (not made it all the way through) and 912 is the running total for wetters, pukers, and fainters according to the official Wimp-Out Scoreboard! Are you next?
 

9. The Bates Motel - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - www.thebatesmotel.com: The Bates Motel celebrates 25 Years of Fear! This high action, haunted attraction theme park includes their famous, 25 minute, heart pounding, haunted hayride through the dark forests of Arasapha Farm, filled with high tech animatronics, 26 huge, Hollywood quality sets, 75 actors, and more pyrotechnics than a rock concert. The Cornfield haunted trail, takes you back in time as you walk through the tall corn, and enter ghost towns, graveyards, the slaughter house, and other full scale sets. With over 25 actors in full custom makeup and costumes, and long, dark corridors, this event is sure to send shivers up your spine. The cornerstone of this trilogy of terror is the Bates Motel. A huge Victorian mansion filled with computer controlled animatronics, digital sound and lighting, amazingly detailed rooms and top quality actors make this event one you will always remember. All three events boast custom digital soundtracks, computer controlled animatronics, DMX lighting and fog, and a host of professional actors. Consistently ranked as one of the best attractions in the country, The Bates Motel is one show you won't want to miss! Located only minutes from Philadelphia, Wilmington and the Main Line, it won't cost you an arm and leg to get there.
 

10. The Darkness - St. Louis, Missouri - www.scarefest.com:  The Darkness is considered by some to be the very best haunted house in America because it features a combination of amazing special fx, animations, and incredible Hollywood set design.  The Darkness features over the top one of a kind scream fx that impact an entire groups at the same time such as massive falling walls, moving floors, giant saws and more.  The Darkness also features several stunt actors who fly across the top of the customers or leap down at them then disappear.  The Darkness also features the World famous Terror Visions in 3D where crazed clowns lurk around every corner.  The Darkness also has a massive outdoor scream zone, animated singing bands, large movie screens showing horror movies, and a monster museum filled with Hollywood memorabilia.   The Darkness is also host to the entire haunted house industry each year for the annual Haunted House tradeshow, and serves as an inspiration to haunters across the World.  More haunted house owners have toured The Darkness than any other haunted attraction in America.  If you dare enter The Darkness prey you see daylight before your soul is consumed by the death which dwells inside its walls.
 

11. Cutting Edge Haunted House - Fort Worth, Texas - www.cuttingedgehauntedhouse.com: What if there was a show that was exciting, terrifying, electrifying, entertaining and chilling? A show that built your anticipation of excitement actually from the moment you began to approach it. The location seems like any other old building, its massive structure is dark and decrepit. But unlike most old buildings, this one has a profusion of search lights mounted on its roof as well as a colossal 50' Gargoyle holding vigil for almost two months out of the year. The expectation of The Cutting Edge Haunted House, "3X Guinness World Record Winner," starts your heart racing from miles away. You can feel the excitement building just pulling into the parking lot. Built in an old abandoned Meat Packing Plant in the lower east side of an area known as the "Hells Half Acre" district. The structure was built more than 100 years ago during Fort Worth’s booming cattle era and still houses the original meat hooks and conveyor system used during the meat packing process. The image of the bldg alone is enough to make you shiver. As you arrive, the atmosphere is thick with music, entertainment and the anticipation of the dark and forboding journey waiting just beyond the Giant Skull Entrance. Bring your courage and someone to hold on to because you are about to brave an "experience you can only hope to forget". This adventure takes almost an hour to complete and has been referred to as “the longest adrenaline rush money can buy”.

12. Kersey Valley Spookywoods - Greensboro, North Carolina - www.spookywoods.com: Kersey Valley Spookywoods celebrates 30 years in the business of fear in 2015. What started out as a small haunt has exploded into 60 acres of year round entertainment?  Day time attractions include the massive corn maze with educational field trips for schools, jumping pillows, bungee trampolines, cow trains, tram rides, tree house village, dinosaur discovery pit and pumpkin patch. Spookywoods is more than just a haunted house with everything from ziplines to an all new 3 level high ropes challenge course.  New for 2015 are the Escape rooms and a new 3 story Haunted Manor. The haunted manor sends guests into a  50,000 square foot haunted maze featuring monsters, ghouls and zombies.  Over 150 original costumed characters reside in movie quality sets throughout Spookywoods just waiting to make you scream.  Kersey Valley Spookywoods is one of America’s best Screamparks because they offer everything from WORLD class SCREAMS to everything a family would want from a fall themed attraction.
 

13. House of Torment - Chicago, Illinois - www.thehouseoftormentchicago.com: The nationally recognized House of Torment comes to Chicago! House of Torment introduces a new brand of fear in Chicago this Halloween Season! One of the biggest, baddest haunted house experiences in the country is finally in Chicago to chill, thrill, and horrify you. This Hollywood­ quality haunt features terrifying monsters and tormented souls from the underworld that are ready to horrify Chicago this Halloween.The legendary House of Torment, a multi­layered psychological thriller, is more like a trip through a modern horror movie than just a haunted house ­ with detailed sets, iconic characters and chilling environments. As you make your way through this epic haunted house, don’t be surprised if the sets and characters begin to seem more real than your most vivid nightmares. This Halloween SCREAMS blow through the Windy City who will survive?
 

14. Hex House - Tulsa, Oklahoma - www.tulsahexhouse.com: When you think of Oklahoma, you probably don’t instantly think of haunted attractions, but Tulsa, Oklahoma happens to be the home of one of the nation’s most intense hidden gems:  The Hex House.  The Hex House is based on a true story involving of one of Tulsa’s most notorious residents:  Carol Ann Smith.  It’s a true tale of mystery, murder, and the occult from Tulsa’s dark past and a real sense of terror permeates every inch of every eerily lit corridor and ghastly room in Oklahoma’s premier haunted attraction.  The Hex House is truly an original, featuring unique set designs and one-of-a-kind scares manufactured in-house.  The scares come in all forms and from all angles, providing a truly unnerving and frightening experience.  A trip through Carol Ann Smith’s “Hex House” is a horrifying descent into one of the darkest recesses of the human mind… and also one of the best haunted house experiences you can dare to take this Halloween season.  If you like your haunts gritty, intense, unique, and loaded with fright, then the Hex House is certainly one you’ll want to add to your bucket list.  It will undoubtedly leave you… hexed.
 

15. Fear Experience - Cleveland, Ohio - www.thefearexperience.com: Cleveland has suffered thru the horrors of failure by its sports teams and now they are haunted by the Fear Experience one of America’s best and certainly Cleveland, Ohio’s biggest, best and scariest haunted house.  The Fear Experience has grown way beyond just a haunt adding zombie laser tag, where the guests are allowed to hunt and kill zombies.  The Fear Experience also features amazing set design, animations, and highly skilled professional actors who present an amazing interactive experience like nothing Cleveland has ever seen before. Every season Fear Experience expands their haunted house adding new attractions such as this year adding BioTeck Solutions a trip thru a genetic research lab filled with monsters.

Fear Experience also features other interactive haunts including Centralia County Fair an abandoned carnival, District 13, and The Estate a haunted mansion.  Cleveland has something new to make them scream!  
 

Did a haunted house in your city make our list?  PLEASE SHARE THIS PAGE! 

16. Field of Screams - Lancaster, Pennsylvania : www.fieldofscreams.com
17. Dark Hour - Plano, Texas : www.darkhourhauntedhouse.com
18. Terror Behind the Walls - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania : www.easternstate.org/halloween
19. 13th Floor - Chicago, Illinois : www.13thfloorchicago.com
20. Scream Hollow - Smithville, Texas : www.screamhollow.com
21. The Shallow Grave - Winter Haven, Florida : www.theshallowgrave.com
22. Blood Manor - New York, New York : www.bloodmanor.com
23. Haunted Field of Screams - Thornton, Colorado : www.hauntedfieldofscreams.com
24. Basement of the Dead - Aurora, Illinois : www.42fear.com
25. Nightmare Manor - Ijamsville, Maryland : www.nightmare-manor.com
26. The Asylum - Denver, Colorado : www.asylumdenver.com
27. Legends of the Fog - Aberdeen, Maryland : www.legendsofthefog.com
28. Burial Chamber - Neenah, Wisconsin : www.burialchamber.com
29. Spooky Ranch - Columbia Station, Ohio : www.spookyranch.com
30. Horrorfest - Yardley, Pennsylvania : www.shadybrookfarm.com/horrorfest-test/
31. Pure Terror - Monroe, New York : www.pureterror.com
 

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 where 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. 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.


2. 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.


3. 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.


4. 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!


5. 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!


6. 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.


7. 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!


8. 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!


9. Haunted Casola Farms - Marlboro, New Jersey - www.hauntedcasola.com: This impressive massive screampark includes several haunted houses including a haunted trail, 3D haunted house and a huge haunted hayride called Haunted Hayride of Terror.


10. Reaper's Revenge Hayride - Scranton, Pennsylvania - www.reapersrevenge.net: Located in Scranton, PA this haunted screampark features a very impressive hayride with pyro fx, and several haunted houses.  This event is not to be missed.


11. Night Terrors Haunted Farm - Schoharie, New York - www.nightterrorshauntedfarm.com: Located in Schoharie, New York Night Terrors features several haunted houses including a zombie hunt with air soft guns but their main attraction is Harvest Hayride.  
 

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. 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!


2. 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.


3. 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!


4. 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!


5. 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!


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. Night Terrors at Wiard's Orchards – Detroit, Michigan - www.hauntedhousemichigan.com: Night Terrors is a MASSIVE haunted screampark with six haunted houses in one location including The Asylum, Night Terrors Haunted Trail, Haunted Barn, Hayride of the Lost, Splattertown, the Lost Minded Shaft but also they have food, music, shows and much more.


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!
 

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 2015 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. Fear Experience - Cleveland, Ohio - www.thefearexperience.com: The Fear Experience located in Cleveland Ohio, is one of the nation’s best haunted houses but they operate their attraction year around with zombie laser tag, seasonal promotions centered around scream break, Valentines day and much more.  Their big events are zombie laser tag which draws crowds in the thousands.


2. 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.


3. 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.


4. 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.


5. 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. 


6. 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.


7. 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.   


8. 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.


9. 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.


10. 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.


11. 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!


12. 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. 


13. 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.
 

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. 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. 


2. 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!  


3. 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.  


4. 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.


5. 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.


6. 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.


7. 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.


8. 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.


9. 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.


10. 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!
 

There are some haunted houses in America and beyond that go beyond trying to simply scare you and here is a list of some of those haunts who might leave you dead from fear!  The haunts on this list have actors who may or may not be sane.  There is only one way to find out attend these haunts and learn their extreme scream secrets.

1. House of Torment - Chicago, Illinois - www.houseoftormentchicago.com:  House of Torment in Chicago is an extreme scream as they love to torture their guests and make them scream showing no mercy.


2. The Asylum - Weston, West Virginia - www.theasylumwv.com: The asylum is waiting for you with patients who just might be really mentally insane.


3. Trail of Fear Screamparks - Oklahoma - www.trailoffear.com: The actors throughout several different attractions make their guests pay the price for attending this attraction.


4. Hex House - Tulsa, Oklahoma - www.tulsahexhouse.com: The HEX House is SUPER EXTREME realistic with actors crawling on walls, zombies who might take a chunk out of your leg to scenes that leave you breathless.


5. Haunt Manor - Buffalo, New York - www.hauntmanor.com: There is something near Buffalo more extreme than the weather the Haunt Manor.


6. Erebus - Pontiac, Michigan - www.hauntedpontiac.com: Erebus is known as the most extreme haunted house in the country with so many different animations and fx that grab you, bite you and swallow you alive.


7. City of the Dead - Denver, Colorado - www.cityofthedeadhaunt.com:  The Dead RISE and then take you underground to rot with the worms.


8. The Ghoullog Mercer • Home for the Criminally Insane - North Conway, New Hampshire - www.cranmore.com/ghoullog: This is an attraction that simply must  be experienced to be believed.  You will feel trapped in a padded cell with real lunatics.


9. The Haunted Hotel - Houston, Texas - www.thehauntedhoteltx.com: This is a no frills haunted house simply put crazy actors who go to the extreme to make you scream.


10. Pennhurst Asylum - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - www.pennhurstasylum.com: This is a real life asylum where they claim the spirits and lost souls still roam the building.  There is more to making you scream than meets the eye.
 

The best most famous, longest running haunted houses in America who have made a name for themselves for being cutting edge attractions.  These attractions have gained national and World wide attention as the greatest haunted attractions of all time.  Some of these haunts sadly no longer exist but they still cause nightmares to this day.

1. Netherworld - Atlanta, Georgia - www.fearworld.com:  Netherworld has one of the biggest followings in the World, and clearly is the most famous haunted house in America.


2. The Darkness - St. Louis, Missouri - www.scarefest.com: Each year The Darkness opens for the haunt industry, and each year the haunt industry rate is the best haunt in the industry.


3. The 13th Gate - Baton Rouge Louisiana - www.13thgate.com: This is probably the most realistic haunted attraction in the entire WORLD, some famous movies have leased this space and filmed entire movies.


4. Headless Horseman’s Hayrides and Haunted Houses - Ulster Park, New York - www.headlesshorseman.com: By far the most famous haunted hayride of all time and much more.


5. The World Famous Verdun Manor at Thrillvania Haunted House Park - Dallas, Texas - www.thrillvania.com: One of the original screamparks with a multi level building complete with pyro and werewolves around every turn.


6. Rocky Point Haunted House - Salt Lake City, Utah - www.rockypointhauntedhouse.com: Without ANY doubt one of the best haunted houses ever.  This haunted house closed several years ago but rumors swirl it may return.  A website has been left up as a memorial.


7. Universal Studios Florida - Orlando, Florida:  Clearly this is this industries biggest and baddest events with incredible shows, haunted houses, rides and much more.  They have set the standard for a SCREAMPARK.


8. Knott's Scary Farm - Los Angeles, California: The originator of the SCREAMPARK they made Halloween popular across America and continue to this day to make people scream.


9. Spookyworld - Boston, Massachusetts: This haunt no longer is open but they set the standard for the private haunted house business.  They had celebs, hayrides, haunted houses and inspired the entire haunted house industry for years to come.


10. Tampa Busch Gardens - Tampa, Florida: Hidden in the shadow of Universal Studios, Tampa Busch Gardens spends millions of dollars to complete with Universal and it shows with some of the best haunted house shows, haunts and more.