America’s 20 Best Haunted Attractions

#20: Frightmare Farms

Fulton, New York

A haunted scream park on 48 acres in Oswego County, in Central New York. It has been running since the early 2010s and changes its themes every season.

Four attractions on one ticket: a haunted house, a labyrinth, a terror trail and the Forbidden Forest haunted hayride. Groups of six or more can book a VIP night with a private host and their own campfire.

Open select weekend nights in October. Visit the official website

#19: Massacre Haunted House

Montgomery, Illinois

An all-indoor haunt on the Aurora and Naperville border, about 45 minutes west of Chicago. It has been scaring people for more than 18 years and packs more than 75 rooms into 35,000 square feet, with over 100 actors a night.

The rooms look like movie sets, with moving train cars, elevators and shifting floors. The Underground is an elevator ride down to an industrial basement, and this year adds The Asylum, a new psych ward section. Everything is indoors, including the line, so rain doesn’t matter.

Open through Nov. 1. Visit the official website

#18: Spooky World Presents Nightmare New England

Litchfield, New Hampshire

Spooky World started in 1991 in Berlin, Massachusetts, and moved around New England, including a run at Gillette Stadium, before merging with Nightmare New England in 2009. It now fills more than 80 acres at Mel’s Funway Park and is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year.

Five haunts in 2026, including Petrified, a walk through total darkness, a one-mile haunted hayride through the woods, Asylum 47 and The Colony, an outdoor trail along the Merrimack River. The Monster Midway has food, a beer garden, axe throwing and zombie paintball.

Open select nights through Nov. 1. Visit the official website

#17: Nightmare on 13th

Salt Lake City, Utah

It started in 1984 as the Institute of Terror and became Nightmare on 13th in 2001. It fills a 36,000-square-foot castle-style building that used to be a car dealership, and more than 1.6 million people have walked through it.

The main haunt has more than 45 rooms, and this year includes Horror Cinema, set in a 1920s movie theater. The original Institute of Terror runs under the same roof, along with 13th Manor, a seated scare show, and Buried Alive, a 4-D coffin experience.

Open now through the Halloween season. Visit the official website

#16: Factory of Terror

Canton, Ohio

The Eslich family has run it since 2002 inside a 75,000-square-foot former aluminum factory. It once held the Guinness World Record for the longest walk-through horror house.

A long, factory-sized walk through four indoor houses, including Forsaken Asylum and Massacre on Mahoning, plus a mirror maze. There are also five themed bars inside the attraction, from a circus bar to a pirate bar.

Open through Nov. 13. Visit the official website

#15: Brighton Asylum

Passaic, New Jersey

An old warehouse complex on the Clifton border. The haunt’s story says it once held violent patients until it closed in 1952, and it opened as a haunted attraction in 2011. It has been on The Today Show and Cake Boss.

Three haunts: Brighton Asylum, Subculture, set in an underground tunnel, and The Bleeding Grounds. Groups go in no more than 10 at a time. After closing, The Twitching Hour is a two to three hour paranormal investigation of the building.

Open weekends through the Halloween season. Visit the official website

#14: Reaper’s Revenge

Scranton, Pennsylvania

A scream park on more than 60 wooded acres in Scott Township, just outside Scranton. It shows up again and again on lists of the best haunted hayrides in the country.

Six attractions on one ticket, including the haunted hayride, the Lost Carnival, Pitch Black, a walk through a dark and abandoned light bulb factory, and the new Last Rites Funeral Parlor. Plan on more than 90 minutes. This year added a low-scare daytime hayride on October weekends.

Open through Nov. 1. Visit the official website

#13: Bates Motel & Haunted Hayride

Glen Mills, Pennsylvania

Randy and Anne Bates started it in 1991 as a small hayride on their farm outside Philadelphia, then opened the Bates Motel haunted house in a barn in 1996. Randy, who also helped found America Haunts, died in August, and this is the first season without him.

The 25-minute hayride runs 14 wagons with synced sound, a flying Dracula and fire effects. The Bates Motel itself is a high-startle haunted house, and the third attraction is the Revenge of the Scarecrows trail. Combo tickets cover all three.

Open through Nov. 1. Visit the official website

#12: The Darkness

St. Louis, Missouri

Opened in 1994 in the Soulard neighborhood and now in its 33rd year. Owner Larry Kirchner also runs Hauntworld and helped bring the national Halloween trade show to St. Louis.

Eight attractions over two floors, including The Underworld, The Haunted Mansion and The Slaughterhouse, with new Frankenstein scenes this year. There is also a horror museum with more than 20 life-size horror icons and a secret bar for VIP guests.

Open through Nov. 13. Visit the official website

#11: HellsGate Haunted House

Lockport, Illinois

A woodland haunt southwest of Chicago, celebrating its 10th year. A shuttle takes you into the woods, then you walk trails past the Lost Souls Cemetery and a mausoleum to a multi-level mansion, with more than 150 actors along the way.

The mansion has secret passages and a giant slide. Find the hidden key and you win a free ticket. New this year are a 19-foot Clown Carousel and characters from the old Statesville Prison.

Open through Nov. 1. Visit the official website

#10: Sir Henry’s Haunted Trail

Plant City, Florida

It started in 2014 as a single walking trail with eight scenes and $10 tickets. It has since grown into an outdoor horror park off I-4, about an hour from Orlando and 30 minutes from Tampa.

Three themed trails that change every season. The Headless Trail uses a real horse and a Headless Horseman. There is also a haunted hayride, escape games and axe throwing. Tickets are online only this year.

Open select nights through Nov. 1. Visit the official website

#9: The 13th Gate

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Opened in 2002 in downtown Baton Rouge by Midnight Productions, which has been running haunts since 1994. It covers about 40,000 square feet, indoors and out.

You pass through 13 realms built with real set construction, not foam and plywood. Highlights include a life-size pirate ship, hidden passages with live snakes, a rickety bridge over hundreds more snakes and an outdoor graveyard full of zombies.

Open through Nov. 7. Visit the official website

#8: Netherworld Haunted House

Stone Mountain, Georgia

Created in 1997 by film and TV veterans Billy Messina and Ben Armstrong, and celebrating its 30th season this year. Hauntworld named it the best haunted house in America in 2017, and parts of Zombieland were filmed at Netherworld.

Two big original haunts every year, with no movie tie-ins. This year it is Curse of the Collector and Beyond Oblivion: Legacy of Evil. The midway has jack-o’-lantern displays, roaming monsters and a monster museum called House of Creeps.

Open through Nov. 7. Visit the official website

#7: Fear Factory

Salt Lake City, Utah

Built in a cement plant from the late 1800s beside I-15. Bob Dunfield and his family opened it around 2011, and Dunfield says it was the first haunted house in the country to reopen after the 2020 shutdowns.

Six buildings, up to six stories tall, with two underground passages. About 70 percent of it is rebuilt every year. Extras include the Dark Spirits bar and a Zombie Bus.

Open through Nov. 1. Visit the official website

#6: Haunted Overload

Lee, New Hampshire

An outdoor haunt on DeMeritt Hill Farm, open since 2008. Founder Eric Lowther designs and builds most of the props himself, and it won ABC’s Great Halloween Fright Fight in 2014.

Giant handmade monsters, some more than 30 feet tall, and hundreds of lit pumpkins in the woods. You can pick your level: a daytime walk with no actors, a lighter night with the scares turned off, or the full show.

Open for the 2026 season. Check the site for dates. Visit the official website

#5: Erebus

Pontiac, Michigan

Brothers Ed and Jim Terebus opened it in 2000 in a four-story building in downtown Pontiac. From 2005 to 2009 it held the Guinness World Record for the longest walk-through haunted attraction.

Four floors and more than half a mile of indoor walking. The story is a mad scientist’s time machine dressed up as a haunted house. There is also an escape room center and year-round ghost tours.

Open through Nov. 7. Visit the official website

#4: The Dent Schoolhouse

Cincinnati, Ohio

Set in a real old schoolhouse and now in its 30th season. The haunt’s legend says the school opened in 1894 and that a janitor murdered students there.

Zones include the classrooms, Charlie’s Basement, the Catacombs and Dr. Dent’s Laboratory, and reviewers rate its masks and makeup among the best anywhere. The line has a wall of more than 220 carved jack-o’-lanterns, and the season runs into December with A Christmas Nightmare.

Open into November, with holiday events in December. Visit the official website

#3: Bennett’s Curse

Dundalk, Maryland

Jill and Allan Bennett opened it in 2001 at Arundel Mills Mall and have been at Eastpoint Mall since 2017. USA Today readers voted it the No. 2 haunt in the country this year.

This is its 10th and final season at Eastpoint. The mall has closed, but the haunt is open in the same spot while the owners look for a new home in Maryland.

Four haunts in one 30 to 45 minute walk: Halloween 3D, The Crypts, House of the Demons and Ravenbrook Asylum. It is all indoors, so it runs rain or shine, with custom characters and movie-style sets.

Open through Nov. 7. Visit the official website

#2: Headless Horseman Hayrides & Haunted Attractions

Ulster Park, New York

Michael and Nancy Jubie opened it in 1992 on a 65-acre farm in the Hudson Valley. Michael was an undercover NYPD officer, and his disguise business is what led to the hayride. More than a million people have come through since.

A themed hayride that changes every year, with this year’s called The Cursed Earth of Crow Hollow, plus more than a dozen haunted attractions. Expect pyrotechnics, zip-line scares and a mechanical Horseman on horseback, all built by their own monster shop. There is also a tavern with beer and wine.

Open through Oct. 31. Visit the official website

#1: Cutting Edge Haunted House

Fort Worth, Texas

Cutting Edge opened in Austin in 1991 and moved to Fort Worth in 1998, into a roughly 100-year-old meatpacking plant in the old Hell’s Half Acre district. It has held the Guinness World Record for the longest walk-through haunted house.

It showed up on six of the seven lists we counted, more than any other haunt, and USA Today readers have voted it No. 1 two years in a row.

The plant’s original meatpacking equipment is part of the show, with fake bodies riding meat hooks through a human-processing area across two floors. The full walk takes close to an hour, with live actors, industrial machines and dark passageways.

Open select nights through Nov. 13. Visit the official website