10 of America's Creepiest Attractions

Check out this scary list of ten of the creepiest attractions in America. You can find the original link by Larry Olmsted HERE.

1. The Grove - Sanger, California

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With a wooded forest ambiance straight out of “The Blair Witch Project,” The Grove’s three attractions include a walk-through haunted forest, a haunted hayride and the main act, the maze-like Bad Manor haunted house with enough twists and turns to disorient even those with the best sense of direction. They warn visitors not to take a wrong turn down a cold, dark hallway, but that is hard advice to follow. 

2. Terror on Washington Street Haunted House - Clinton, Illinois

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A deserted 53-year-old building on Washington Street is set up in the form of a haunted house maze, with 18 rooms on multiple levels — including the creepy basement. This is a great example of an old-fashioned haunted house low on technology but big on interior detail, darkness and live actors. 

3. Erebus - Pontiac, Michigan

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For years the world’s largest such attraction, the four-story haunted house tells the story of Dr. J. Colbert, who built the world’s first functional time machine here in 1965, but with a fatal flaw in his design. Each time a test subject traveled, the time period reacted to the subject as a virus and attacked. Still trying to fix his machine after running out of volunteers, he had a nefarious idea and disguised the time machine as this haunted attraction, allowing for an endless supply of paying subjects to experiment on. 

4. Fear Fair - Seymour, Indiana

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FearFair comprises several different highly themed attractions, including Hangar 17, where guests are dropped into an interactive mutagenic gas outbreak; Cinema of Fear, where you come face to face with some of the scariest movie monsters ever, with Hollywood-style quality; and Myctophobia (Fear of Darkness) which ramps up the terror, sending guests — 18 and older only — through alone, single file, to be touched by actors and scared silly. 

5. Ghostly Manor - Sandusky, Ohio

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One of the few such attractions open year-round, award winning Ghostly Manor, featured on television shows as a top haunt, has just been renovated to make it even better. The large haunted house full of demonic children, living dolls, the possessed and all sorts of other creatures anchors the 6-acre “Lake Eerie Fearfest” along with four other seasonal haunts — Darkmare, Caged, Quarantine and Eerie Chateau — for five haunted houses in one spot. 

6. Howl-O-Scream - Florida, Virginia, Texas

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Some of the nation’s most elaborate such offerings, SeaWorld theme parks have three completely different versions of Howl-O-Scream, all state of the art, at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Va., and Tampa, Fl, as well as at SeaWorld San Antonio. After dark, each fun theme park is transformed into a world of horror. 

7.  Frightland - Middletown, Delaware

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Rated one of America’s scariest attractions by The Travel Channel, The Frightland complex is like a whole theme park of scares with eight terrifying indoor and outdoor haunted attractions: haunted attic, zombie prison, horror hayride, outdoor walk-through haunted cemetery, house of fear, Old West zombie ghost town, haunted barn and haunted manor house.

8. Terror behind the Wall - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

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America’s largest haunted house is inside the massive castle-like walls of Eastern State Penitentiary, a real-life former prison believed to be one of the most haunted spots in the country and frequently featured on paranormal TV shows (“Ghost Hunters” did five episodes here). In its 22nd year, this extraordinary theatrical production is consistently ranked among the best — and scariest — haunted attractions in the country.
9. House of Shock - New Orleans - Louisiana 

photo courtesy of Forbes

With its long voodoo, ghost and vampire history, New Orleans is the perfect creepy setting for a haunted attraction. And The House of Shock, in its 21st year, delivers big time. Known as one of the scariest and most intense such haunted houses in the country, House of Shock has a heavy satanic theme and comprises more than a dozen sets, from a butcher shop to a twisted French Quarter to an outdoor swamp. Besides the house itself, there is an attached free outdoor festival with food, live entertainment on stage, pyrotechnics and, since this is New Orleans, a full bar.

10.  The Scarehouse - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 

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An ax-wielding maniac in a blood-splattered bunny suit is one of the disquieting reasons the Travel Channel named this “one of America’s scariest Halloween attractions.” Located in a 100-year-old former Elks Lodge that is actually thought by many to already be haunted, ScareHouse features three differently themed haunts for one price: The Forsaken, Creepo’s Christmas in 3-D, and Pittsburgh Zombies. These are not recommended for those under 13, one of the higher age ratings in the business.  A fourth separate new attraction, the immersive Basement, is only for 18 and up. While most haunted houses have a “no touching” rule for actors, the Basement, which allows guests in two at a time, does not, and it is perhaps the scariest such offering in the nation.