The Must-See Haunted Attractions In 2023
We’re here again: Halloween season has arrived, and with it, haunts around the nation are bringing the spooky sights for us to enjoy! As usual, we here at Scary Overload have been crawling all over these mazes of mayhem to sniff out the best and boo-tiful amongst them. Here you’ll find the MUST-SEE HAUNTED ATTRACTIONS IN AMERICA FOR 2023!
Editor’s Note: We’ve put them in no particular order, as these haunts are all worthy of a number one spot. Enjoy!
INDIANA
The Thirteenth Hour – Indianapolis
Sitting among and under the hills near Indianapolis, The Thirteenth Hour has undergone substantial renovations and additions for 2023 adding an entirely new house to its collection as well as expanding the existing Cathedral of Souls attraction. Thirteenth Hour offers a completely unique experience with four houses in one continuous path, each telling another chapter in the same story. This year sees the addition of Cartocker Expeditions, taking visitors back in time, before bringing them face to face with death itself in the Widows Walk Cemetery created by undertaker Heinrich Chapel in 1903. From there, only the most daring enter the Cathedral of Souls where Chapel and his wife disappeared in 1913 under mysterious circumstances. The trip through the evil of the past ends with Mine No. 13 where Heinrich might have been attempting to resurrect the dead. Will you be his next victim? Dare to make the trip to the past…only at The Thirteenth Hour!
https://www.thirteenthhourindy.com/
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ILLINOIS
Aura – Peoria
In 1902, a hospital opened in Illinois. That hospital is still open today…would you like an appointment? Nestled among the Peoria State Hospital Historic District is the Pollak Hospital Building. While the hospital opened in 1902, the Pollak Building was added in 1949 to care for tuberculosis victims and was one of the last active buildings when the hospital closed in 1973. This building, along with the rest of the hospital, is said to be truly, literally haunted. But for a short time each year, it’s also home to some…extra doctors and patients that you can visit. If you’re brave enough to face the terror. Can you handle an actual haunted hospital in a haunted attraction designed by a family of experienced haunters with over 40 years of combined experience scaring the hell out of people? If not, I’m sure some of the…long term care physicians can check you into a room.
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CALIFORNIA
Terror Vault – San Francisco
Have you lost touch? Do you feel out of step with your spiritual self? You’re in luck! Just come out to the Terror Vault in San Francisco this Halloween and you can be initiated into INsight. Oh, no worries, it’s nothing dangerous…we promise! Just a little spiritual cult that will open you to the true consciousness around you via a recruitment seminar! Almost EVERYONE survives. The worthy, anyway. And once that experience is over, which is interactive and always voluntary (consent is so important, don’t you agree?) you can end the night at Fang Bang, the only vampire bar in the Bay Area! Real vampire bartenders will serve you wonderful cocktails and absolutely won’t drain you of your lifeforce afterwards during the distracting floor show. Don’t believe us? Upgrade to a VIP and visit the Bishop’s private bar! INsight is simply to DIE for, darling!
https://www.intothedarksf.com/
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CALIFORNIA
Pirates Of Emerson – Emerson
Avast mateys! The Bay Area’s legendary pirate-themed scare-park returns for its 33rd year at the Pleasanton Fairgrounds. Once again a walk-through attraction, the bizarre buccaneers are back in force with 6 acres to plunder spirits and gold while you run for your life. They’ve brought their friends the Demented Dolls if you want to play with toys, and there’s Seesawz Circus for some perfectly normal and not at all twisted fun under the big top. If you can survive the pirates and their buddies, there’s always Halloween Hell. All that and an entire midway full of madness awaits you!
http://www.piratesofemerson.com/
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CALIFORNIA
Reign Of Terror – Thousand Oaks
The Los Angeles Metro Area can be pretty scary on its own, but what could make it downright terrifying? What about TEN haunted attractions in one location? Reign of Terror offers that in Thousand Oaks, north of Los Angeles in the Valley. Each attraction flows right into the next in one continuous trail of horror, focusing on fear after fear to petrify each patron as thoroughly as possible. With so many attractions, the themes are able to jump all over the fear map: from the Asylum, to hillbilly horror with Inbred, clowning around in Fun House, vampiric chills in Casa Blood, and of course the all-new UNHallowed Ground. That’s just a sampling of the attractions waiting inside Reign of Terror, it has to be experienced to be believed.
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PENNSYLVANIA
Valley Of Fear – Feasterville
We’ve all heard of haunted hayrides, but what if I told you the ORIGINAL haunted hayride was still going strong decades later? In its 33rd year, Valley of Fear’s Original Haunted Hayride is back for another year and is getting a massive overhaul. Over a DOZEN new scenes. New sound. And MORE. On top of that? They are bringing two more haunts to the paralyzing party starting out with Escape From Willie’s Shipwreck Cove. That Pennsylvania Pirate One Eyed WIllie returns with all new scenes, looking for his lost treasure and ready to take his undead rage out on anyone found inside his Cove. The big news this year, though, is the surprise return of Miles Manor! Destroyed by disaster in 2014, Miles Manor has returned from the grave this year to once again threaten all of the Valley with abject terror! This one is NOT to be missed.
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PENNSYLVANIA
Haunted Hollow – Rockwood
Near the Pennsylvania Turnpike, across from the Hickory Hollow Campground, sits a quiet place full of unspeakable horror. Haunted Hollow is a collection of haunted attractions as diverse in its makeup as it is terrifying in what it offers. Milford Hollow is home to the Bruner Boarding House, where the ghost of Mad Mae stalks the halls, looking to check you in forever. The nightmares of the Boarding House twisted the populace, causing them to open the Milford Asylum to treat the madness. Before long, the evil seeped into the halls of this institution of healing, leading to sick deviations from medicine. Will you walk the corridors and see what still roams there? Beyond traditional haunts, the HollowWood Haunted Hayride brings movies and monsters together with some of Mad Mae’s evil. You’re then faced with the Toxic Wasteland, a combination of the abandoned mines on the property and the evil of the Boarding House. If that isn’t enough, you can wander endlessly among the lost spirits in the Dead End Cornfield, or try to escape the Boarding House handyman, Willie, at Haunted Hollow Escape. You’ve got 15 minutes before Willie returns and adds you to the body count…can you get out? This killer combination of thrills makes Haunted Hollow a MUST see!
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OHIO
Lewisburg Haunted Cave – Lewisburg
Let me bounce this one off you: what about a haunted attraction…in an actual CAVE? I know, right? That’s what I said! The Lewisburg Haunted Cave is precisely that: a full-tilt haunt inside a limestone cave some 80 feet underground. Feeling claustrophobic yet? This one is also in the Guiness Book of World Records as of 2010 as the LONGEST haunted house in the world. Fire. Devils. The grave. You have a fear? You’ll face it…deep underground. If it’s too much for you? They also have a scare-free mine wagon tour on-site, or you can do both!
https://hauntedcaveatlewisburg.com/
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MASSACHUSETTS
13th World Fright Park – Palmer
Step into the woods outside Springfield, Mass, just north of the Connecticut border, and you might just find yourself inside the 13th World. This Fright Park is back bigger and better than ever in 2023 with three attractions and a midway full of thrills and chills for anyone brave enough to step through the gateway into their universe. It all starts with Moonlight Mayhem at the Moonlight Motel, taking you deeper into the trail to face your nightmares. From there, it’s time to face the heat of Hellfire House. All new for 2023, this one promises fog and fire in equal measure…can you escape without getting torched? The final challenge is Alone which is exactly as it sounds: you’ll have to suffer the challenges within by yourself. One victim at a time enters Alone, but who will exit?
https://13thworld.com/13th-world-fright-park/
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TENNESSEE
HauntedWeb – Memphis
Haunted Web in Memphis has some good news and some bad news. The bad news is, they used to have five attractions, and now they’re going to have four. The good news is, that’s because in addition to the returning Slotch Sanitarium and Voodoo Village, they’re turning the remaining space into an all new, HUMONGOUS manor house attraction that’ll blow your minds! All that area has been converted into a concoction of terrors back in the swamp that is sure to trap you in their web of fear for years to come. Of course, the Carnival Scrapyard is still around with a junkyard of clowning around, as well as Haunted Web’s three unique escape rooms if you feel like getting trapped deeper in the web.
