Who has the best haunted house and why?

[drfrightner]

Tell me show me... post a video. Not a collection but just the best 3 you've seen.

Larry

[Ken Spriggs]

Hmmm

I don't get out much......nor do I have time to look for videos to prove anything

BUT I have seen THE BEAST and THE EDGE OF HELL
Not completely and not even with show lights on but let me tell you........it is truely awesome.
It is huge....and it isn't a museum

Netherworld.......Never been there......But if Bens attention to his haunt are like his toys and costumes......AND BESIDES IT WAS USED TO FILM A COOL MOVIE...not like the one filmed at ours that will never be released

Dream Reapers....why not? No we are not the best at anything....just crazy when it counts!!

Oh Dead Acres looked awesome and was a good haunt .... I may have had an issue but it was cool!

Many haunts will never get the recognition they deserve

Does having the most toys make you the best? NO
Heart and soul black walls and darkness will beat a million dollar budget anyday!!!

Wish I could go back to that now!

[Badger]

Being that I work during Halloween season, I too don't get out much, but the best one I've ever seen in terms of all around quality and themeing has to be the Dent Schoolhouse in Cincinnati.


I would like to See Netherworld, House of Shock, Erebus, Pirates of Emerson, and whatever that one that Alice Cooper designs for his kid's school fundraiser someday...

[Haunted Illinois]

Seeing that 95%+ of this board consists of haunt owners, especially this time of year, most people answering this thread will be haunt owners plugging their own place. LOL.

[HauntedMemphis]

WIth the stipulations it will turn into "who has the best haunt videos" instead of who has the best haunt as well. As usual, I think this is a silly debate, unless you at least are being judged by someone who has been to all the top haunts in person to experience it.

As for my own experiences, I have had some haunts I've liked, but I'm willing to bet I haven't seen the best one yet.

[Darkangel]

Any haunt with slick videos is now considered one of the best.

Darkangel

[Speculo]

Actually since 2007 I have been to 64 haunted houses all over the US, many of them without a doubt some of the best around. If I spend the time I can actually walk through them in my mind and I also have lots of notes.

What I can say that has REALLY surprised me is how DIFFERENT they are from each other! Often ones in the same towns or regions have certain simliarities, and I only go to ones I want to see, but let me tell you all there are some AMAZING haunted houses out there and I have NO doubt there are many more we have never heard about on these boards.

Larry is alway asking me is this one better then that one, etc, and I always am cagey with my answers because they are very hard to compare. Many I have seen without actors, many I have seen on haunt tours off season, and a few on off nights early or late in the season.

Any haunt owner knows that on some nights your haunts is great and on others so-so. It is hard to say! What does shine is absolute dedication and true creativity. When you find haunts that excell in detail, or in tight operations, or in really great actors, or in original scares, or crazy special effects you know you have something special. And when you have many of these factors working together you have something amazing.

I agree that videos and photos don't make a haunt the best, but they certainly don't make it the worst!

I tell my actors 3 things really matter to me, Talent, Work Ethic, and Seniority.

IMO the same things make the best haunted houses. If you have a place the really has amazing talent behind it, talent that is obvious, something about it that is unique and special, then that is the first sign. And if it is very clear that they work very hard to make the best haunt they can, that is the second sign. And if they have been doing both of those for a long time you have it all.

Also we cannot forget the ultimate judge, the public. You might be able to fool them for a while, but good haunts stick around and grow because the public supports them, a very telling sign.

I do not envy Larry the responsibility of making this list because there is so much richness to choose from and so much creativity. But if the fact he makes it challenges any of you to try that much harder or gives the media another reason to cover us then good job.

Anyway to all of the haunts I have seen, thanks for the inspiration, they always make us want to work even harder that is for sure!

Thanks!

[actiondeath]

DANG! Why's everyone hatin' on the videos??? Is there some better way to show off a haunt, aside from a personal tour???

From a non haunt-owner perspective, I think that a crappy promo video shows a lack of attention to detail on the owner/promoter's part and that would lead me to believe that the haunt itself is half-assed. On the other side, I think time, effort, and money put into a promo video would lead me to believe the haunt is worthwhile.

Of course, then we could get into the debate that sometimes more time, effort, and money is put into the video than is put into the haunt and that it's sometimes misleading, or that sometimes the footage is stock footage purchased from a stock footage company (or just plain stolen from another haunt) and that this is also misleading... Or one could argue that not EVERY haunt in the WORLD will post a video, therefore it is not possible to judge which one is the best (or one OF the best) having not seen them ALL... AND THEN one will undoubtedly dismiss the authority of the person or panel of persons in charge of the judging or counting of the votes...

DANG! AGAIN!!! Is the man just supposed to print blank pages in his magazine???

[Twin Locusts]

DANG! Why's everyone hatin' on the videos??? Is there some better way to show off a haunt, aside from a personal tour???

From a non haunt-owner perspective, I think that a crappy promo video shows a lack of attention to detail on the owner/promoter's part and that would lead me to believe that the haunt itself is half-assed. On the other side, I think time, effort, and money put into a promo video would lead me to believe the haunt is worthwhile.

Of course, then we could get into the debate that sometimes more time, effort, and money is put into the video than is put into the haunt and that it's sometimes misleading, or that sometimes the footage is stock footage purchased from a stock footage company (or just plain stolen from another haunt) and that this is also misleading... Or one could argue that not EVERY haunt in the WORLD will post a video, therefore it is not possible to judge which one is the best (or one OF the best) having not seen them ALL... AND THEN one will undoubtedly dismiss the authority of the person or panel of persons in charge of the judging or counting of the votes...

DANG! AGAIN!!! Is the man just supposed to print blank pages in his magazine???

+1

- in addition; no one will have personally experienced all the top tier haunts, yeah absolutes are rare but in this case true, so the media presentation through video is what people use to estimate the quality of the haunt.

Also, when you're part of the industry, you will judge through your lens of experience, which is okay, but your opinions will be that of insiders not the potential market.

[Jolly Pumpkin]

From my experience in reviewing over 50 haunts a year for the past 6 haunt seasons and visiting haunts since I was a young boy, I've come to the realization that the best haunts are the ones that evolve over time and create trends rather than follow them. The haunts that are incredible year after year are ones that are aware of their competition and try to work together with them, but at the same time improve their haunt based on what their competition is offering.

Years and years ago before the internet was as popular as it is today and animatronics and incredible special FX weren't as readily available, haunts were simpler and didn't rely as much on high tech props and special effects. They focused more on acting and atmosphere, but as technology advanced so did haunts and more and more popped up all over the United States and now competition is fierce.

Customers have seen everything and the only way you can impress people now is to offer something unique that the haunt down the street isn't bringing to the table. Incredible haunts make people fear for their life, but in the back in their minds they know they are in safe hands. A haunt that deserves to be on the Hauntworld Top Haunts List should be intense, awe inspiring and simply take your breath away.

[xxxdirk]

Best one I have been to, all things considered, 13th Gate. I never really get to see many haunts during the season, but saw that one last April and I was blown away....

[hauntatorium]

I am not a haunt owner, but there are a couple here in Kentucky that really stand out:

The Nightmare Haunted House in Lexington
www.2scary.com

Hustonville Haunted House in Hustonville
www.hauntman.com

Both are excellent haunts especially since neither one have huge budgets to work with (which is probably the case with most haunts), great scenery and great scares, cant ask for much more than that!

[drfrightner]

THIS IS YOUR OPINION BASED ON WHAT YOU THINK makes a haunted house GREAT! It could be the detail, special effects, level of fright or whatever.

Here is my take... as for being scary any haunted house that has been in business 5 or 10 years straight is scaring people because if you can't do that part you are out of luck. For all the people who said the Darkness was scary you don't know anything... come back in October when we have a hired trained staff and you can walk through with real customers who don't stand in front of everythig they see taking pictures. If you can't scare people first and foremost you just won't stay in business its that simple. Scaring people is first and foremost.

I've said for years if you can't scare people get out of the businss because you won't last...

Our haunt is scary, both of them but as I've said ALL HAUNTS SHOULD BE SCARY, ALL HAUNTS SHOULD HAVE CRAZY ACTORS who get after it maybe not every night but most nights.

Soooo... in my mind what makes a GREAT HAUNT? Someone who can hit all the marks not just one and not just two.

We have some haunts who hit all the marks with marketing, Spookyworld would have been the best at marketing. That is actually an element that must be considered as the mark of a great haunted house.

But some haunts can do the marketing great but not the attraction and that alone keeps some in business. But what else...

Originality, creativity, theming, use of sound, use of lighting, clever scares, make up, costumes, custom props or animations, special effects, and like I said marketing of the event from the website to the flyers to the promotions.

When you can do all of the above you are a great haunter and should be putting thru huge crowds of people... you hit a handfull of those marks and well you are still stratching your head why is my haunt not doing 50k people.

So again to wrap this up in my opinion its all of the above...

Lets take 13th Gate because someone brought them up...

They make custom videos and commercials to promote their haunt, awesome scenes, they go to no end to create realism, and their costumes and make up are near the top. They hit all of the marks high.

So does a lot of other haunted houses like Netherworld.

My personally I think you can tell a lot from photos or video because they typically don't lie... I don't need to visit a haunt in person to know if the haunt is good or not because when you put that much time and effort into the photos or video you know they are scaring people.

Larry

[graystone]

Man Larry this....

Thread will be all over the board and will be a hard one for sure. I wish I could visit more haunts when they are open thats the worst part of being a Haunt owner. From the ones I have seen in person Atrox, Netherworld, and even the Darkness is more than impressive for me. I will say this after Christmas me and the bus is going on a Haunt tour if I cant see them up and running I will see them more on a personal level. Shane and its man this is going to be a hard one! Shane this time.

[Spookyfinder]

I could see Nightmares haunted house being on a list like this.... but Hustonville? Really? -Tyler