Recently I attended an event produced by www.runforyourlives.com in St. Louis, Missouri where runners pay for a three mile race through the woods, past hoards of zombies and obstacles.  Each runner has three flags attached to their body much like a flag football game.  Runners then enter the course filled with obstacles such as the blood splash pool, foggy maze, mud pits, climbing challenges and of course…ZOMBIES!  All across the country people are trying to find zombie themed haunted attractions, zombie haunted houses, and now zombie 5k obstacle runs.  Learn all the details and we'll rate and review plus help you find every type of zombie themed attraction in America.

On the day I attended there were approximately 5000 runners and over 800 “flesh-eating” zombies who attempt to grab the runners’ flags.  If a runner has at least one flag remaining at the end of the race they survived.  Otherwise you are considered eaten!

Runners paid $85 to participate and Zombies paid $35 for the privilege to chase the living!  What was interesting was the wide variety of people who showed up in costumes, and even running teams with matching shorts, socks and even custom-made shirts with team name created JUST for the event.  It was pure fun for everyone who attended.  Running from zombies and experiencing that creative interactive fun coupled with all of the social experiences of the day made this event a true success.  Everywhere I looked, there were people laughing, smiling and snapping photos of each other and no-doubt planting those pictures on their Facebook and Twitter with a click of a button!  This gathering was more of a social event for most of the people I encountered, and the organizers fueled that by offering overnight camping, rock bands, food and drink tents, beer, sponsors and more!  

The event took a massive amount of people to operate from endless water trucks, food vendors & security, to people who helped wash off the runners, make-up artists for the zombies and more.  I would guess this event required upwards of 200 workers for a one time one day event.  The overall experience was a new and fresh entry into the haunted entertainment craze that seems to be sweeping the country.  In St. Louis alone there are 3 or 4 more of these events planned.  It became clear to me that there is a new form of haunted entertainment being offered around the country and it’s not confined to October.  In fact, these could be sweeping the country.  Zombie mania is in full affect and growing!  I would suggest to anyone looking for something new and different to check out a local Zombie Run especially one that includes an obstacle course filled with flesh eating Zombies! 

Every person I talked to who shelled out the $85 to run and get muddy, plus paid the $10 to park, plus additional money on food and drink said it was worth every penny!  The average cost per customer was probably north of $100.  With that being said, it's obvious there’s no limit to what people will pay for horror entertainment. 

What was once “Halloween-related” is no more just Halloween-related.  Americans are fully committed to celebrating horror year round.  Haunted Houses have their work cut out for them to find new ways to keep their customers entertained in this ever changing World of Halloween attraction mania.  What is next?  Whatever it is we'll be here to report on it! 

Stay scary!
Larry Kirchner, owner of Scarefest.com

Haunted Houses across the country the best and scariest haunted houses, haunted attractions, corn mazes, haunted hayrides, and all sorts of other fall horror entertainment is set to open within weeks.  This year will be different than most years as ZOMBIE mania has sprung up across the country.  America's are looking more and more for ZOMBIE attractions than ever from Zombie races, Zombie dashes, Zombie hunting to you name it.  The Walking Dead TV show has set America onto ZOMBIE anything... haunted houses are now lined up to jump on the ZOMBIE bandwagon with Zombie themed haunted houses.

Remember the best place to find everything scary from haunted houses, attractions to yes even Zombie runs and more is here on Hauntworld.com.  Very soon we will announce our top 13 scariest haunted houses in America which includes the best theme parks, screamparks, hayrides to the most unique places to find a real haunted house.  In this ever changing social media World please make sure to like us on facebook here www.facebook.com/hauntworldscariesthauntedhousesattractions

We are updating Hauntworld.com within the coming days to help you find all the ZOMBIE events around the country!  Keeping checking back!!  Additionally we want to announce that we are about to release another issue of Hauntworld Magazine.  Get your copy at www.HauntedHouseMagazine.com or www.HauntedHouseSupplies.com.

Lastly HGTV released their top 15 places to visit for Halloween check out the story here: http://www.frontdoor.com/buy/15-spooktacular-halloween-events/pictures/pg582

Make sure you follow the Hauntworld.com blog all season long for all the latest in Haunted Happenings! 

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The Hauntworld Fright Forum features over 5000 other haunted house owners and operators to chat with and learn tricks about the industry.  Remember if you are a new member YOU MUST use some sort of haunted house name in order to gain approval to your account... such as Scary Haunter or BobHaunts anything along those lines. 

Do not forget that we recently updated www.HauntedHouseSupplies.com adding more fog machines, strobe lights, fire retardant, to all the best how to build your haunted houses DVD's offered in our industry.  Log in today and check out everything new at HauntedHouseSupplies.com

Lastly we want to remind NOW is the time to update your Haunted House Listing on the World's Largest Online Haunted House Attraction Directory.  Log in today and update your account by adding new content, videos, photos, descriptions and more.  If you are interested in marketing your haunted house on our system of websites that attractions over NINE MILLION people looking for haunted houses then go HERE to download the PDF marketing kits.  http://www.hauntworld.com/haunted_house_marketing/index.cfm

Have a SCARY and SAFE Halloween