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Sweet Dreams (Mobile, Alabama)
‘Dare to enter Sweet Dreams, the ultimate haunted house in Mobile, Alabama, where nightmares are real and fear is waiting around every corner. This is not your average Halloween attraction—it’s a full-throttle descent into darkness. Looking for the scariest haunted house near you? Whether you’re from Mobile, Saraland, Daphne, or just passing through the Gulf Coast, Sweet Dreams is your must-visit destination for thrills, screams, and unforgettable Halloween terror.’
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Haunted Pirate Ship (Chandler, Arizona)
‘An elaborate, multi-room homemade pirate-themed Halloween walk-through experience.’
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HardWay Haunt (Hot Springs, Arkansas)
‘Step into the unknown & prepare to be terrified! Our haunted house is not for the faint of heart. Are you brave enough to face your fears? Enter if you dare, but remember, once you step inside, the only way out is the Hard Way!’
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Horror Theater Haunted House (Denver, Colorado)
‘This immersive and free home haunted house, located just South of Denver, is packed with the lingering souls of its tortured victims. The Only Price of Admission… is Your SOUL.’
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The Curley’s Haunt (Wilmington, Delaware)
‘The Curley’s Haunt, a homegrown haunted house open to the public at the Concord Mall, returns Friday, Oct. 2. It’s the second year for the walk-through attraction located inside the former Hollister Co. clothing store in the mall off Concord Pike. The haunted house is near the still-operating Foot Locker store. The dying Concord Mall seems like a more than appropriate setting for the haunted house, given the number of vacant storefronts and the location’s vast and somewhat creepy, ghost town feel.’
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The Storyteller Of Vennetta (Orlando, Florida)
‘Storyteller of Vennetta is a unique home haunt in Windermere, Florida that doesn’t need to use scare actors because the sets, rooms, scenes & animatronics each present a well done haunt in a theater setting. Lots of surprises await its patrons as you’ll become apart of each different theater. Beware of Theater 13!’
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13th Acre (Monroe, North Carolina)
‘Just east of Charlotte, North Carolina, in Monroe, The 13th Acre Haunted House and Trail has been giving thrill-seekers chills since 2018. Covering 25 acres of pure mayhem and expanded in 2023, this haunt drops you right into eerily silent woods where creatures lurk just out of sight. Once the sun goes down, they come alive to stir up chaos, and it’s up to you and your friends to find out what’s waiting in the dark.
‘The atmosphere hits you before you even step inside, with a large pond and a fence screaming “Horrorwood” in big blood-red letters. Once you cross that line, you get one chance to turn back. After that, you’re in for it. Around every corner, the dead and dearly departed wait to drag you deeper into their nightmare world.’
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The Nightmare B4 Halloween (Rantoul, Kansas)
‘Every fall, the Hough family’s yard is transformed into your worst NIGHTMARE!!! We’ve been scaring the Hell out of guests since 2008.’
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Ravenclaw Manor (New Orleans, Louisiana)
‘Grab your guts, a friend, and prepare to be scared! You’re invited to tour our haunt. Located in the Lower 7th Ward. Face your fears and enter if you dare! We come alive.’
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Sandlin Haunt (New Prague, Minnesota)
‘6th Annual Sandlin Haunt is already making huge progress everyday! Although it is still in the early stages, we feel great and beyond excited for the longest maze we have ever had. While still housed inside the 3 garage stalls, we designed it so it will feel much longer than the last 5 years!’
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The Missoula Haunted House (Missoula, Montana)
‘Indoor walkthrough haunt that has been Missoula’s primary Halloween scare attraction since 2013.’
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Twisted Trails (Staten Island, New York)
‘Twisted Trails is Staten Island’s premier haunted forest walk-through experience — and it’s unlike anything else in New York City. This is not your typical haunted house. With 25 immersive scenes to explore, each uniquely themed and packed with a mix of animatronics, live actors, cinematic sets, and interactive photo ops, Twisted Trails delivers a Halloween adventure that’s both terrifying and unforgettable. One of our most intense attractions is the Corn Stalkers Maze — a pitch-black labyrinth where your group is given a single candle to navigate eerie corridors filled with hidden animatronics and sudden jump scare actors. (Don’t worry — if that sounds a little too intense, we offer a bypass route for those who prefer to skip it.)’
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Akron Haunted School House (Akron, Ohio)
‘The Haunted Schoolhouse offers you the rare opportunity to face your deepest fears… your darkest thoughts… and the twisted night terrors that haunt your dreams. Ms. Alvah, was never your typical school librarian. She wasn’t content to simply ‘tell’ stories of creepy castles or dark dungeons. She wanted her students to appreciate the books she held so dear… to actually ‘experience’ them, as it were.
‘Having discovered ancient texts long hidden within the library’s walls, she finally found the way to do just that. She learned spells that forced her students to literally enter, and become a part of, each and every terrifying tale. Word of these missing students got out, and as they were never found, the school was forced to close its doors.’
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Elysburg Haunted House (Elysburg, Pennsylvania)
‘Can you brave haunted pathways through the woods and a terrifying walk-through, two-story haunted house & cellar at the Elysburg Haunted House? Recognized as one of the top three haunts by a Dark Attraction Magazine, this haunted house is one of the longest-running and is so scary that “emergency escapes” have been added for those who are too spooked to continue.’
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Twisted Nightmare Haunted House (Brandon, South Dakota)
‘One of the most popular local Halloween attractions is the ‘Twisted Nightmare,’ which has moved to a new location this year in rural Brandon. “Scaring people is a whole lotta fun,” Twisted Nightmare owner Garrett Williams said. “We’ve always been in kind of warehouses and whatnot before and now we’ve got an actual house to turn into a haunted house, which is a little different. It’s kind of what it should be, right.”‘
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Spooked on Spurlock (Krum, Texas)
‘Cherry Hughes ran the haunted house fund raiser for the high school band in the little town we were all in YEARS ago. She asked me if I would be interested in helping. The rest is history 😁 I LOVED IT! That was such a fun time working the Ranger band haunt. Such good memories. And… that haunt was the shizzo! People came from all over the area and would tell us it was the best haunted house they had been to. Such good times …and here we are. I couldn’t let it ago. Now we run Spooked on Spurlock, our home haunt in Krum, TX … because the haunt bug bit me and infected me forever.’
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Castle of Chaos (Midvale, Utah)
‘Castle of Chaos was voted “One of America’s Scariest Halloween Attractions”. “The Castle” is an original and unique haunt experience. From actors that are trained to feed on your fears, to rooms that are continually re-designed to keep you guessing, they give you a reason to scream.’
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Scareville Grave Schoul (Saint Albans, West Virginia)
‘Nearly 60 people signed up to act in this year’s Scareview Grave Schoul, the former site of the Fairview Elementary School in St Albans. Scareview’s founder James Bonnett said at 14-years-old, he fell in love with haunted houses. “Michael Myers got me started into it and I’ve been rolling with it every since…You have art people and you have these art people.” Bonnett said seeing kids scared one year and dress up in character the next, keeps him coming back. “That’s the next breed of haunters,” Bonnett added.’
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The Nightmare Chamber Haunted House (Medford, Oregon)
‘Due to circumstances beyond our control, after 18 years of haunting, the Nightmare Chamber Haunted House in Medford, Oregon, is for sale. We want to sell the entire haunt to someone that would like to continue the tradition, or move it someplace else. If it’s not sold by September 1st, we will have one last glorious year.’
*
p.s. Hey. ** scunnard, Me too, which I guess was already clear. Excellent re: the post, thank you. Nate seems to be a very nice guy. Pilot is killing it, I think. And Rich seems super. ‘Interiors’ is more impressive than I remembered it being. Very Woody Allen in his great period with the humor curiously drained. Allen doing Bergman. It works quite well. Beautiful and stupid and precise and charismatic at the same time. I love that effect. Enjoy whatever ‘Pokopia’ is. A Pokemon related dealy, I’m guessing? ** Dominik, Hi!!! Welcome back! I’ve been fine enough. And so nice that your mom’s visit was lovely and the weather was encouraging. There are artists where you really need to see a large-ish number of their works at one time to fully get, and, yeah, I think Tasset is among them. I wonder that too, and I suppose it has a lot to do with an excessive reluctance to offend? Love remembering to collect and store some water before they turn off the water in his building for an unknown amount of time at 3 pm today, G. ** _Black_Acrylic, Worthwhile, for sure. ** Carsten, I remember having that logic and frustration back when I wrote poetry. By the same logic, people should be longing to read short novels and watch short movies, but they appear to desire the opposite. Why? You got me. How is that poetry-film going so far by your estimation? I have not seen ‘Statues Also Die’, but, whoa, what a powerhouse combination. Thank you a lot for the alert and link. I will, with bells on. ** laura w., I think during his peak period, from ‘Annie Hall’ through ‘Crimes and Misdemeanors’, Woody Allen was a great filmmaker. Sure, I’d love stickers, and awesome that they’re helping people stop underrating you. The terms sophisticated and elegant when applied to art tend to be negatives to me. Writers making those qualities their goal is why most fiction sucks, IMO. The Recorder is the tapeworm of musical instruments. ** HaRpEr //, ‘Jubilant and laconic’, very well put. I remember ‘The Bellboy’ being pretty great. My memory is that it and ‘The Nutty Professor’ are the standouts amongst his movies. If that happened to Anderson, it would not shock me, yes. Oh, yeah, fuck the interim stuff like entering and exiting. A blank in those spots is so much more effective. ** Dev, Poquito Mas is kind of god in my book. Good luck. I haven’t dressed up for Halloween since I was a young teenager, and at that advanced age I only dressed up so people wouldn’t recognise me when I was egging houses and spraying unsuspecting kids with shaving cream. I hate parties, otherwise I would dress up, I guess. Good costume idea. Go wild. ** Uday, The Andes would be nice. You know, during a shortish time when I had money, I traveled to Antarctica for goodness sake. I would say I should have saved the money, but, no, it was amazing. I think the Renaissance Faire thing is the furthest that love or a crush ever got me off course. I did try to believe in Meher Baba very briefly because a crush of mine did, but it didn’t take. ** Thom, The secretive materials is definitely a big part of the charm, for sure, for me. Psyched, perfect! Where can I read that interview? Or can I? ** Right. Today you get the second volume of my annual theoretically favorite home haunts of the year posts, this time scattered across the USA, so maybe people visiting here might be lucky enough to be driving or even walking distance to something up there. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
The Nightmare Chamber Haunted House might well be up for sale but there are defo a few compelling sculptural forms within that property. Takers should be easy enough to find, surely?
Last night’s session at the Leeds Print Workshop went very well and the artwork progresses accordingly. Nice also to have some football chat while making work which makes for a decent change, I must say. “Put your house on a Leeds victory over Man U this Sunday” was the advice that I gave.
Hi!!
Ooooh, yes!! If you could choose only, say, three of these home haunts to visit, which ones would they be? I’d go for HardWay Haunt, 13th Acre, and Akron Haunted School House. I’d also be curious about Ravenclaw Manor, and though I don’t know if I’d try Castle of Chaos, it looks pretty hardcore as well. Fantastic selection, as always!
Yeah, that might be part of the issue with true crime documentaries—reluctance to offend. We watch a lot of true crime stuff, but I can’t remember the last time I saw one I thought was truly good.
Ugh, did love remember? I hope he doesn’t/you don’t have to go without water for too long!
Love dreaming about past friends he hadn’t spoken to in years and now wondering what’s up with them, Od.
Another whopping curation. If you weren’t busy being a damn good writer you could’ve been a haunted house hobby historian—how’s that for alliteration.
Yeah you’re right about short novels & films fitting the same logic. People complain constantly that they don’t have time for anything but then they dodge lean works of art. My grim suspicion is that capitalist brainworm is to blame for the damage, as in folks wanting to get the most bang for their buck, in terms of bulk. Now that logic makes me shudder. Whenever I see a really thick novel I can’t help but think “what a waste…”
My poetry-film? Tough to gauge at the moment. It went through several false starts before I got the realization from a poem of mine of how to tie it all together. I’ve just been sitting with that cohesive idea for a while, letting it marinate. It wasn’t until Monday that I actually started working on it proper. Right now I’m just blasting through a rough draft, getting the structure down & not worrying about details. Which also means sifting through the bits & scraps from the pre-realization period, weaving in what works, chucking what doesn’t. With the hope that it all ties together, which it’s too early to say yet. One concern I gotta watch out for is that I might be putting too much poetry into it. Not for my taste that is, but just in light of objective balance. There’s poetry in voice-over woven throughout the action, plus characters speaking it here & there. So far it’s all set in my little coastal village here. There’s a mental health clinic right across the beach, which inspired the setting. But thanks for asking. I’ve said before that the script is not a form I feel very comfortable with, but it’s an interesting experiment. And right now I’m following your advice of just getting the raw material down & not fussing over reach syllable.
Hi Dennis, exactly. Ok I’m working on it so will keep you posted. Yes, he always seemed good and smart and I agree on Pilot. Ok that sounds intriguing and maybe I need a revisit. haha yes basically pokopia is pokemon animal crossing.
Maybe it doesn’t look like the scariest, but I’m quite drawn to the Sandlin Haunt because I like mazes. But then the Missoula haunted house and the Elysburg haunted house seem to nail the setting. Do you tend to prefer when they don’t use pre-existing IPs and invent their own characters, or does it depend?
Yeah, most bad novels (the lit fic type in particular) have lots of needless shit in them that is in service of making the reader hyper familiar to comfort/sedate them.
With the last book, there is a bit of the ‘entering and exiting’ because I was focusing hard on creating a specific kind of space that I wanted to cultivate. It sort of is a book about going in and outside, and I needed these passages of just walking around and going from place to place to create this sustained, specific kind of movement I was aiming for. But without the bullshit, trust me. The ‘inside’ scenes are also, on the contrary, quite different and obey their own distinct rules.
Mobile AND New Orleans in one post! I likely will not be going to either but it’s cool nonetheless. There’s a new-ish passenger train from New Orleans to Mobile. I’ll probably take it someday just to have the experience, but Mobile kinda sucks. The Staten Island trail looks rather beautiful!
I think the last time I dressed up for Halloween was when I was 16. I was Alex from A Clockwork Orange and my mom was pissed, but everyone else loved it, lol.
oh! only one nearish to me is in staten island, hmm.
also yay you want stickers!! let me know where to send them etc. i also totally agree about that being woody allen’s best era, though i enjoyed midnight in paris for what it was, and i liked the idea that so many artists are trapped in this sort of second- or even third-hand nostalgia for times they didn’t experience. i did also watch it on a plane, however, and high altitudes make a lot of things more palatable then they are on land. but it never reached the heights of his career high points like annie hall or radio days.
that’s a good point about elegance and sophistication in writing, especially because so much of the writing i like flouts that. and a lot of traditionally well-written novels end up just being total booker-bait or very mfa grad. it’s too smooth to read. i went to a union rally today after work and damn near blew my eardrums out because people were shaking cowbells like crazy. it ended with some guy rapping about the union and the upcoming contract negotiation and fight the power etc., but it wasn’t rapping as much as like really intense slam poetry. by that point my head felt like it was going to split open from the cowbells and i was over the whole fucking thing. not feeling very hopeful about our contract negotiation, i’ll be honest. i was all ready to fight the powers, too, mostly because i just got an email from hr claiming that the events put on by a group i am unfortunately in charge of are not actually considered hours worked and don’t qualify as work time, this despite the fact that it is an official staff appreciation group with backing from library leadership. ugh ugh ugh. i ended up forwarding the chain to our group’s library leadership benefactor asking for clarification on this policy and then crying a little in the bathroom. i hope your day was better than that lol.
the mental image of a recorder as a tapeworm is quite striking, by the way.
If anything, the audience for short films might be growing. You used to have to live in a few big cities to see avant-garde films, but now so many are available online, even if that’s not the ideal way to see them.
My cousin made Thanksgiving lunch reservations today, so it’s on!
I have a lot of work to do before I pick up my new laptop. When I bring both of them to the Apple Store, the “Genius Bar” should be able to do most of the job.
hey fren!!!
im slightly inebriated, (understatement) but please dont be hesitant to let me know if this is bothersome to you.Hmm maybe I can make a home haunt in Monroe NC. been a goal of mine. I hope so! I’ll invite my best friend 7.
Yesterday was Marty’s 21st birthday, they invited us to a birthday hangout at a jazz jam at bespoke, this Italian themed coffee place. I made them Lemon Orzo as a sensory gift..It was yummy from my smalll taste, and I hope they thnk so too. After, me and my firend Jordan went to a poe poetry reading at lulas, this really cool underground brick pub that gave New Orleans/gothic vibes. Aka my kind of place, I’d like to go back. I was looking at this guitarist like, god he’s cute. But I was drunk. idk im not usually so easily to say those knda things.. maybe I was just drunk. I have recently realixed how much power I can use with my looks, despite how refusing and insecure I can feel about my biological gender.
Drunkneness is a weird THING. I hope I dont fall victim to its beligerant nefariousness. YEt, I felt like the real unhesuitants me tonight, a experince I hear is commmon with people “like “ me”
I hate how overuse∂ certain disorders are in this modern age, so I wont explain that as a reason. I feel like this over saturation almost distorts my own illness, as most ppl nowadays have become destabilized by political climate+ modern upbringing, suicidalaness is leaky probably a common soliloquy.
or idk.
what is the disorder of suicide if its not at some point deteriorating your sense of self and ambition.
thats the part I feel people forget, as I listen to their admittedly enlightening talk of buddha and God, I realize that this stuff gets boring AFTER A WHILE,HOE HELPFUL IS B3ING PRESENT IN THE MOMENT WHEN ALL YOU STRIVIR FOT IS DISTRACTION.
Do you like 5he brand tapping the van feel like you would.
Beautiful tapping the vein
Dont try to save me, but please just listen when you can, like right now
I just want to know my words arent being swallowed by a void
the other day they dropped their cd player and i felt so bad apologizing. they just strugged and said “I dont get attached t o things”
I think theres something very fascinating about them, to relate
i’ll tell u one day tho.
I feee like WHEN I SEE YOU IN PERSON TALKING ABOUT THE MYSTIQUE AND MARVELOUS BEAUTY OF MARTY WOULD BE MORE INTRUIGING THAN HEARING A HALF COHERENT COMMENT 20 year old soething RAMBLING ABOUT THEM
TODAY IS THEIR BDAY IM MAKING THEM LEMON ORZO PASTA
it taste really great actually.
and I just kept smiling and I think maybe at the time I thought it would put a spell on them to make them like me but it didnt. Now it jus tfeels stupid.
I love my friend jordan
he’s this tra ( iI olnyl describe it this way because theres something fun about being so vulgarly descriptive of friends)
I love him tho,. Honest. We both had a crush on Marty at one point. YIkes. Suppose we still do.
I ci=ommunciateed\d my feelnigs of hurt and that made it better and made us closer.
(I might add more to this, just rushing to send this before 2:30
:)))))
anyways, m peace out dude
The interview should be up this month, I can share if you like? Its mostly about the split EP, which has the collab Nick Lowe cover and on my half a couple old songs I gave new arrangements and got some amazing drum help for. Kinda over that era of my songwriting but its nice to try and ace the arrangements etc. We talked a bit about psychedelia in general, I think I touched on 90s zelda as a reference point for psych music hehe…
Seems like a great batch of haunts of course, Medford might be too far given my non-driving status and supreme business but… who knows…? I’ve always found Dark Rides to be quite instructional with other mediums, but a home haunt seems to have a different set of tools and lessons… could be lots to learn!
The second half of my week is usually all 13 hours of work a day, which I dread, but I can start saving some money here soon, so not forever…? Your week going OK so far? K, bye!!