The month before my husband and I started dating in 2012, we began a Halloween/Fall tradition that was unbreakable, until the pandemic, anyway. That October my husband, his cousin, and I went apple and pumpkin picking during the day and to a Halloween Haunt at night. We had so much fun we vowed to do it again next year, and we did! And the year after that, and the year after that....until 2020. I'm hopeful we'll be back at it in 2023.
If you're looking for some ideas, here are some of the Haunts we've visited over the years.
Our first two years we went to Corner of Chaos in East Windsor, NJ, they've been closed since 2016, which is a real shame because they remain one of our favorite places. So well done, especially the Corn Maze. The first year, a Ring Girl climbed off a small staticky TV and chased me while on all fours into the Clown section. It was a nightmare and I was sufficiently flooded with adrenaline and laughing with delight once she moved on to her next victim.
Another year took us to Headless Horseman in Ulster, NY. The production here is phenomenal, we didn't do all of the attractions but the ones we did were very impressive. In addition to great actors they have state of the art animatronics. I didn't find myself running and/or screaming all that much but it was a lot of fun.
Bates Motel in Glen Mills, PA was a great time and included an Escape Room. We were REALLY into escape rooms at this time so this was an extra incentive to go. The production here was even better, think Universal level! They also use a timed ticketing process which helps reduce the amount of time you're with a group other than your own. The scare factor increases greatly when you're not in a line or room with a big group.
Brighton Asylum in Passaic, NJ offers Escape Rooms (yup, we did one here too), Axe Throwing (I was terrible, hubby, however, hit the mark), and of course, a Haunt. The Escape Room proved too easy for us but the Asylum itself met our expectations of a good scary night out. While pulling up the website to include in this blog I see they have ghost hunting tours too, seems we might be due for a visit back sooner than later! This was actually the last Haunt we've been to as we were here in 2019. Here's a photo of JP and I showing off his fantastic axe throw.
Of course, a blog about Halloween Haunts in the NY/NJ/PA area is not complete without Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, PA. We had a bigger group with us this time, the core 3 of us that year, my husband's sister, and our 15 year old nephew. Anyone who loves Halloween Haunts needs to make their way to Eastern State. It's well done and the actors are frightening but the real attraction is the prison itself. For someone like me who is in awe of historic (and very likely haunted) buildings just being in this space was thrilling. Not sure if it's still offered but when we were there you had the option to wear a glow necklace letting the actors know they could grab you and bring you to secret rooms and passageways. JP's cousin took that option and he was gone for a good portion of the night but was so excited when they finally reunited him with us so he could tell us all about it.
Do you have any Halloween or Fall themed traditions? Tell me in the comments below.
JP and I also watch horror movies through the month of October, there will be a post about that too at some point this month.
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