Each year thousands of people attend haunted attractions all over the world for a good scary time. Attractions invest thousands of dollars into effects, sets, actors, props and so much more in order to give their patrons the best bang for their buck. This yearly occurrence of haunted attractions always takes place during one particular month out of the year, a month with a major holiday that celebrates scares, candy and dressing up. Of course that Holiday is Halloween.


While haunts continue to advance in technology and production value they’re still most often a re- flection of the horror trends rather than the holiday itself. With the resurgence of zombies in popular culture the last few years we’ve seen more and more haunts go with zombie themes or at least one zombie attraction in their haunt. Before that it seemed like butchers and slaughterhouses were the key theme and of course clowns are still a big part of many haunts. But it’s extremely rare that a haunt does anything with the holiday of Halloween itself.


Why is that? After all Halloween is the whole reason people want to visit haunted houses in the first place. It’s the time of year when they’re all open and doing business but I’m at a loss to remember the last time I’ve seen anything more than a carved jack-o-lantern in a haunted attraction.


Sure it can be argued that since most haunts open in September that the holiday doesn’t play that large a role in bringing people in until later in October. And some haunts have their own theme and


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