Great Locations for Halloween Haunted Houses

Great Locations for Halloween Haunted Houses - The most perfect place for a haunted house is, well, a haunted house. If your town or neighborhood has an old house, or even better, an old mansion that everyone considers haunted, then check to see if you could rent it for a day or week or so for a haunted house. You never know, the owners might agree. Of course, if you do get permission, the first thing to check out is if the house is structurally sound. If it is not, then sorry, no haunting there. But let's suppose you are able to rent the old mansion for however long you want it. You've checked it out and it is perfectly safe. At least the structure is; you never know about what lies inside those walls. That's going to be your best feature when advertising the haunted house. It already has a reputation as being haunted. All you have to do is work off that. Your invitations or advertisements should stress a visit to the "old haunted house." Play on its history. And when the doors open to admit the public, the atmosphere should be dark, with soft scary music playing. A misting machine would be a nice effect also. The possibilities are endless. Whatever the legend concerning the house entails, you want that scene to play out. For example, if the owner had a young daughter who committed suicide in the house, you should have her appearing throughout the house.

My second recommendation for a haunted house adventure would actually be a haunted hay ride. This is a super fun idea. If you know someone who has a farm or just some land, preferably with an old barn on it, you're all set. I actually know someone who make this their yearly "bash." They have a wagon set up with straw for people to ride through the "haunted area." They provide several old quilts for those who might get chilled. You could pull the wagon with horses, but this guy actually uses his tractor to pull the wagon since it has a pretty big load each trip. Many people want to take the ride over and over. This type of 'haunting' works great for small children and older adults. You just sit and be frightened as you travel along the designated path. He takes you through the old barn which is decorated and has several "live" ghosts and ghoulish characters" that jump out to frighten you. As you travel back along the path, several characters may rise up or jump out at you. It is a fun, yet relaxing way to travel through a haunting night of fun.

A skating rink is a great location for a haunted house. Your ghosts, witches, and goblins can glide around as they cause you mortal fear. Since most skating rinks already have some great lighting techniques, you can just add to this atmosphere by adding a misting machine and the frightening music. Add sections tented off and roped to help guide people, and you have spaces to create your horror rooms. I would advise keeping everyone going through the haunted rink on foot rather than on skates. Keep the skaters confined to the spooks and demons. They appear to be floating as they move across the floor.

An old movie theater would make an excellent spot to play out the "Phantom of the Opera" type of haunted house. Here you have countless opportunities to showcase old movie classics. Have people dressed as Frankenstein, Dracula, and other characters positioned throughout the theater. You can fire up the popcorn machine and sell popcorn as people cower their way through their old favorites. If you can't get an actual movie theater, you could create one, using a projection screen as your movie screen. Keep old classics playing as people find their way through this. The old "Chiller" Saturday night show is a good one to play as people pass by.

A small motel or hotel would make a great place for a haunted house. Of course, the perfect thing would be to be able to rent an old hotel or motel that has shut down. However, this probably will not be something you can do. Liability issues and such may keep anyone from letting you rent an old motel. But you can create a motel in a large area. A gymnasium or banquet hall, or even a large basement can be set up as a motel. Just set up the different 'rooms' throughout the space. You could create the Gates Motel theme from the old "Psycho" movies. Have the doorways set up with shower curtains so that when you pull back the curtain, something is happening on the other side. That would really make a great haunted house.

So here's a few fresh ideas for some really great haunted houses. Some may require a little more work and effort to pull them off, but I guarantee everyone of them will be a "Monster" success.