The Top 10 Best Haunt Movies
These Haunt Movies Will Make October Just a Little Bit Spookier
I absolutely adore October and tend to celebrate Halloween and all things horror for the entire 31 days of it. To kick off my month-long spooky shenanigans, I gave myself a challenge by tackling the best Haunt movies of all time. For those of you who might not know what a Haunt is, they’re creepy attractions that pop up every year about this time. Usually, they take the appearance of make-believe haunted houses or hayrides, but in recent years they’ve gotten to the point where they’re fully immersive experiences and even theme parks. The point is that they appear every October like clockwork and have a horror theme to them. While Haunts in the real world are perfectly safe (probably), the ones on this list are just as dangerous as they look. In order to earn a spot on here, the Haunts have to be an attraction, theme park, or an immersive experience centered around horror (or become horror themed around Halloween). So, get ready for this list of terrifying Haunt movies, and keep them in mind next time you visit one in real life. It will make the experience that much scarier!
10. The Houses October Built
Usually, when I start doing research for Top 10 lists, there are way too many options out there, and have a hard time narrowing things down. This time I had the opposite problem and had to do a serious deep dive with my search. I’ll admit that The Houses October Built isn’t a great movie, but it’s definitely a creepy one. The film is a pseudo-documentary following a group of college kids on a road trip to find the scariest Haunts in America. They hit up a few famous ones, but decide they’re far too tame to be the feature of their little documentary. That’s when they get wind of an underground scare group called Blue Skeleton that is supposed to put on the most terrifying haunted house in the world. They even have you sign a waiver so that they won’t be liable for any injuries, allowing the performers to actually touch you. The thing is the “performers” don’t just stop at “touching,” but these wannabe filmmakers don’t realize that until it’s too late.
9. The Scarehouse
It would seem that not many people have seen the next entry on this list of Haunt movies. The Scarehouse is a mix of the slasher and torture sub-genres of horror. Usually, I’m not a fan of blood and gore just for the sake of trying to gross the audience out, but The Scarehouse at least tries to get a bit creative with these moments, making it at least interesting. The film follows a group of sorority sisters preparing for the annual Halloween challenge they partake in this year. After a mysterious text arrives inviting them to the titular scarehouse, they assume it must all be part of the festivities. While it starts off cheesy and maybe even a little fun, the women quickly discover that there is a more sinister motive behind this Haunt. Soon they discover that the person behind it all knows a dark secret that they share and has prepared this night especially to get revenge. By the end, it’s hard to tell who you should have sympathy for, but this is one Haunt I definitely don’t want a part of.
8. Ruin Me
Up next we have a haunt that actually sounds like it might be kind of fun, at least as long as it goes as planned. Slasher Sleepover is part camping, part haunt, and part escape room. Each experience is different, but they basically involve a group agreeing to be abducted and dumped in the woods. Once there, they’re given a scenario (say escaped mental patients) and set out to follow the carefully sprinkled clues and puzzles left for them to follow. The trick to this adventure is psychological as Slasher Sleepover gaslights the participants to the point where they question where the game ends and reality begins. In Ruin Me, it seems like an escaped killer might actually be lurking in the woods planning to pick the members of the party off one by one. Soon the group turns on each other as they question whether the deaths are real or staged, as well as who they can trust. Ruin Me keeps building suspense right up until the big reveal and you won’t see the ending coming until it’s right on top of you.
7. Extremity
There really are these things called “extreme haunts” that people willingly sign up for just so they can be put through a traumatic and nightmarish experience. They completely waive all liability and let these places stop just short of actually killing them. Now, I enjoy particularly frightening haunts thanks to my own love of horror, but not even I would sign up for one of these things. Extremity takes that concept and, somehow, twists it even more. The story is split between the two individuals that signed up for the event (Dana Christina and Dylan Sloane) and the man behind it (Chad Rook). This mastermind is so desperate for Extremity to be a success that there are no lengths he won’t go to to push his customers over the edge. As his carefully crafted plans fall apart, the real question becomes who will break first. I’ll just stick to peeled grape “eyeballs” and bowls of spaghetti “brains,” thank you very much.
6. The Funhouse Massacre
You can probably guess how this Haunt movie ends based on the title alone. You might also note that the title also makes The Funhouse Massacre sound like the most cliche horror flick ever made. Don’t worry though, because this is actually a tongue in cheek horror-comedy. The film leans hard into every horror trope in the book as a group of colorful psychopaths escape from an asylum. There also just so happens to be a nearby carnival with a Halloween-themed attraction called Lord of Illusion Funhouse, and the maniacs don’t waste any time making themselves a part of it. Each of them is a themed killer with names like the Taxidermist, Mental Manny, Dollface, and… Rocco? The point is that they’re just outrageous enough for everyone to think they’re all part of the show. Still on the fence about it? Well, I’ll toss in the fact that The Funhouse Massacre also features horror icons, Robert Englund and Clint Howard.