New Jersey’s Top Halloween Haunted Houses
As a kid, my friends and I would look forward to this time of year to take a walk through the local haunted houses and attractions. I didn’t realize it…
An Actor awaits visitors before the gates open at the “Terror Behind the Walls” haunted house in Philadelphia. The haunted house covers 11 acres of the Eastern State Penitentiary.
(Photo by Mark Makela/Getty Images)As a kid, my friends and I would look forward to this time of year to take a walk through the local haunted houses and attractions.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but the haunted houses, at least the ones that I visited, were rather simplistic. I recall walking into a room with sheet metal walls and some guy in a mask holding a baseball bat. He screamed and slammed the bat into the wall repeatedly. It wasn’t scary, but it was very loud.
Haunted Houses and Halloween attractions are much more detailed and intricate now. The special effects, makeup and costumes, and illusions are amazing.
Before I get into the top Haunted Houses in New Jersey, I’d like to highlight two spots on Planet Cruise’s “World’s Most Haunted Hotspots.”
Haunted House Spots in New Jersey
Second on their list is the only one that we could drive to in a reasonable amount of time. Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, PA, is ranked as the runner-up behind Mary King’s Close in Edinburgh, UK.
Eastern State Penitentiary landed a high score for TripAdvisor rating, and haunted, spooky, and scary mentions. As they point out, “This former prison has been home to over 85,000 criminals but is now a crumbling shell of cell blocks.”
The only “Haunted Hotspot” on the list that I’ve visited is another prison, the Tower of London. It barely cracked the top 10. My wife, Kathleen, and I enjoyed a trip to London, England, last year and spent a couple of days at the Tower of London.
Kathleen brought her ghost meter along, and it was pinging during many parts of the tour. The meter was especially active in Beauchamp Tower, where all the prisoners were initially incarcerated in the late 1200s.
The ghost meter also went a little crazy at Bloody Tower, where many were murdered. It wasn’t open at night, which probably would have ratcheted up the scary experience.
Central Jersey Haunted Houses
NewJerseyHauntedHouses.com is comprehensive in its list of local Central Jersey scary spots. It lists 22 haunted houses, 13 haunted hayrides, 12 haunted trails, and 8 corn mazes. It also has more than 50 kid-friendly hayrides.
The Central Jersey haunted spots include Scare Farm at Norz Hill Farm in Hillsborough. Scare Farm has 3 haunts to enjoy. There’s “Creepy Hollow, a walk-through haunted corn trail; Paranoia, also a walk-through haunted corn trail, and the Slay Ride, a Haunted Hay Ride.
Another local haunted spot is Farm of Horrors at Schafer’s Farm in Flemington. It features their Hayride of Horror, Trail of Terror, MassAcre Maize, and CarnEvil of Chaos on over 200 acres.
There’s also Halloween House Freehold at Freehold Raceway Mall with many features, including the Nightmare Before Christmas Room, the Beetlejuice Illusion Room, Vampire’s Lair, Haunted Hotel Room, and Graveyard Movie Theatre. Get the full list of local Haunted Houses and more HERE.
