Scary News

2015 Top Haunted House in Vermont

Published by FrightFind On October 25, 2015

FrightFind reviewed haunted houses throughout the nation and is proud to announce its top haunted houses for 2015. We looked for unique experiences, enthusiastic performances, and quality of the scare.

2015’s Top Haunted House in Vermont: Terrorealm

The 19th century Wilson Castle hosts 2 haunted houses this year, Deadnberry and Dementia Asylum. The Manor leads you through the twisted halls of the castle, while Dementia Asylum’s maze of terrors is the finisher for any poor souls who enter.

FrightFind It: Terrorealm
Runner up: Dead North Vermont

2015 Top Haunted House in Virginia

Published by FrightFind On October 25, 2015

FrightFind reviewed haunted houses throughout the nation and is proud to announce its top haunted houses for 2015. We looked for unique experiences, enthusiastic performances, and quality of the scare.

2015’s Top Haunted House in Virginia: Gallows Dead Oak Hollow

Virginia’s Gallows has 4 all new terrifying attractions this year: Purgatory, Scarecrow’s Harvest, Inbred Jed’s Hospitality Shed, and Massacre at 266. Each is a little bit more dastardly and devilish making this Virginia’s most terrifying haunt.

FrightFind It: Gallows Dead Oak Hollow
Virginia’s Runner up: Scream Forest

2015 Top Haunted House in Washington

Published by FrightFind On October 25, 2015

FrightFind reviewed haunted houses throughout the nation and is proud to announce its top haunted houses for 2015. We looked for unique experiences, enthusiastic performances, and quality of the scare.

2015’s Top Haunted House in Washington: Georgetown Morgue

Washington has several top notch frights to choose from, but Georgetown Morgue wins out. This haunt is well laid out and the scares are perfectly timed. The twists and turns ensure that each group is spaced nicely and everyone gets their share of the scares. The theme is perfect, actors are enthusiastic, and the make up is film-grade.

FrightFind It: Georgetown Morgue
Washington Runner up: Maris Farms Haunted Woods

2015 Top Haunted House in Wisconsin

Published by FrightFind On October 25, 2015

FrightFind reviewed haunted houses throughout the nation and is proud to announce its top haunted houses for 2015. We looked for unique experiences, enthusiastic performances, and quality of the scare.

2015’s Top Haunted House in Wisconsin: Burial Chamber

The Wisconsin Burial Chambers haunted house boasts that it’s “Midwest’s Largest Haunted Complex,” but we’d add to that. It’s also one of the scareiest, including 3 full-sized haunted houses and 4 burial simulators it’s a comprehensive evening of fear. You can easily make an entire evening of this haunt and are sure to have a blast.

FrightFind It: Burial Chambers
Wisconsin Runner up: Wisconsin Fear Grounds

2015 Top Haunted House in Wyoming

Published by FrightFind On October 25, 2015

FrightFind reviewed haunted houses throughout the nation and is proud to announce its top haunted houses for 2015. We looked for unique experiences, enthusiastic performances, and quality of the scare.

2015’s Top Haunted House in Wyoming: Nightmare on 17th Street

Best haunt for hundreds of miles

Cheyenne’s Nightmare on 17th Street haunted house has been operating since 1989. You’ll meet Freddy, Jason, Michael, and quite a few new friends when you stop by Wyoming’s top haunt of 2015.
FrightFind It: Nightmare on 17th Street

Top Haunted House in Alabama in 2015

Published by FrightFind On October 25, 2015

FrightFind reviewed haunted houses throughout the nation and is proud to announce its top haunted houses for 2015. We looked for unique experiences, enthusiastic performances, and quality of the scare.

2015’s Top Haunted House in Alabama: INSANTIARIUM

It’s a madhouse!

What’s worse than zombies? The monsters that feast on them. And that’s exactly what confronts you when you visit the Insanitorium in Pinson, AL. The site is overrun with a vicious army of mutants and monsters created by the insane Dr. Ausnemen. This twisted doctor is gone, but his blood-thirsty creations are not. Now in its fifth year, the Insanitarium is redesigned every year for maximum fright and surprise. There is no age limit, but it’s rated PG-13 and is definitely scary.

FrightFind It: INSANITARIUM
Alabama Runner Up: Atrox Factory

2015 Top Haunted House in Alaska

Published by FrightFind On October 25, 2015

FrightFind reviewed haunted houses throughout the nation and is proud to announce its top haunted houses for 2015. We looked for unique experiences, enthusiastic performances, and quality of the scare.

2015’s Top Haunted House in Alaska: Fairbanks Asylum

Walk the halls of this madhouse at your own risk. Visitors are harassed, horrified, and hounded at every turn so prepare to be frazzled by the time you leave. But be sure to check out their schedule because the Fairbanks Asylum does feature some rotating events, including some that are friendlier to kids such as their toned-down trick or treating event on Halloween.

FrightFind It: Fairbanks Asylum
Alaska Runner Up: Gateway to Darkness

2015 Top Haunted House in West Virginia

Published by FrightFind On October 25, 2015

FrightFind reviewed haunted houses throughout the nation and is proud to announce its top haunted houses for 2015. We looked for unique experiences, enthusiastic performances, and quality of the scare.

2015’s Top Haunted House in West Virginia: The Asylum Haunted House Presents Hysteria


The Asylum does it up every year. This year it’s Hysteria! It’s twisted jaunt through the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, formerly known as the Weston State Hospital for the mentally ill in the mid-1800. The building brings its own spooks, but what’s inside is even worse, which made it an easy choice for top haunted house in West Virginia.

FrightFind It: The Asylum Haunted House Presents Hysteria
Runner up: The Haunted Fairgrounds

2015 Top Haunted House in Arizona

Published by FrightFind On October 24, 2015

FrightFind reviewed haunted houses throughout the nation and is proud to announce its top haunted houses for 2015. We looked for unique experiences, enthusiastic performances, and quality of the scare.

2015’s Top Haunted House in Arizona: 13th Floor Haunted House

Located in downtown Phoenix, the 13th Floor Haunted House is the largest haunted attraction in the city. Created by nationally-recognized haunted house designers, it features two attractions for one price for 2015 – Feral Moon and Patient Alpha – spread over 60,000 square feet and multi-levels. There’s a reason why the 13th floor is considered back luck. You’ll find out why here.

FrightFind It: The 13th Floor Haunted House
Arizona Runner Up: The Crypt Haunted Attractions

Published by FrightFind On October 20, 2015

One of the many perks of this job is getting inside looks into first-rate scares. And that’s exactly what we got when we were invited by Maris Farms Haunted Woods to go behind the scenes with their creators. Our team got to witness firsthand some of the bone-chilling secrets behind one of the biggest and best haunted attractions in the Northwest. Though we won’t let the black cat out the bag here, we can tell you that this place is run by real pros. By day, you get fun-filled family outings. By night, the scene shifts to horrifying nightmares.

Maris Farms Haunted Woods

Located just off of Highway 410 in Buckley, Washington, Maris Farms Haunted Woods is in its 13th year. When the haunt began, it had a lot going for it terms of location and overall potential, but it took a lot of work to capture the creepy vision of its creators. And those man hours took time away from scaring the wits out of visitors.

Maris Farms Halloween Tractor

But as we witnessed, that work has paid off. Today, the haunt is much different – and much scarier. “We try to change 30% of the haunt every year,” said Mike Meeks, Haunt Director.  “Early on, we were constantly tearing down and rebuilding everything every year.  Now, we use containers and sets and we don’t have to spend 100 man hours rebuilding everything.” The difference is remarkable. Freed from the tedium of constant remodeling, Meeks can now fully focus on frights, including adding more animatronics, as well as characters ripped from current movies and television. The result is a terrifying 45-minute trek through a horror filled corn maze and cold, dark switchbacks in the woods on the property.

Our tour took us past some of the family attractions such as the pumpkin patch, corn maze, the track for live pig races, and even a mechanical bull. They pack a lot of attractions over their sprawling 40 acres including a Monster Safari (aka paintball), where you can shoot at targets that may or may not include the undead. But be sure to plan ahead because not all attractions are available every day.

Maris Farms Haunted Trail

But just as the real fun begins once the sun goes down at Maris Farms, our guided tour got particularly interesting during our truly terrifying walk through the Haunted Woods. This is not for the faint of heart. But since it’s our job to report back to you, we bravely pressed on.
Maris Farms Haunted Woods

Now, we won’t reveal the jump scares here, but the foggy, swamplike atmosphere at the beginning of the tour sure impressed our team. So did the more than 50 actors employed throughout the haunt that do their best (or worst) to get you screaming, dropping to your knees, and possibly losing control of bodily functions. One traumatized team member is still haunted by the girl crawling from the well.

As much as we appreciated the VIP tour of the Haunted Woods, we were a bit relieved when we could finally catch our breath at the end of the spookfest. And we can report that the detailed updates and meticulous planning has made Maris Farms better than ever. But they’re not done yet. Meeks said he and his crew begin planning for the year’s haunt each January, with the build generally starting in March every year. They also shared their plan to add two more haunts within the next five years, so be warned. We look forward to our next sneak peak and reporting back to you at that time. Take our word for it, if you live anywhere in the South Sound or Pierce County, Maris Farms is worth the price of admission.

Maris Farms Haunted Woods

 

Published by FrightFind On October 18, 2015

A story in the Shadow Fabric Mythos

by Mark Cassell

When a photographer falls he’s going to protect his camera, and when gravity snatches my clumsy arse that’s precisely what I do. Birdshit and moss, tiles and rotted wood fall with me. The jagged shape of daylight shrinks. I hug my camera and plunge into the darkness, and…

Pain explodes.

My lungs burn and my vision morphs into lightning flashes that betray the black void. I squirm, cradling my SLR. I try to breathe but the agony rages. I clench my teeth as air rattles my lungs and I taste a metallic stickiness. My legs, my arms; I feel them, thankfully. The pain subsides, marginally, so I guess I’m okay.

With a free hand, I reach out to claw wooden boards, dragging grit and filth. I sit up and squint into this nothingness. The stink of damp, of cold stone and decay, strangles me. I cough and pain stabs me in the chest.

Something moves nearby; a wet sound, a slurp like something dislodging.

Silence squeezes me. Had I actually heard it?

The SLR lurches in my hand. A clamminess brushes my arm and grips the camera. I pull it closer, muscles straining.

It’s wrenched away in a spray of slime.

“Hey!” I shout. Somehow the darkness swallows the word.

More slurping, wet and heavy.

I shuffle backwards and kick out. My flailing arms slap the curved brickwork. No exit. Mortar scratches my skin. No. Exit. The cold wall presses against my spine.

The darkness thickens, tightens.

My heart crashes against my ribcage, stealing the silence.

The camera’s flash pulses for a moment, and an oval whiteness fills my vision; a face, blank, featureless with only dark veins beneath glistening skin. The flash goes off fully, lighting the surrounding brickwork and that faceless monstrosity attached to a bulbous sweaty body, squat and seething atop splintered floorboards.

The bare, curved walls—no exit!—prevent any further retreat. I claw at the filth I sit in.

Black. Cold.

Again, that wet shuffling sound. Something flops. More slurping as before, yet this time frantic. Eager perhaps?

Silence, once again. Just my heartbeat punching the seconds that pass…

Bio:

Mark Cassell lives in a rural part of the UK with his wife and a number of animals. He often dreams of dystopian futures, peculiar creatures, and flitting shadows. Primarily a horror writer, his steampunk, dark fantasy, and Sci-Fi stories have featured in several anthologies and ezines. Rayne Hall has included his work in three of her Ten Tales anthologies: Fiery Beasts, Cogwheels, and Fiends, and also a Shadow Fabric mythos story can be found in April Grey’s Hell’s Garden anthology. His flash fiction often features in the popular ezine, Sirens Call, and he writes a series for the Sci-Fi ezine, Future Chronicles, in which we follow the adventures of Alpha Beta Gamma Kill. His upcoming short story collection, Sinister Stitches, is only a fraction of an expanding mythos that began with his debut novel, The Shadow Fabric.

The Shadow Fabric: www.TheShadowFabric.co.uk
Sinister Stitches: http://amzn.to/1SuHihP

Blog: www.beneath.co.uk
Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/_w58j

Twitter: @Mark_Cassell
Facebook: www.facebook.com/AuthorMarkCassell

 

 

Published by Joel On October 3, 2015

We did it! Thanks to all of our Fright Freaks we have surpassed 666 likes on Facebook. Stay tuned to what we will be giving out when we reach 13000 likes. Tell your friends and family!

Here are the lucky winners:

  • Misty Fawn Bishop-Espinoza
  • Shannon Whaley Shelton
  • Tina Marie Letteri
  • Elijah Peters
  • Amanda Lucille Parker
  • Adam Smith

Thanks again! We look forward to being your guide to the best frights and haunts across America.

Published by FrightFind On September 30, 2015

It was. Three times its head spun in a sort of hellish and ritualistic practice that survived the dark impositions of the thing. The room was without light. Its hollow plastic arms rolled in its shoulder joints and moved it forward like a demon wheel with teeth, pulling itself inch by inch across the center aisle between the dreaming children.

It stopped mechanically and the sacrilegious sizzle of grinding plastic brought a few of the children to stir as it stared at their exposed feet with a dead contemplation in its painted glass eyes as to how their toes might be rearranged. Its arms rolled and it dragged its bowed legs and rotten blue onesie like a pile of its own hanging bowel and with all of the ingenuity of some dark sage it twisted itself in the animation of a deep sea star and mounted the innocent padding of a child’s bed and waited. The child’s chest rose and fell. Foam dribbled from the tiny hole in the center of the thing’s plastic lips. Dead eyes stared.

It crept forward like an escaped shadow and the bed maintained its shape throughout the thing’s light movements as if the bed were a sort of hallowed terrain that rejected evil so entirely that it’d rather not acknowledge it existed at all. A whistle like a punctured sinking lung began as the thing neared the child’s skittering eyelid and the thing’s glass eyeballs rolled in their sunken sockets with a frenzy of corrupt excitement and its own hinged eyelids bobbed up and down, a broken gyro that caused a perpetual winking as moved closer and closer.

As the child breathed and the thing’s mouth set so close, the air from the child’s lungs was intercepted like a blasphemy of pneumatics and the child’s eyelids slowed. The child’s body sunk in a sort of vile stasis with all the attributes of time itself being stolen away. The thing sucked. Its eyes rolled faster. The whistle became louder and the child’s sleep movements became more lethargic and lifeless. A soft pop resounded as the thing’s face caved to the intensity of its own draw and it stood there like a jawless apparition of gluttony set to swallow itself whole.

The door of the room burst open and the lights turned on and the whistling sound gave to a lifeless thud of hollow plastic on the ground between some of the children’s beds. The children all stirred and looked up to the scanning matron near the light switch in sleepy confusion and uncertainty but the lights just as quickly went out and left the room dark again. But the child in that bed next to the fallen thing just laid there motionless and was no longer receptive to light at all. The child was as dead and empty as the thing itself and that thing stared at the ceiling now, with one broken eyelid full down and another gleaming glass eye that lay full open.

Orphanage Beds - By J.A. Crook

Orphanage by J.A. Crook. J.A. Crook is an independent horror author from Lubbock, TX. Check his website out here or follow him on Twitter.
Pre-order J.A.’s upcoming Amid the Recesses on Amazon.

Published by FrightFind On September 15, 2015

We know, we know. Everybody has an opinion on the best horror films. How do you even begin to rank them? Are they the scariest? The bloodiest? The most shocking? The most jump scares?

We choose to rank them based on the films themselves. The story. The acting. The directing. The cinematography. And yes, fear factor. A horror film should be called great because of all these elements.

One thing that makes movies scary is how old you were when you first saw them. The Exorcist is scary at any age, but is Poltergeist? Carrie? Even Psycho? Many of these films may not have the same shock value or the same scares that they did at the time of their release, but they still stand the test of time cinematically. They have a bit of nostalgia going for them, too.

So go ahead, argue and complain, but it’s our list.  Leave your own list in our comments section.

10. Halloween (1978)

Stars: Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis

Director: John Carpenter

All-time classic slasher fest.  No list of all-time horror movies would be complete without Halloween.  Carpenter is masterful in this adaptation – the jump scares are some of the best of all time.  There is subtlety here that is often lacking in horror flicks that followed in its footsteps.  Just consider the idea of the character we are dealing with.  A six-year-old boy kills his sister, is locked up, and his psychiatrist says he spent 8 years trying to help, and the next 7 years trying to keep him locked away. Nuff said.

9. Carrie (1976)


Stars: Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie

Director: Brian DePalma

I prefer (as usual) the original to the remake. The prom scene alone makes the film, but DePalma builds the tension very well throughout. The scenes where Carrie is being terrorized by her schoolmates are bad enough, but the real pressure grows from the scenes with her mother, played by Piper Laurie. The climactic scenes are more powerful because the anger that had been building throughout is released in a brilliant gore-fest

8. Poltergeist (1982)


Stars: Craig T Nelson, JoBeth Williams

Director: Tobe Hooper

Go ahead, find a scarier clown in film history. When little Robbie Freeling starts looking for the clown under the bed, I almost peed myself. Granted, I was a lot younger, but don’t judge me. It’s not just the scares in this film, though. The subtlety early on, and the special effects throughout, make this an all-timer.  Even though the special effects might be a bit dated at this point, one cannot argue with Hooper’s directing skills.

7. Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)


Stars: Heather Lagenkamp, Robert Englund

Director: Wes Craven

The original and easily the best. Craven is the master of popcorn horror flicks, popular among a huge number of people.  You probably rolled your eyes when you saw this as one of the top horror movies, but take a fresh look at it. Don’t lump all the Nightmare films together because most of them have no value.  But just remember what it felt like to watch it for the first time.  Freddy Krueger is one scary sonofabitch.  Horribly scarred man with knives for fingers who will kill you in your dreams if you fall asleep?  Children eerily reciting scary nursery rhymes?  Scary indeed.

6. Alien (1979)


Stars: Sigourney Weaver, John Hurt

Director: Ridley Scott

One of the taglines for this movie says it best. In space, no one can hear you scream. This film is much more subtle than James Cameron’s hugely popular follow-up.  The jump scares come out of nowhere.  Weaver’s Ripley may be the best movie heroine of all time.  The idea of the creatures is scary enough, but it is the entire atmosphere of the film that makes it so scary.

5. Seven (1995)


Stars: Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt

Director: David Fincher

Brilliant storyline and never stops scaring you.  The scariest part of this movie is that it could be real.  A psychopath killing based on the seven deadly sins – it is really one of the smarter films on this list.  An all-star cast, including the two leads and Gwyneth Paltrow and Kevin Spacey, along with great writing by Andrew Kevin Walker, is the strength of the film.

4. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)


Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Jodie Foster

Director: Jonathan Demme

This film swept the Oscars, making it one of the most decorated horror films of all time. Hopkins’ portrayal of Hannibal Lecter might be the greatest depiction of a villain in film history. He actually makes you root for Lecter to escape, which is the best praise I can think of for an obviously horrifying character.  Foster is brilliant in the role of FBI cadet Clarice Starling.  The scenes with Lecter and Starling are the best, with dialogue that is witty and scary at the same time.

3. Psycho (1960)


Stars: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

The shower scene is not only one of the greatest scenes in horror film history, it’s also one of the greatest scenes in all of film history. The searing music, the angle showing the silhouette coming in the door, the quick cuts that mask the fact that the viewer doesn’t even see the knife enter skin, all come together perfectly. Many people took baths for months after seeing Psycho in the theater.  Audiences in 1960 were shocked by the brutality of the material – tame by today’s standards, but the characters remain

2. The Shining (1980)


Stars: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Very close to calling this one the greatest of all time. The main reason it is ranked this high is Stanley Kubrick. It was a scary story when Stephen King wrote it, but Kubrick took it to the next level. His patented symmetrical shots; the quiet menace of the set; the methodical build to the climax – Kubrick is in rare form.  Nicholson gives an all-time performance as he is coming unglued as Jack, the dull boy.

1. The Exorcist (1973)


Stars: Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Linda Blair

Director: William Friedkin

The Exorcist gets the nod at number 1 simply for sheer terror.  Some of the scenes are hard to watch even as an adult.  William Friedkin was famously difficult to work with and hard on his cast, but the results are inarguable.  He used interesting tactics to get the desired reactions from the actors, including shooting guns to get jump scares, and even slapping actors to get them riled up.  Simply put, it stands the test of time and gets our vote for number 1.

Published by FrightFind On August 31, 2015

Wes Craven has been scaring the hell out of people since 1972.  That year, he wrote, directed, and edited The Last House on the Left. From Cleveland, Ohio, he brought us classic horror films like Nightmare on Elm Street, The Hills Have Eyes, Scream and many more. He truly inspired an industry. While he was known for his nightmarish story plots, you may not know that he ventured into other genres. In 1986, he directed an episode of Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color and in 1999 he even directed the Meryl Streep film Music of the Heart.

On August 30th, 2015, Wes Craven lost his battle with brain cancer at his home in Los Angeles. He is survived by his wife, producer and former Disney Studios vice president Iya Labunka.

Wes once said, “Horror films don’t create fear. They release it.” Our condolences go out to the Craven family, friends, and fans.

Our Top 10 Keep-You-Up-At-Night Wes Craven Classics

    1. Nightmare on Elm Street – 1984
    2. The Hills Have Eyes – 1977
    3. Scream – 1996
    4. The Last House on the Left – 1972
    5. Swamp Thing – 1982
    6. The Serpent and the Rainbow – 1987
    7. Scream 2 – 1997
    8. Red Eye – 2005
    9. The People Under the Stairs – 1991
    10. Shocker – 1989

RIP to the Sultan of Slash.