Haunted attraction

Also this week, Tim Curry, the original Pennywise, has passed away at 80.

Movie Park Germany added the first Jason Universal haunted house outside the United States.

Mickey's Not So Scary added a Captain Barbarossa, a Captain Barbossa show, and Haunted Mansion meet and greets.

Camelback Resort is turning into its Pocono Water Park into a toxic outbreak haunt.

Here's what you need to know this week.

Halloween Horror Nights 35, which houses to skip and which to prioritize.

Halloween Horror Nights 35 is open at Universal Orlando in Orlando, Florida, and this year's Infernal Carnival of Nightmares runs 10 haunted houses.

We walked all of them at the premium scream night and the gap between the best and the rest is wide this year.

And Mickey's Not So Scary is sold out 16 of 38 nights at $119 to $229 a ticket.

In this week's SES essay, I argue Halloween is the only season theme parks can charge second gates for because haunted houses are the roller coasters of fall.

They're dedicated attractions defined in a way that the general ambience of Christmas is not.

The product that gives the theme park industry its fall pricing power is the one you operate.

They run October 16th to 18th, 23rd to 25th, and October 29th to November 1st.

On those days, guests can dance through five festive party zones, find surprise encounters in the Alice in Wonderland maze, join Donald's Halloween treat party at Festival Forest, collect treats across the resort, and gather at the Enchanted Storybook Castle for the Disney Villains Castle Celebration.

Find the best haunted houses for you with the Scare Factor's free Haunt Advisor.

The Scare Factor, a haunted house review directory that has sent review teams into haunts for more than 20 years, has launched Haunt Advisor, a free tool that turns its directory into a personalized one.

dates, lineup, and tickets, Alton Towers Scarefest 2026, dates, and new final exhibit maze and what to know, Halloween TV specials 2026, what to watch and where, Dollywood Harvest Festival 2026, a 40-foot pumpkin tree, Luminites, and two new additions.

Previously announced guides include Cedar Point Hello Weekends 2026, Spirit Halloween Locations 2026, Netherworld Haunted House, When Do Haunted Houses Open in 2026, The Best and Scariest Haunted Houses in America, Halloween Horror Nights 2026, Disney Halloween 2026, Fright Fest 2026, Hallow Scream 2026, Orlando Halloween Events, Halloween Time at Disneyland, Haunted Houses in California, Halloween Horror Nights 2026, Haunted Houses in Texas, and Halloween Horror Nights Tickets 2026.

In retail news, Home Depot's 7-foot Plague Doctor animatronic.

Home Depot's 7-foot Graven Bones animated LED Plague Doctor is a $199 animatronic in the retail's 2026 Halloween collection, and it has become one of the season's breakout searches.

Okay, another summer activity and a perfectly valid way to send chills across your skin.

How about Obakeyashiki? Haunted Houses.

So if walking through an actual cemetery at night seems a little inconvenient or a little too real, you can visit a haunted house.

These are surprisingly old and probably had their roots in the old Misemono spectacle shows, again from the Edo era.

While these days they do borrow some Western horror tropes, I guess a good example would be when I was in the PTA when my son was in elementary school, and us moms were constructing some haunted classrooms for the summer festival.

I mentioned that I had a scream mask that glowed in the dark and was asked to go home quickly and retrieve it so we could put it in the corner.

So, where in North America you might have a lot of jump scares, zombies, dudes with chainsaws chasing after you, and relentless startling effects, traditionally the Obakeyashiki in Japan would lean more into dread and ghost and curse imagery, and just something being off.

I think it's safe to say that there aren't any psychotic killer clowns in traditional Japanese haunted houses, but you will find monks chanting somberly in flickering lamplight with their backs to you, only to turn around suddenly and reveal that they only have one large eye in the middle of their face.