Top Ten Haunted Attraction Movies Where the Scares Are Real

Haunted attractions have always been my favorite part of Halloween. Keep the trick or treating and keep your costume parties because it’s not Halloween season without ridiculous props and buckets of fake blood. They are a chance to scream with terror knowing that you are perfectly safe. The rubber knives and actor behind the mask aren’t really going to kill you! But what if that actor wasn’t acting? And what if that knife was real? What if the silly haunted house turned into a very real slaughterhouse? These movies will answer those what if questions. So climb on in the ride and keep your hands and feet away from the props, for the Top Ten Haunted Attraction Movies Where The Scares Are Real. 

10.THE FUNHOUSE

This 1981 Tobe Hooper circus fever dream has one thing in common with The Texas Chainsaw, a murderous and disfigured family. This movie is about a stereotypical group of slasher victims going to a traveling carnival with violent rumors lingering behind in every town it visits. Our plucky group of 80s horror movie youngsters decide that they want to stay the night in the creepy “Funhouse Ride”. So they can have sex next to carnival themed haunted props I suppose. We’re not here to judge. Anyway, the horny teens get interrupted after witnessing one carnival worker murder another. The murderer looks like Sloth from the Goonies if someone tried to use his head as an accordion. Despite the outdated, disability=monster trope, he does make for a frightening villain. From there it becomes a slow moving cat and mouse through the haunted theme ride. The props are fun, the dialogue is strange, and the violence is corny yet awesome. There are a few truly terrifying moments, when our final girl Amy sees her parents but they can’t hear her scream over the roar of an industrial fan. And Liz in the vents trying to negotiate her way past the killer. The movie really takes its time shuffling our main characters through the carnival, they stop at every booth and the pacing is exhausting. For the first of its kind though, it offers a fun glimpse into the potential of the subgenre. And it’s far better than the 2006 movie Dark Ride, where another group of teens decides to sex it up in a closed haunted attraction. 

9.  HELL HOUSE LLC III LAKE OF FIRE

Fans of the Hell House LLC franchise tend to agree, though this one isn’t as scary as the first installment, it is a fun way to wrap up the first two movies. This one finds a wealthy billionaire drawn to the controversy of the Abaddon Hotel. He creates an interactive haunt with a group of union actors from New York City. His well known haunt is called Insomnia and the Abaddon Hotel is the perfect venue for his Faustian story. Morning Mysteries, the documentary crew featured in the first and second films, follows billionaire Russel Wynn through the creation and downfall of this haunted attraction. Religious themes of good and evil are pretty heavy handed throughout the movie, leading to a conclusion that is fairly controversial in the Hell House fan base. Despite the cheesy gore and convoluted storyline, the scares are fun and the spirit of the franchise is definitely kept alive in this final movie.

8.  THE HOUSES OCTOBER BUILT 2

I have mixed feelings about this one. The ending of the first movie was so intense and left me with dread and unanswered questions. This movie answers those questions in a somewhat unsatisfying manner. Despite the disappointing ending, this whole movie is nonstop horror fun. The group is famous now for surviving the Blue Skeleton encounter and every haunted house in the country wants to see if they can scare our characters. Brandy gets dragged back in despite her constant pleas of “I can’t believe you guys are making me do this again” and all the haunts want to outscare The Blue Skeleton. They head north to explore the Halloween fun up there. There is even a celebrity cameo from world famous eater Takeru Kobayashi. The production value on this one is far better than the first movie. The drone shots of the Zombie 5K are absolutely beautiful. The group is lured back down south as someone or something stalks them. They finally get to Hell Bent and the gore becomes very real for Brandy. Despite the unexpected and odd ending, The Houses October Built 2 is a great exploration of haunted houses and the limits of our own minds. 

7.  EXTREMITY

Extremity is a psychological nightmare. Content warnings for this one are very important. The film deals with the sexual abuse of a child, incest, and rape. This movie is not for the faint of heart. Our main character, Allison, signs up for an extreme haunted house as a last ditch effort to deal with her severe childhood trauma. An extreme haunt is a haunted attraction where the actors can pretty much do whatever they want with you. Once inside the haunt, called Perdition, she is faced with sexual violence, drowning, and an extreme twist that may leave viewers angry and confused. This movie doesn’t follow the traditional style of this subgenre (innocent guests get violently murdered by the haunt and its inhabitants) and instead explores the consequences of facing one’s pyschosexual trauma head on. This movie is a slow burn that doesn’t get gory until the very end. Some scenes could have been shorter, or cut all together, but the final product is intense, deeply sad, and will stick with you long after the credits roll.

6.  THE FUNHOUSE MASSACRE

I loved this movie. It is campy and ridiculous and the blood sprays like a bad Tarantino film but the scares are great and the plot is solid. A themed horror park is opening in town and every room is based on a real murder. Coincidentally, all those murderers are housed in a secretive asylum down the road run by none other than horror legend Robert Englund. The introduction of the killers is violent and surrounded by a moody atmosphere. These monstrous serial killers are set free and allowed to roam in the horror park which is surrounded by an electric fence. These killers have incredible backstories, the dentist who loves using the drill, a wrestler who killed one too many opponents, and the charismatic cult leader to name a few. Watching them critique the rooms dedicated to their own kills is silly yet very frightening. The kills are hilarious and brutal, the acting is funny, and the horror movie references are off the charts. This one definitely requires multiple viewings to catch all the references.

5.  BLOOD FEST

Have you ever wondered what would happen if 100s of homicidal maniacs were released into a haunted theme park? Well Blood Fest answers that question pretty much instantly. This movie doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to the full blown carnage. The CGI violence is pretty cheesy but the acting, the chemistry, and the story line are all captivating. Our hero, Dax, is a horror movie fanatic and he sneaks into the horror themed festival Blood Fest against his fathers wishes. The blood starts spilling as soon as all the guests are gathered at the stage, where chainsaw wielding killers in pig masks start ripping through the crowd. Dax and his friends escape and the only way to survive is to remember all the horror movie rules. This movie is great for horror lovers because the references are out of control. There are too many to count and even after multiple views I notice something else. The theme park is split into different sections all based around different horror movies. Dax’s favorite, The Arbor Day Franchise, features a tree themed slasher. There are true moments of brilliance between Dax and the Arbor Day actor, John Hinkley. This movie may be fairly silly but the characters are sympathetic and interesting, the character growth is outstanding and the twist ending wraps everything up in a nice and bloodied bow.   

4.  HELL FEST

Like Blood Fest, Hell Fest takes place in a haunted theme park. A sprawling amusement park with haunts to satisfy every horror fan. Unlike Blood Fest, this one is less campy and fun, and more full blown slasher. Hell Fest features our usual group of stereotypical victims, but they are fun and I ended up rooting for all of them to survive. This movie features a single killer, who hunts his victims throughout the park until he can make his move. The gore is very real looking and the kills are convincing enough that our main characters think it’s all part of the fun. We also get a wonderful cameo from another horror legend, Tony Todd, as the emcee of the park. No good horror movie is complete without gaslighting of the victims, which our final girl Natalie experiences plenty of. This movie will keep you on edge and have you covering your eyes at some of the more violent moments. 

3.  THE HOUSES OCTOBER BUILT

The Houses October Built is a unique one, it’s a found footage film, but a lot of the movie was actually filmed on location in real haunted attractions. This movie is incredibly fun. It follows a group of friends with real chemistry on a cross country road trip to discover the best haunted attractions. They highlight the incredible and real haunted houses of the midwest. Writer, Director, and Actor Bobby Roe talked about how phenomenal these haunted houses were, attracting 60,000 people in one night. But Roe and his friends want more, they keep asking around and eventually the extreme haunt known only as The Blue Skeleton, finds them. The footage of real haunted houses are amazing and were a comfort for this haunted house fan in 2020. They mix in interviews with employees which adds a threatening and humorous layer to the whole trip. Throw in some creepy run ins with random scarers still in costume, including the creepiest doll girl, and they’ve set us up for something truly terrifying. 

2.  HAUNT

Much like Extremity, Haunt takes place in an extreme haunt. Except Haunt really goes for the “what if those terrifying looking clowns wanted to torture and murder all of us” vibe. The gore is extreme, and the tension and fear burn throughout the whole movie. The characters are fairly textbook for a gory slasher, but our final girl, Harper, is smart, brave and anything but naive. And that strength pays off in the original and unexpected ending. The gore is stomach churning, even the off screen deaths are chilling thanks to excellent sound design. It’s intimate, quiet, and unnerving. The claustrophobia and feeling of desperate hopelessness is enough to move it past simple slasher and more towards gritty psychological horror. That’s not surprising considering Eli Roth co-produced it. The story follows 6 kids through a deeply disturbing haunted attraction turned torture chamber, filled with truly violent moments, traps, and games all designed to separate them from each other. Forcing them to fend for themselves against a group of incredibly masked killers. Seriously, the mask and makeup design is a thing of grotesque beauty. The plot is simple and gets right to the point. This is a fun ride that slowly amps up the scares until your heart is racing for the remaining characters. 

1.  HELL HOUSE LLC

This movie is incredible. The found footage element can be dizzying if not pulled off correctly but Hell House LLC leaned in and created a masterpiece. The acting is surprisingly good and the chemistry between characters is believable and relatable. For those who haven’t seen this, Hell House LLC is about a haunted house company that buys a very real haunted hotel to host their annual Halloween haunt, Hell House. The opening night of the haunt, which looks terrifying (looking at you black and white polka dot/stripe clown), several people are violently murdered in a series of unexplained events. The film follows the company as they slowly turn the creepy maze that is the Abaddon Hotel into a pay to play nightmare. The line between pranking and true terror gets blurred throughout which adds tension and mistrust between the characters. They don’t rely on jump scares to keep your heart rate up, and instead opt for subtle scares that build the creepiness level until you’re forced to peek through your fingers every time they do a camera or light check. This movie requires multiple viewings to truly appreciate every little scare they’re throwing at you. Never trust the props in a haunted house, you never know when one might turn its head.