You don’t have to wait until Halloween to come face-to-face with ghosts, zombies, and other shadowy creatures. New York is packed with haunted houses where, for a small fee, you can get your fill of spine-tingling thrills — think fake blood, spooky graveyards, jump scares, and sinister creatures straight out of your worst nightmares. We’ve been to quite a few over the past several years — and these are our absolute favorites, from Blood Manor, a 10,000-square-foot labyrinth of horrors that returns year after year, to The Ridgewood Asylum, known for its white-knuckle scares, plus seasonal pop-ups that only occasionally return to haunt the city.
1. A Haunting In Hollis
At this haunted attraction in Queens, you’ll make your way through a real multi-level house — from the basement to the attic — transformed into a chilling nightmare. The roughly 30-minute experience features 16 horror-themed rooms and two 40-foot pitch-black outdoor mazes, with live actors, zombies, ghouls, and other creatures waiting in the darkness. You’ll get a flashlight to help find your way, but with more than 250 walls used to create the attraction, getting lost is part of the fun. Your escape includes Satan’s Slope, a steep slide with a 20-foot drop that sends you straight into yet another dark maze. For an interactive twist, you can arm yourself with a laser gun to fend off the zombies — or stick with the attraction’s trusty code word, “peanut butter,” when you’ve had enough.
2. Frightmare Farms Haunted Scream Park
Nestled in Central New York, Frightmare Farms has become an annual destination for thrill-seekers looking for a full night of Halloween scares. Spread across a 48-acre property, the scream park features four attractions this year.
Twisted Labyrinth: Harvest of Shadows sends you weaving through an indoor-outdoor maze steeped in dark rituals, while Terror Trail: Infestation takes the horror into the woods, where an otherworldly force has infected the people and creatures you’ll encounter along the way. The Forbidden Frightmare Forest Haunted Hayride takes things to an even bigger scale, carrying guests through the forest past massive sets, monstrous creatures, and unexpected scares. Lantern Keepers guide the wagon with creepy stories and dark humor as shadowy figures lurk just beyond the glow of their lanterns.
There’s plenty to do between scares, too. The property includes roaming characters, campfires, food concessions, photo ops, shops, themed areas like Monster Midway, Tradewinds Ghost Port, and Fright Air, plus live entertainment throughout the evening. And if things get a little too terrifying, guests can request a free candle before 9 p.m. as part of the attraction’s Candlelight Option — though Frightmare Farms warns that carrying one doesn’t guarantee the monsters will leave you alone.
3. Blood Manor
Located in Manhattan’s Tribeca, Blood Manor is a roughly 10,000-square-foot labyrinth of themed rooms, dark corridors, and twisting passageways packed with zombies, killer clowns, monsters, and other creatures ready to jump out when you least expect it. The roughly 20-minute experience is done entirely on foot, with guests typically entering in groups of six. Actors may get frighteningly close, so brace yourself, but they’re trained not to touch visitors…