Scream your way through the region’s best haunted houses, trails and more

Credit: JRDEE2

Credit: JRDEE2

Halloween wouldn’t be Halloween without the region’s best nightmare-inducing haunts — including haunted houses, trails and hayrides.

Here is a guide to the best haunted attractions across the region.

👻🦇Brimstone Haunt

Credit: JRDEE2

Credit: JRDEE2

Location: 472 Brimstone Road, Wilmington

Hours: Open from 7 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. every Friday and Saturday through Oct. 30.

Details: Created by the producers of the Ohio Renaissance Festival and Celtic Fest Ohio, the Brimstone Haunt in Wilmington boasts a varied roster of haunted attractions that vary in intensity. If you’re looking to bring the entire family to the Brimstone Haunt, you might want to keep the scares a bit more tame with the Haunted Hayride. However, for those who want to experience the full terror of the season, take a trek through the Forgotten Forest or walk through the haunted house, Psychosis, or Zombie Assault, which takes place on an old school bus.

Cost: Ticket prices for the 2021 season are as follows:

- Haunted Hayride: $16 per person

- Forgotten Forest: $15 per person

- Psychosis: $9 per person

- Zombie Assault: $5 per person

- Haunted Hayride, Forgotten Forest and Psychosis combination ticket: $28 per person

- Haunted Hayride, Forgotten Forest, Psychosis and Fast Pass combination ticket: $48 per person

Parking is $3 and will be collected at the entrance.

More info: brimstonehaunt.com | Facebook.com/BrimstoneHaunt

👻🦇Riverside Jaycees Haunted Castle of Carnage

Location: 1213 Old Harshman Road, Riverside

Hours: Open through Oct. 31 from dusk to midnight Fridays and Saturdays and dusk to 10 p.m. Sundays

Details: This haunted attraction may offer the most “boo” for your buck, with two attractions available for one reasonable price, including the Haunted Castle of Carnage and the Trail of Terror.

Need another reason, beyond the scares, to pay a visit to the Riverside Jaycees Haunted Castle of Carnage? The Riverside Jaycees use this haunted attraction to give back to the community by helping young adults gain leadership skills.

Cost: Guests will be able to enjoy the Haunted House and Trail for only $17 per person. If you’d like to skip to the front of the line, you can purchase a VIP pass for $25 per person.

More info: www.riverside-jaycees.com | Facebook.com/RiversideJayceesHauntedCastleofCarnage

👻🦇Dayton Scream Park

Location: 4355 Valley St., Dayton

Hours: Every Friday and Saturday through Oct. 31 from dusk to midnight

Details: Dayton Scream Park lives up to its name with countless opportunities for terror along its haunted trails, Trail Trap Maze, Hollywood attraction with monsters from the silver screen and the “Circus From Hell.” Each attraction features more than 30 terrorizing scenes and 60 live monsters.

Cost: $20 (regular admission), $40 (VIP) and a $10 Touch Pass that allows the monsters to touch you.

More info: www.daytonscreampark.com | Facebook.com/daytonscreampark

👻🦇The Dent Schoolhouse in Cincinnati

Credit: Contributed

Credit: Contributed

Location: 5963 Harrison Ave., Cincinnati

Hours: Thursday and Sunday from 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 7:30 p.m. to midnight through Nov. 6

Details: This one is worth the drive. The Dent Schoolhouse in Cincinnati is widely considered to be one of the top haunted attractions in Ohio, receiving national attention from The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Haunted Attraction Magazine and America Haunts.

Built in 1884, the Dent Schoolhouse, according to legend, might scare away the most timid customers. Beginning in 1942, students disappeared from the schoolhouse until people began noticing a foul smell emanating from the basement. Then, in 1955, after an angry mob demanded justice for their missing sons and daughters, it was discovered that the school’s janitor had killed the children and let their bodies rot in the basement. Unfortunately, though, the janitor got away (or did he?), but the spirits of the dead children haunt the place, still seeking revenge.

Customers are led through the schoolhouse that boasts grizzly scenes, like a lifelike memorial to the murdered children, an upgraded kitchen with a meat saw, conveyor belt and trash dump, a ghost dance in the auditorium and man-sized spiders in the basement. More than 50 actors appear in this chilling haunted attraction.

Cost: General admission tickets are $20 on Thursdays and Sundays and $25 on Fridays and Saturdays. A Fast Pass is an additional $20 and a Front of the Line pass is an additional $30.

More info: frightsite.com | Facebook.com/thedentschoolhouse

👻🦇Land of Illusion

Location: 8762 Thomas Road, Middletown

Hours: Through Nov. 7, Fridays and Saturdays from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Details: One of the Dayton area’s most popular haunted attractions offers more than just terrifying haunts. Land of Illusion’s Haunted Scream Park also offers guests a chance to enjoy food, drink, live entertainment and places to sit down to “let your heart recover.”

The following opportunities exist for sheer terror at Land of Illusion’s Haunted Scream Park:

  • Temple of Terror: Unless you’re Indiana Jones, your chances of surviving this temple of doom are pretty slim. This Egyptian-themed haunt features a full gallery of the undead.
  • Phobia: Total darkness and a phobia around every door. Each person has an irrational fear of different things. Phobia hits them all.
  • Killer Klowns Haunted Maze: How about an entire haunt dedicated to the irrational fear of clowns? Finding your way out of a haunted maze is difficult enough without a host of leering, painted faces jumping out at you.
  • Dr. Psycho’s Haunted Hospital: Enter this haunted hospital where the mutilated victims of Dr. Psycho’s experimental sadism await to take revenge.
  • Big Mama’s Revenge: A Dr. Psycho spinoff, if you will. Big Mama was originally imprisoned in the Haunted Hospital for torturing people. Now, she’s escaped and formed a haunted labyrinth all her own.
  • The Historical Mystery Mansion: Built in 1960, this old-school ride takes you through cobwebs, dust, bad smells and vintage ghosts.
  • The Middletown Haunted Trail: Come back to where it all started. Land of Illusion’s very first haunt is a one-mile trail through 40 scenes, featuring sickos armed with blades, chainsaws, and blowtorches, as well as creatures who enjoy the taste of human flesh.

Cost: General admission for one attraction is $25 and a general admission ticket, which gives you unlimited access to all seven attractions, costs $50. A general admission ticket plus VIP admission is $75, a Haunt Family of 4 Season Pass is $299, a Haunt General Admission Season Pass is $99 and a Haunt VIP Season Pass is $199.

More info: www.landofillusion.com/haunt | Facebook.com/LandofIllusion

👻🦇Terror Maze in Springfield

Location: 6988 Springfield Jamestown Road, Springfield

Hours: Open on Fridays and Saturdays through Oct. 31 from 8 p.m. and midnight

Details: This haunted terror maze features dozens of scares and actors sure to chill you to the bone.

Cost: $15 per person or $25 for a single ticket, Terror Maze t-shirt and a glow bracelet

More info: www.terrormaze.com | Facebook.com/TerrorMaze.net

👻🦇Face Your Fears: Hotel of Terror

Location: 1291 Cold Spring Road, Springfield

Hours: Open every Friday and Saturday through Oct. 30 from 8 p.m. to midnight

Details: This is the hotel stay of your worst nightmare. This four-story farmhouse has been transformed into a terrifying hotel with scares lurking in every corner. In 2018, the Hotel of Terror was voted the #1 Scariest Haunt in Ohio out of 160 haunted attractions by Scare Factor.

Cost: General admission tickets are $20. A fast pass is $30 and VIP tickets (which allow the monsters to touch you) are $40.

More info: www.faceyourfearshaunt.com | Facebook.com/FaceYourFearsHotelofTerror

👻🦇Sidney Haunted Woods

Location: 2232 W. Russell Road, Sidney

Hours: Open through Oct. 30 on every Saturday night from dark until the “crowds die down”

Details: Located approximately 30 minutes north of Dayton, the Sidney Haunted Woods features a half-mile track of terror with beloved Halloween characters like evil clowns, zombies, “Silent Hill” burn victims, Jeepers Creepers, Jason, Freddy, scarecrows and more.

Cost: General admission is $14 per adult, $12 per child 12 or under and $12 for military personnel and first responders. A special group rate of $11 per person is available for groups of 10 or more.

More info: Facebook.com/SidneyHauntedWoods

👻🦇Hell’s Dungeon

Credit: Marshall Gorby

Credit: Marshall Gorby

Location: 3866 Linden Ave. in Dayton

Hours: Open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through Nov. 7 from 8 p.m. to midnight.

Details: Hell’s Dungeon is Dayton’s newest haunted attraction. It’s also located indoors so you don’t have to wait in line outside in the cold unless the attraction is over its 750-person capacity. The spooky fun is best suited for guests ages 12 and up.

“Where else can you go for an evening and go through a portal into a different realm to where you see a walking, talking scarecrow, a 6-foot pumpkin head, (then) walk through a swamp, have voodoo curse put on you, go to an asylum, go through a sewer, and then you get into the 3D area (and) you’ve got a 7-foot clown head chasing you on a tricycle — where else can you go and get all that in 30 to 45 minutes? It’s called Hell’s Dungeon,” owner Fred Hearn said.

Cost: General admission $24 (plus processing fees) and an additional $10 for a fast pass. Tickets can be purchased online.

More info: www.survivehellsdungeon.com | Facebook.com/hellsdungeondayton

👻🦇Lewisburg Haunted Cave

Location: 4392 Swishers Mill Rd., Lewisburg

Hours: Open until Oct. 30 on Fridays from 7 p.m. to midnight and on Saturdays from 6 p.m. to midnight

Details: Though it is a bit of drive, this destination truly delivers in scares for the most adventurous. The Lewisburg Haunted Cave is the world’s longest haunt at 3,564 feet long. Not only that, customers will trek 80 feet below ground to a limestone cave to meet the haunts that lurk below the surface of the earth (in the company of 30,000 live bats to boot).

Cost: $20 per person on Fridays and $25 per person on Saturdays. Children 10 and older get in for $10.

More info: hauntedcaveatlewisburg.com

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