Top 13 Best Haunts 2009

[Haunts of Richmond]

I cast a vote for "The Realm of Darkness". Their level of set detail is astonishing. Their theme is original... An interactive midevil battle against an undead wizard and his legions, in which you can actually win twice your money back?!? What's not to like??

Wow, there are actually haunts that give people their money back if they "solve" the mystery or whatever? Crazy! And pretty cool!

- Ryan

[graystone]

Well its a given

That Eric and Haunted Overload deserves a place on this list. Also again I think Paul and the Atrox guys also deserves a place on the list. Shane and its just an opinion. Shane this time.

[elowther]

Thanks Shane and Dark Tiki! There are a lot of haunts out there that should be on the list. I'm looking forward to Ben's articles on Shane's and Paul's haunts in the next issue. I can honestly say that all the years Larry has done the list all of the haunts chosen deserved a spot on there and I enjoyed reading about them and seeing their videos. Sometimes it all comes down to who sends in footage or who votes for who on a certain day. There are mind blowing haunts out there that just didn't post videos or photos so they didn't make the list. I'm looking forward to seeing more from the Dent School House since they have been mentioned a bunch this year. Fright Kingdom, I have seen first hand so I would like to see them make it as well. No matter what happens, the build up to the list and the exposure it brings the haunt industry is always exciting.

Some of my personal favorites include:

Dead Acres
Netherworld
The Darkness now that I have seen it in person
House of Torment
Headless Horseman Hayrides
Bates Motel
13th Gate
The Scarehouse

This is just a partial list mostly based off what I have seen in the magazine, photos and video.

On another note. Those of you that have signed up for the HHA, come on over to the HHA forum and register for the help desk. I have put up a post you can only see there that I will update each week. It will include step by step instructions detailing a new scene at Haunted Overload called the Soul Takers Burial Ground. You will see the trial and error process as it takes shape and how the whole scene plays out with lighting and scare placement. I will answer any and all questions along the way. Here is a small sample.

Enjoy,

Eric

Here is how the Franken Bukey skull looks out of the box, boring as hell and one piece of plastic, not scary at all but big. This will be a perfect time saving base to build a good looking scary head for one of the 8 reaper figures to populate the new scene.


We need to cut the jaw off this skull to make it more realistic with an open mouth. Always wear earplugs and eye protection when using a dremil to do this. I started with a small diamond tip but soon switched to a better, thicker cutting tip to do the job.

Many stages skipped. Check out the help desk to see the rest.


Here is a closer look. This skull is only 50% done at this point. The teeth need to be detailed and gaps made with the Dremel. Texture applied and wood stain with bracket made to mount to the huge body.


Doing 8 of these will be very time consuming so I will update this thread when I have more faces to show. In the meantime you can ask questions up to this point.

Stay tuned, with any luck we will end up with something that looks like this.

[Jolly Pumpkin]

Larry all you would have to do is get a small website created specifically for the top haunts and where people could vote and nominate haunts. You could also have the history of previous top haunt winners. I think that would work best and you would also get more people voting who usually don't visit the forums. Just have it set up in a way where people can only vote once or a maximum of 5 times. It could definately work.

[chuck weber]

Look...................

Let's all just go to "The Cavern of Terror" in Kansas City and have a good time. It's the only haunt in a real cave. (plus, it's under new ownership!) Not to be Missed !!!

[UnDeRTaKer313]

Noah that idea is excellent.
Larry i say you do that.

[Mr Nightmarez]

Let's all just go to "The Cavern of Terror" in Kansas City and have a good time. It's the only haunt in a real cave. (plus, it's under new ownership!) Not to be Missed !!!

You are so wrong... We are in a cave 260 feet below ground. So they are NOT the only haunt that is underground or in a cave...


www.HauntedCavern.com

[Jolly Pumpkin]

Yeah, there are quite a few haunted caves and one of the best is Haunted Cave at Lewisburg. You can visit their website at www.hauntedcaveatlewisburg.com.

[chuck weber]

thank you for enlightening me..........

I'll have to check it out !!!! (all of the other cave-type haunts !!!!!!)

[UnDeRTaKer313]

13 most unique haunts
or
13 most revolutionary haunts

just have us make a list of haunts that are unique and why
and then we will vote down to 13.
easy as that.

because i dont believe best is a good term unless its someones personal 13 favorite they have been too.

[Haunts of Richmond]

13 most unique haunts
or
13 most revolutionary haunts

Even those are pretty subjective. There really is no perfect system for voting on the "best" haunts. As long as HauntWorld continues to recognize different haunts (in different areas) throughout the year, I guess I'm ok with the system.

Why can't HHA and IAHA members write in votes? Maybe receive a ballot in the mail and we send it in?

- Ryan

[HauntedMemphis]

Just be honest and call it what it is. We don't have to make stuff up to get exposure. This has nothing to do with Larry or what he is doing for the industry. Let's get that out there right now because it isn't a critism of him or anything he has done. It is just a discussion on either changing a procedure or what something is called. And besides we aren't talking about anyone handing a list of top haunts to the media to get us exposure, we are talking about what kind of article in the next Hauntworld magazine we want to read. So to be clear the debate is "Do we want to keep voting on these top 13 lists every year with the possibility of seeing the most of the same haunts each year or do we want 13 new must see haunts in the magazine each year".

The haunts end up not just being HauntWorld's top 13 haunts, whether it's right or wrong, they also get publicised as the HHA's top 13 haunts, which makes it sound more important to the mainstream media. USA Today picked it up last year for example.


AOL also does a top 13 haunts list, which seems to get more publicised in the mainstream, but as HHA gets more estabilished, this may become the more influential list.

With that said, I agree with you 100% that this will never really give you a top 13, and we'd be better off with 13 featured haunts that are new this year. However, "top 13" is more catchy and probably gets more publicity than the list would get otherwise.

[UnDeRTaKer313]

well whatever larry decides, hes running out of time

[Killer Katie]

Wisconsin Feargrounds

I would vote for Wisconsin Feargrounds
Why?
They do some amazing set work inside of a fairgrounds. Knowing what that takes, I think they do an amazing job!! A lot of detail, great lighting, just enough pnematics to keep it exciting.
Their actors are the best actors I have seen, in the dialogue, costuming and intensity area.
They are extremely well organized, from what I saw - the staff are on top of everything.
Finally - they gave us ONE HELL of a show during Hauntcon!

Hats off to Timmer and his crew!!!

[Brandon_K]

What about doing a top 3 in 10 categories or something of the like? IE, most scenic, most intense, best value, most creative? Everyone has their spot, we can't compete with places like Universal or Kennywood as far as attendance goes, we're not the most scenic, but we're definitely one of the most intense in the Pittsburgh area.

On the HauntCon tour, I only saw one or two haunts that I personally didn't think were very good. If I pick three on the tour alone, Terror on the Fox, Feargrounds and Realm of Terror, they're the best in their own way. Feargrounds was good overall, Terror on the Fox was the best as far as audio / pre-show / scenery goes and Realm of Terror was easily the highest startle scare haunt on the tour, which is what I love in a haunt.

I know it goes against everything you've done in the past with the Top 13, but they all have their pro's and con's.