“Five of Indiana’s haunted attractions made a national list for top haunts” according to an article from WTHR.com. The Haunted Attraction Association released their list with the top 57 best haunted houses in the country. The featured Indiana attractions are Hysterium in Fort Wayne, Malice Manor in Clarksville, Necropolis Underground in Indianapolis, Piney Acres Scream Farm in Greenville, and Stillwell Manor Haunted Attraction in Anderson.
Although nationally those haunted houses were deemed top tier, locally students at Marian have their own opinions on the haunted houses in Indiana.
“I loved Indy Scream Park last year,” said senior nursing major, Lore Akinola-Afolabi.
According to the Smithsonian Magazine, what we know as haunted houses today were originally created with the motivation to keep kids from escalating their Halloween holiday pranks during the Great Depression. Parents created themed haunted houses and attractions in their basements in order to give the children new holiday activities rather than letting them commit property damage and vandalism. Trick ‘r Treating also started around the same time for similar reasons.
In modern days, there are competitions to be the scariest, greatest haunted house in the country—hence The Haunted Attraction Association and their list. In recent years there’s been a new layer added to walking through these types of attractions, now they can touch you!
“I went to the Indy Scream Park my freshman year and had a blast!” said senior English major, Maria Gropp.
Many places like Indy Scream Park have options for different houses that you have to sign a waiver for them to touch or interact with you. After signing away your sanity, they will usually give interactive participants a tag, sticker, or mark of some kind that informs the actors you’re here for the full experience. There are still haunted houses that have a no touching policy like The Thirteenth Hour but those are becoming less common.
