320 W. 1300 South, Salt Lake City, 801-467-8100, NightmareOn13th.com Heading into its 26th year of operation in a 36,000-square-foot warehouse, Nightmare on 13th is known for being one of the longestlasting and biggest haunted attractions in the state. Employing an army of animatronic robots and live actors (or are they?) this year’s theme, “Phantasms,” celebrates all things ghostly. Who you gonna call? Your heart doctor, probably.
Haunted Forest
100 W. 6400 North, American Fork, 801-903-3039, HauntedUtah.com Leave your cutesy Hansel and Gretel expectations at the door. The Haunted Forest revolves around the tales of the haunting of a woman named Annie, betrothed to a man who died in an American Fork mine in 1913. The forest is made up of 5 acres of forest, dungeons, swamps and Annie’s old home, where she can be heard shrieking in grief for her lost love.
Asylum 49
Fear Factory
Strangling Brothers Utah Haunted Circus
Frightmares
Haunted Hollow
1550 S. 1900 West, Ogden, 801-603-2231, HauntedUtah.com Dubbed “the mother of all terrors” and owned by Tombstone Entertainment, which also oversees the Haunted Forest, Haunted Hollow is nearly three times bigger than its sister attraction. Explore—get this—13 acres of cursed trees, and beware of the monsters, ghouls and ghosts hiding in the crevices. Bring an extra set of underpants.
P.J. SNELLING
—Mikey Saltas
OCTOBER 13, 2016 | 21
7980 S. State, Midvale, 385-216-8915, CastleOfChaos.com The Castle has gone through a series of renovations in preparation for the 2016 scare season, including a “Chaos Escape Room,” where people are placed in rooms and must collect clues in order to escape the area before the “collector” returns to finish everyone off. And that’s just one of the areas in this year’s iteration. Check out the “Four Levels of Fear” … if you dare.
375 Lagoon Drive, Farmington, 801-451-8000, LagoonPark.com Worried that the little ones will get too scared in a regular haunted house, or that you’ll be bored at a child-oriented attraction? Lagoon Amusement Park understands the struggle and provides child-friendly mazes and walk-throughs as well as the lessrestrained Devil’s Nightwalk and the jailinspired Zombie Lockdown. Unlike the Utah Department of Corrections, the lockdown is sincere in offering the following warning on its website: “Once you enter this prison, you may never leave the same.”
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Castle of Chaos
632 E. 1500 South, American Fork, 801-850-8060, StranglingBrothers.com Every fall, the nationally acclaimed Strangling Brothers circus rolls into town, bringing with it frightening clowns—don’t shoot! Along with the Haunted Circus, there’s also the Zombie Hunt, where patrons can gear up and fight the army of the dead with glow-in-the-dark paintballs and paint guns.
666 W. 800 South, Salt Lake City, 801-692-3327, FearFactorySLC.com Fear resides in this 100-year-old abandoned cement factory turned haunted-house. Along with the expected thrills, there are extreme attractions such as a free-fall and zipline (as if the factory wasn’t scary enough). Actors here even recite scripts from a satanic bible—fitting for the eery building, whose street number is 666.
140 E. 200 South, Tooele, 435-224-6283, Asylum49.com Back in the ’70s, Provo-based Utah State Hospital debuted “spook alley,” an area of the mental-care facility that was set up by actual patients and billed as an attraction. Political correctness did away with the all-too-real experience, and Asylum 49 picks up where the institution left off. A “Things to Know” disclaimer warns that you might be touched, grabbed, separated from your group and even strapped to a metal bed.
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Cydney Neil
Nightmare on 13th
From forrest ghouls, to prison zombies and escaped mental patients, these area haunted houses offer beastly bang for your buck. Strangling Brothers
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Despite the fond memories that Rocky Point evokes, Neil looks back on her days in the haunted house industry with mixed feelings. “The industry did what I expected it to do; it’s gotten massive all over the world,” she says. “I’m very happy not to be involved with the industry; it’s gotten quite gory, and it wasn’t something I wanted to spend my life doing.” Ever the trailblazer, Neil’s efforts also addressed a scary issue felt across industries year-round: gender bias. “We were doing theme park numbers before the industry got started,” she points out, “and the group of boys didn’t want to see some woman be more successful than they were.” Still, the legacy lives on for those who were fortunate enough to count themselves as patrons. The haunted-house industry is huge in Utah; and many, if not all, of our local attractions owe a debt of gratitude to the unique, escapist realm that Rocky Point created. “If I do nothing else with my life—I really expect that I will—I will always feel honored and grateful,” Neil says. “I will miss it.” That makes two of us. Or 2 million. It’s tough to keep track. CW
PAUL BUDD
Get Your Fright On!