Many people during the Halloween season seek spine-shivering experiences to fuel the thrill. Haunted houses are always on the top of people’s to-do list during the month of October but don’t know which spots to hit.
Located at 701 Taylor Drive, Plano, TX 75074, the well-known Dark Hour Haunted House comes back for the 2023 Halloween season. This year’s theme, Rise of the Sea Witch, alters the Plano location into a place where they depict the thrillings of a witch lurking in the waters. The house has a deadly coven that haunts the halls. Every year, a new witch arises and takes over to bring the Darkness to every hour. Ticket prices are $35 if you buy a pre-purchase admission before Oct. 26, but the minimum for admission after is $45.
Hidden away five hours north of the DFW metroplex, Amarillo Scare Grounds is Amarillo’s largest and longest-running haunted attraction since its opening in 1998. The owners loved Halloween leading them to open after being haunted house operators. There are five attractions to surely scare your spirit. They offer Terror, Insanitarium, the Basement, B-Trail and Xcape Room Village. Phobias bring the terror and fear out of everyone. Going to the mental insanitarium includes outrunning zombies that took over. All the paranoia you have when you go down to the basement as a kid becomes reality in The Basement. B-Trail and Xcape Room Village allow the participants to recover from the other experiences. B-Trail is a haunted walk-through and Xcape is a collection of 5-minute escape games. The house opens at 7 p.m. It’s the perfect time to start the horror extravaganza.
In Fort Worth, there is a meatpacking plant that was converted into a haunted house. This house, Cutting-Edge is widely considered to be one of the best haunted houses in the nation. It’s built in an abandoned meat packing factory that has more than 200,000 square feet of space to bring the edge alive. It’s filled with amazing special effects and intensely terrifying live actors. There is no overall theme which makes the variety more flexible allowing you to be scared by vampires and clowns. Cutting-Edge is the only haunted house on this list to hold four Guinness World Record awards.
J&F House of Terror is completely different from the others. The locations of this haunted house vary every year as they are in malls. This year, J&F has two locations in Garland. This house makes your experience scary by only allowing you to use one glowstick that is given to you upon entering. It’s open through Oct. 31. They also have an outdoor maze and butcher house where you can buy a combo or individual tickets. There is only a limited amount of tickets available for sale.
