ABOUT & RATINGS GUIDE
Scare Zone publishes news, rumors, and reviews of theme park and other commercial haunted attractions throughout the United States and the world, as well as general information about the horror genre and other scary things.
20 Years of Haunt Stalking
Scare Zone’s Co-founders and writers are ‘Terror-spondents’ M. Leota and Matt E. Horn. We’re also joined by Devil’s Chariot who’s Scare Zone’s haunt photographer and graphic designer.
We began haunt stalking together 20 years ago with our first visit to Knott’s Scary Farm. Over the past 20 years our desire to be scared has become insatiable taking us on tours of haunted attractions across the country from our home base in Southern California to New York, Florida, and everywhere in between. Even though we’ve been “haunt stalking” for 20 years, we still get scared like everyone else and continue to enjoy the fun and adventure of a good haunted house. We’ve experienced some of the best haunts and some of the worse but we always appreciate the passion and energy put into just about every attraction we’ve visited.
We created Scare-Zone to “share the scare” and provide ‘Haunt Stalkers’ with a place to share insights, stories, and advice from our own haunt stalking experiences. We’re also glad to be able to share the experiences of our ‘Haunt Stalkers’ from all over the world.
Contact
To share your own haunt news, rumors, and reviews you can always contact us at: info@scare-zone.com
About Our Rating System
Scare Zone rates attractions using a scale of 1 to 5 skulls, where 1 skull is a low rating and 5 is a high rating. Five skulls is the gold standard rating. A “buried skull” indicates an attraction that has few or no redeeming qualities and so should be skipped.
Attractions are rated under the following categories *Updated for 2012*:
- Haunt Design: Evaluates the use of special effects such as lighting, sound, and animatronics. Also takes into account the use of props along with the uniqueness of scenery and setting.
- Theming: Effectiveness of unifying the story, design, and characters.
- Scare Factor: Effectiveness of building up suspense and delivering scares. Includes scareactor/monster performances and use of scare tactics (i.e. monsters appearing from the most unexpected places).
- Fright Value: The perceived value of an attraction’s overall offerings per the admission price (mazes/haunted houses that are apart of haunts with multiple attractions are not given individual ‘Fright Values’ rather they’re combined for the overall haunt)
- Overall Rating: The combined average of the aforementioned categories.
Please note that the ratings on this site are purely the opinion of Scare Zone. Every haunt experience is different, and what might be scary on one evening might fall flat the next, and vice versa. Our reviews are meant to serve as a general recommendation when deciding whether or not to attend a haunted attraction. We welcome other opinions and reviews. If you would like to review a haunt or provide us with your own opinions, please contact us at the e-mail address above (and we might feature it on our site).
Disclaimer
The views expressed on this site are solely the opinions of the authors. No official endorsement of any product, service, or business mentioned on this site is expressed or implied. Readers should attend haunted attractions at their own discretion and risk.
