Hey, all.

When I lived in Ft. Lauderdale (I was 16 at the time), a local haunted house I volunteered at was in an old antebellum southern mansion (the spanish moss naturally hanging from the trees set the tone perfectly) that was rumored to be haunted. We didn't witness any paranormal activity, just the usual delinquents who try to tear the place up while on tour. We worked for two weekends and I was declared the best tour guide because of the stories I'd spin during the tour.

I always found it extremely fun to work at them, but rather indifferent to visit them. I worked at quite a few (most of them 'meh') during my teens, but lost interest in adulthood simply due to lack of time and energy. Although - if I had the money - the abandoned Ice House in downtown Mel. would make an awesome haunted house; that could be a project to sink my teeth into.

So, discussion questions:

Anybody like going to haunted houses?

Anybody actually work at one (or more)?

Are there any distinctive types of haunted houses in your area? Like do people in surrounding cities come to visit or it's been featured in a documentary or is unique to your area due to location/history/theme /characters? less

I've never worked at one but there are a bunch in my vicinity. There's at least one constructed on every boardwalk up and down the Jersey shoreline - the kind where it's like a tiny roller coaster with lots of props, strobe lights, and teenagers paid to yell 'boo!', and there are some others that get put together at Halloween by farms and other companies in abandoned buildings and what not. I don't find them particularly frightening, but it's fun and festive so I'm usually up for it.

We vacation every summer near Cape May, NJ that has several haunted old hotels, etc. and hosts ghost tours - not exactly the same thing, but fun and very interesting, historically. Lots of wealthy women waiting for husbands that never returned from sea, that kind of thing.

What I REALLY want to go to is Terror Behind the Walls link It's won all sorts of awards and recognition, it's in Eastern State Penitentiary which is already quite haunted, and it's only about a 2 hour drive from where I live which is totally worth it in my book. Only problem - I might be too much of a fraidy cat for this! It's supposedly SERIOUSLY horrifying.

There's also the Forest of Fear, not a haunted 'house' per say, but something they do up in NY state in the fall on the grounds that are used for the Renaissance Faire for the summer link. It's supposed to be fun and scary, but not the same kind of mindfuck terror as Eastern State. less

I LOVE haunted houses. I love going to the ones where they let convicts be prisoners in the actual haunted house. Still chains and behind bars of course. I like haunted corn mazes, scary movies, etc. The works! The one at 6 flags used to be pretty good. I also went to some famous ones in the Chicago land area. less