About The Scare Factor
The Scare Factor provides Haunted House and Halloween lovers with the most professional and accurate info possible.
“So who’s ‘The Scare Factor?'”
We’re glad you asked…
The Scare Factor was born in 2004 providing Haunted House Reviews across the Midwest and New England. It has since grown to be nation-wide and the most professional and widely-respected system for haunt reviews and Directory Listings in existence. In 2024, we are celebrating our 20th season!
We are not the oldest or the newest, but we are BY FAR the most complete and up-to-date website of our kind in the haunted attraction industry. We have also started providing a few Escape Room and Paranormal listings as well.
In 2023, we also started heavily focusing on our YouTube Channel, where you can watch us scream our way through many Halloween haunted house attractions!
What sets our reviews apart is the people that write them. We call these guys (and gals) our “Scream Teams.”
These Teams set out to review as many haunts as possible each season. Some of them are former actors or management with real working knowledge of the industry, while others are simply extreme enthusiasts. ALL of them, however, can’t get enough of these frighteningly-fun attractions!
In addition, all of these Teams use the same reviewing standards for each attraction that they review. If it wasn’t for their hard work, long hours and dedication, The Scare Factor wouldn’t be where it is today.
Each review from The Scare Factor consists of 7 categories. After a Scream Team visits an attraction, the Team members collaborate to give each category a score between 1 and 10. These scores are based on their experience at the attraction. The final scores are found by using a special “score sheet” that calculates the final score.
These “score sheets” are available for you to see at the bottom of EVERY review we publish.
Simple Scoring Breakdown:
N/A = Not Applicable
1-2 = Unsatisfactory
3-4 = Poor to Below Average
5-6 = Average to Above Average
7-8 = Good to Very Good
9-10 = Exceptional (Some of the best we’ve ever seen)
Review Peek Example:
We don’t base our scores on how much money is put into a show. Instead, we look at how effective everything was when we came through.
Our goal is to let you know what these haunts have to offer… without giving everything away.
Since 2011, we have reviewed 558 attractions and published a total of 1172 reviews.
About Our Haunt Directory
Most online directories rely on… scratch that… REQUIRE the attractions to update their own listings whenever something changes. The thing about haunted houses is, a lot of their info tends to change from year to year… and often several times per season! Their dates of operation, ticket prices, hours and many other things are seldom exactly the same in consecutive seasons.
The bad part is…
most of them are so busy that they don’t have time to reach out to us whenever they make a change. If they fail to renew, most other directories will delete them and, as a result, this can cause a lot of outdated (or even missing!) listings that aren’t much good to you…
The good part is…
The Scare Factor is NOT like most directories.
We pride ourselves with having the world’s most complete and accurate haunted attraction directory. How do we do it? The old fashioned way… manually searching for the most updated info there is, all on our own.
At least twice per year, we take the time to manually check all 2222 of our directory listings for accuracy.
If a haunt has closed down, we delete them. If we find new haunts, we add them. If a haunt has moved or changed their web address, we fix it… all by ourselves… and we don’t charge them a penny to do it.
At the top of each State’s directory page, you’ll find an interactive map that includes all of the attractions listed in that State. You can zoom in and click on each dot on the map to find out which haunt(s) are closest to you, and get links to more info once you’ve found one you like.
Each of our listings have various icons with them. Some of these are meant to help you understand what type of haunt(s) you’re looking at. Others are links to their website, Facebook page, and our Guest Reviews for them. If you want to write a Guest Review yourself, just click on the link and the form will be auto-filled with the attraction’s info for you. We also have a link to Google Maps that can help you get directions when you’re ready to get scared!
About Our Haunt Blog
Haunt Blog is the newest section of The Scare Factor. It’s where we post articles about haunted houses and lists of the best haunts across the country. Sometimes we share what we’ve learned during our travels visiting and reviewing haunted attractions. Hopefully you’ll find some useful insight to make your haunt trips easier, smoother and, of course, more fun!
We will hit haunts big or small including home and yard haunts, extreme haunts, haunted boats, houses, trails, and hayrides! We all love Halloween and are always looking for a good scare! If you’d like for us to visit your haunted attraction for a review or video walkthrough, please contact us HERE.
As always, STAY SCARY!