The best haunted houses in Los Angeles for Halloween scares

The only thing better than a haunted attraction? A haunted attraction on a giant boat with its own haunted history. Out of all the haunted houses I’ve visited, Dark Harbor is the sleeper hit for me. Last year, after driving 40 miles from the Valley to Long Beach on a Sunday night, the stakes were pretty high—I couldn’t imagine any Halloween attraction feeling worth that drive. I was wrong. Planning a return visit this year was my top Halloween time priority.

Starting at the entrance, where you walk through a graveyard, the production design wows. It only gets more impressive in Voodoo: The Queen’s Curse, a returning maze this year set in a decayed bayou with Pirates of the Caribbean vibes. Each maze actually exceeded my expectations, but you can’t miss the ones on the ship itself: Lullaby (complete with scary little girls), Infirmary (medical horror) and the new Shipwrecked: Brace for Impact, where ghostly sailors bark orders and hurry you through corridors. You’ll walk through some truly terrifying scenes as you traverse the ocean liner. The dark, cramped confines of the Queen Mary are already pretty spooky even without monsters, and dodging scare actors throughout the old pool, staterooms and hallways adds to the authenticity of the scares. All the mazes here are long, too, and the lines move quickly.

I love a good carnival, and Dark Harbor feels like a carnival for adults (it’s recommended for ages 13 and older). So when you tire of the terror, take a spin on some rides, sip spirits at secret speakeasies (including some in the bowels of the ship) and catch spooky live entertainment (I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the fire dancers). And the food is a fairground dream: Think baskets of fresh churros, pizza, loaded fries, Dubai-chocolate-covered strawberries and cocktails served in fishbowls or green alien sippy cups as long as your arm. The make-your-own-s’mores stations are a fun touch, too.

Select nights through Nov 1. Tickets start at $48.

Its past installments have found attendees stealthing their way through a Victorian home and embarking on a Blade Runner-esque bounty hunt. And now this celebrated immersive horror theater event is returning to its roots at the Beckett Mansion in West Adams (former home of the Willows) for its longest and most interactive play yet.

Delusion is an interactive seasonal event that combines elements of immersive theater with a more story-based approach to a walk-through haunted house. This year’s theme, “Den of the Mosquito,” is set in a New Orleans brothel in the 1920s, with a cast of mobsters, monsters and vampire prostitutes. You’ll play an agent with a secret organization, and the event promises more interactivity and split paths than ever, perfect for those who want to be part of the story.

Hollywood director and action coordinator Jon Braver, who hatched Delusion in 2011, has again teamed up with the Los Angeles Haunted Hayride and Dark Harbor producers Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group for this new iteration of Delusion, which returns to the West Adams mansion where the event began back in 2011.

Tickets don’t come cheap, but for true Halloween devotees, it might be worth it: Delusion regularly ranks among the best haunted houses in the city. There’s also a VIP tier for $41 more that lets you take go behind the scenes, dawn swamp creature attire and scare guests yourself.

Far from those kiddie rides through a pumpkin patch—though still perhaps the most family-friendly of the haunts in this list—the Haunted Hayride unleashes all sorts of demons and bogeys on Griffith Park each fall. 

While it used to be tucked into the relatively intimate Old Zoo area, the attraction has since moved to the Crystal Springs Picnic Area, which transforms into the mid-’80s fictitious town of Midnight Falls. In the larger space, it can feel a bit empty, and the flatter terrain does make it easier to spot upcoming scares. That being said, there were some genuinely cool and creepy moments during the hayride, even if in places it favored set pieces over scare actors.

In addition to the hayride itself, there are a few mazes, which are a bit jump-scarier. This year’s event features a brand-new maze, “Fallen Angel,” set in a fictitious Sunset Strip theater, with a loose narrative where fans try to resurrect a heavy-metal band killed by their pyrotechnics. The annual Trick or Treat attraction, where you walk through creepy vignettes with scares sprinkled throughout, has once again been taken over by Elvira’s likeness. You’ll walk past pyramids of old-school TVs and a movie theater screening her films—at one point, you even walk between her breasts. 

Other returning attractions include the Scary-Go-Round—a skeletal merry-go-round that’s more rough-and-ready than your typical carousel—and a rock ‘n’ roll stage show. You can add on axe-throwing, a seance theatre experience and mini escape rooms, too.

Select nights through Nov 1. Tickets start at $43.

Encounter free-roaming monsters, stage shows and 10 terrifying mazes—this year’s new additions are “Inked,” which brings 1930s cartoon characters to life, and the excavation-themed “Unearthed”—as well as a menu of eerie eats and sinister sweets, five scare zones and the theme park’s thrill rides during Knott’s Scary Farm, SoCal’s original and longest-running haunted theme park event—and a favorite among Halloween devotees. Also new this year are two shows: Voodoo: Bayou’s Edge and Occultum, featuring magicians from the legendary Magic Castle.

Thu–Sun through Oct 31. Tickets start at $75. 

Every October, Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre Group hosts a chilling series of vignettes that’s been named one of Yelp’s top 10 scariest haunts in the country (it’s also the most affordable!). Armed with a shoddy flashlight to illuminate their path, guests navigate a labyrinth of terror both before and after watching a series of shocking scenes over the course of roughly 40 minutes that will unsettle even the most stoic of horror fans. The haunted house-slash-theater experience has been scaring audiences for over 20 years in its North Hollywood theater, and this year’s event is being touted as “bigger and badder than ever.”

Fri–Sun through Nov 1. Tickets $28.