Headless Horseman Hayrides and Haunted Houses
Photograph: Courtesy Headless Horseman Hayrides and Haunted Houses
Photograph: Courtesy Headless Horseman Hayrides and Haunted Houses

The scariest haunted houses in NYC

Experience ghouls, gore and plenty of chills—if you dare.

Rossilynne Skena Culgan
Contributor: Amy Ellison
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While some of us spend fall dreaming of hot apple cider, hayrides and picking apples and pumpkins, others are eagerly planning for the upcoming terror-fest that is Halloween in NYC. In addition to finding a costume (check out the best Halloween stores in the city) and choosing which Halloween events to attend, it’s time to start thinking about all the haunted houses in NYC to hit up.

These haunted houses are intense with thrills and chills that will shake you to your core. You’ll experience ghouls, gore and plenty of undead action, but don’t we all love a good scream around Halloween? If you’re looking for a real-life creep-out, there are plenty of haunted places and spooky spots in the city that will give you the willies any time of year, but these haunted houses in NYC offer peak terror that’s perfect for the Halloween season. So take in a few of the best horror movies and head out to celebrate the scariest time of year.

The best haunted houses in NYC for a scarily good time

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Prepare to scream in horror. BloodManor is back from October 3 through November 8, marking more than two decades of terrifying New Yorkers. 

The 10,000 square-foot mansion at 359 Broadway in Manhattan boasts plenty of blood-chilling rooms, spooky corridors and a labyrinth filled with surprises that will make you jump in abject horror. But there's more: a great cast of actors equipped to instill maximum jump scares and state-of-the-art special effects and technology that combine reality with fantasy so that you don't quite know what's real and what isn't. Snag your timed entry tickets here.

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SoHo shoppers aren’t the only ones clutching their wallets this season. A long-abandoned Broadway bank is opening its vaults this October—and what’s inside is far scarier than overdraft fees. Meet The Haunted Bank NYC, a new immersive haunted house that promises blood-curdling shrieks, spine-tingling sets and a story ripped straight from a heist-gone-wrong.

The experience unfolds inside a real bank at 415 Broadway, where a botched robbery in the 1980s left whispers of blood and betrayal in its wake. The vault was sealed, the crime scene boarded up—until now. Guests begin in the Teller Room, where business-as-usual quickly goes violently sideways. From there, each turn plunges you deeper into the bank’s cursed history: a CEO’s office marked by betrayal, a vault mid-robbery with masked criminals who may not take kindly to witnesses and a mining tunnel where something decidedly inhuman still claws at the walls.

But the horror doesn’t stay underground. The story bleeds into the streets of New York, pulling you through a shadowy alley, a butcher shop dripping with gore and even a derelict hospital wing tended by a nurse with a very loose definition of “patient care.”

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Upstate's Headless Horseman Haunted Hayrides and Haunted Houses in Ulster Park is back with plenty of terrifying attractions. There's the classic hayride, a hauting walking trail, a corn maze and several haunted houses. 

All give New Yorkers an opportunity to slowly pass the creepy crawly things in the darkness and maybe even see the headless horseman himself. 

Don't miss opening night on September 20. 

Looking for more scares?

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