The Frightmaster Award for Best Extreme Haunt – 2016 goes to Fear Fair! This was a last-minute visit for us and we are glad we made it because we had an absolutely terrorizing time. Fantastic!

The Frightmaster Award for Most Innovative Haunt – 2016 goes to The Dent Schoolhouse!

The Frightmaster Award for Best Traditional Haunt – 2016 goes to The Dent Schoolhouse!

The Frightmaster Award for Most Improved Haunt – 2016 goes to The Dent Schoolhouse! Amazing changes and additions this year.

We added a new category this year for the smaller haunts:

The Frightmaster Award for Best Up-And-Coming Haunt – 2016 goes to Stillwell Manor! A prime example of how a lot of passion and hard work can create something unique and memorable.

…and finally

The Ultimate Frightmaster Award – 2016 goes to The Dent Schoolhouse!

We’d like to express a great job well done to all the haunts this year. We know all of you sacrifice a lot of time (and money!) for your attractions and by no means do we intend for these awards to detract from other haunts. All of your efforts and creativity do not go unnoticed!!

We have some radical changes in mind for 2017 as well as a special announcement which will be revealed soon. Thanks again for a spooky 2016 and we look forward to 2017 with much enthusiasm!

Visit the Fear Fair web site at http://www.fearfair.com/

Visit The Dent Schoolhouse web site at www.frightsite.com

Visit the Stillwell Manor web site at http://www.stillwellmanor.com/

In 2015, we did things a little differently. The haunt industry is rapidly growing and becoming more diverse. With new technology and more interactive elements than ever, picking “the” haunt is increasingly challenging since they’re not apples-to-apples (or if you will, scares-to-scares). Therefore, we rolled out separate categories to award haunts that excel within their niche of the haunt world. With that, here are the 2015 winners…

The Frightmaster Award for Best Extreme Haunt – 2015 goes to Haunted Hotel! More relentless than EVER! This is the THIRD Frightmaster award for the Haunted Hotel, three years straight!

The Frightmaster Award for Most Innovative Haunt – 2015 goes to Asylum Haunted Scream Park for Zombie City! What an awesome interactive experience!

The Frightmaster Award for Best Traditional Haunt – 2015 goes to The Dent Schoolhouse! They’re not in the country’s top 10 for nothin’!

The Frightmaster Award for Most Improved Haunt – 2015 goes to The Dent Schoolhouse! This is their 2nd award this season! Brand new renovations never looked older, creepier or more authentic.

We’d also like to give an honorable mention to USS Nightmare for doing such a great job.

Visit the Haunted Hotel web site at www.hauntedhotelky.com

Visit the Asylum Haunted Scream Park web site at www.asylumhaunts.com

Visit The Dent Schoolhouse web site at www.frightsite.com

Visit the USS Nightmare web site at www.ussnightmare.com

Here we go 2016!

2014 Frightmaster Award winner

Haunted Hotel: Louisville, KY

2014 Frightmaster Award honorable mention

Culbertson Mansion: New Albany, IN

For the second year in a row…

HHT would like to congratulate The Haunted Hotel as the winner of our coveted 2014 Frightmaster Award! This second time award winner has not only taken the prize again this year, but they have already been talking about new things to come in 2015. Haunt season winding down to a close can be bittersweet, but we love the excitement found at Haunted Hotel where they are already preparing for next year!

HHT would also like to congratulate Culbertson Mansion for honorable mention this year! Our team of haunt reviewers found this to be most creative haunt and also the best value – hard to beat that!

Be sure to check out our full reviews of both The Haunted Hotel and Culbertson Mansion to see what made these haunts so great this year!

Also be sure to check out our video interviews as part of our new Haunt Chat series. Click here for Hauned Hotel or here for Culberton Mansion.

Visit the Haunted Hotel web site at www.hauntedhotelky.com

Visit the Culbertson Mansion web site at www.hauntedculbertson.org

2013 Frightmaster Award winner

Haunted Hotel: Louisville, KY

Click here for our full review of this haunt.

HHT would like to congratulate The Haunted Hotel as the winner of our coveted 2013 Frightmaster Award! This first time award winner offered quite the welcome surprise during our Louisville trip, and we most definitely look forward to checking it out in years to come.

Visit their web site at www.hauntedhotelky.com

2012 Frightmaster Award winner

Land of Illusion: Middletown, OH

Click here for our full review of this haunt.

This past award winning haunt is a totally different caliber of haunted attraction. It completely blew away our expectations! You can visit other haunted attractions around the area, but they just don’t deliver the same level of sophistication that can be found at Land of Illusion. It’s a total fear thrill ride not for the squeamish, made even better by the fact that you can go back through the haunts as many times as you like. From the time you step into the first haunt, you can tell it is produced and run by people who are passionate about haunts and do it for fellow Halloween fanatics more than to simply make a profit. We were blown away over the quality, length, uniqueness and innovative ideas that almost every attraction brought to the table. In the center of the haunts, patrons can take a break around a large bonfire and keep warm. The overall environment of the park is very welcoming. It was an incredible experience!!! The best of the best for 2012.

Visit their web site at www.thelandofillusion.com

2012 Honorable Mention

The Dent Schoolhouse: Cincinnati, OH (Dent)

Click here for our full review of this haunt.

There are many reasons that The Dent Schoolhouse is one of the top rated haunts in the country; they pretty much get everything right. The Dent Schoolhouse stands out vastly among its peers. For some, Dent may be outright terrifying. Those creeped out by ambient settings more than pop out scares would find it the most disturbing of all. The schoolhouse itself is quite ominous with it’s boarded doors, secretive windows and its otherwise suspiciously innocent charm. For those who love the macabre such as myself, it proves that one man’s nightmare can be another’s bloody paradise. The stuff nightmares are made of!

Visit their web site at www.frightsite.com

2011 Frightmaster Award winner (Best indoor haunt)

Cedar Point Halloweekends: Sandusky, OH

Click here for our full review of this haunt.

This award winning haunt only gets better every year with the addition of some new rooms, more creepy characters and more screams. As a matter of fact, we think that the Eerie Estate has more screams per square foot of haunt than any other haunted attraction in the tri-state! Just try keeping your cool in here. The rooms are meticulously decorated in late 1800’s decor, dimly lit and very quiet until BAM! The actors literally make you want to run through the rooms! But don’t run, you’ll miss the best that they saved for last…

Visit their web site at www.halloweekends.com

2011 Frightmaster Award winner (Best outdoor haunt)

Sandyland Acres – Petersburg, KY

Click here for our full review of this haunt.

This is the fifth year for Gene and Brenda Webb’s excellent outdoor haunted hayride and it just keeps getting better and better each year. Located in the country on a lonely road in Petersburg, Ky, this outdoor haunted hayride has the perfect setting and the perfect theme. It’s “Children of the Corn”, “Jeepers Creepers”, and “Joyride” rolled into one terrifying trip. We won’t spoil it by giving away the details – just expect the unexpected. No – seriously! If you have not been to this haunt yet this year – GO! If you’ve already been – go again!! It is worth the drive and the best outdoor haunt in the tri-state!!!! Watch out for Freddy! He tends to appear when you least expect it!

Visit their web site at www.sandylandacres.com

2010 Frightmaster Award winner

Cedar Point Halloweekends: Sandusky, OH

First ever Back-To-Back Frightmaster Award Winner! (2009, 2010)

Click here for our full review of this haunt.

This year was a close race between Cedar Point and Land of Illusions but in the overall evaluation of the most scares for the for best value – it has to be Cedar Point for the 2nd year in a row! Best, well designed haunts, great actors, high energy show that both entertains and scares at the same time. We were blown away with the amount of time and effort that just go into the nightly make-up session and the dedication of the actors to their characters. Attending the pre-show “Pep Rally” was the highlight of our trip. Sandusky is still the reigning location for scares, thrills, laughs and all around Halloween fun. Congratulations once more go to Cedar Point Halloweekends – Frightmaster Award Winner 2nd year in a row!

Visit their web site at www.halloweekends.com

2009 Frightmaster Award winner

Cedar Point Halloweekends: Sandusky, OH

Click here for our full review of this haunt.

It had been a few years since members of our group had toured Halloweekend at Cedar Point, and actually a first time for myself, and we could not have been happier with what we found! Halloweekend begins the minute you step through the park gates and doesn’t let up! No matter where you roam in the park, once the sun goes down you are not safe from the ghosts and demons that roam the grounds. Cedar Point is a great value since you can pay admission to get into the park and that covers all of the haunted attractions as well as the rides and roller coasters that remain open, so for the money, you really can’t beat it.

The actual haunted attractions are a mixture of indoor haunts and outdoor walk through haunts. There was a good mixture of themes ranging from pirates to clowns, to haunted mansions, and even an evil toy factory. The level of detail and creativity that went into these haunts impressed even our most veteran haunt reviewers! We always love creativity and attention to detail and two haunts really stood out for our group. Happy Jack’s Toy Factory was a very unique concept that we have not really seen before. It was so incredible with the level of detail in the costumes and makeup, you can honestly not tell who is real and who is just a doll.

My personal favorite, G.A. Boeckling’s Eerie Estate, really raised the bar for a good old fashioned scary mansion. The scenery, actors, and layout were all amazing! They took some serious time to perfect the layout of the haunt and used space very creatively to create 360 degrees of scares! It has been a long time since I was truly scared and creeped out by a haunt, but this one did it for me! The greatest thing about this haunt and a lot of the haunts we toured here was that they don’t rely on all of the overdone blood, gore, and screaming to get a scare. You really have a lot of stuff that is just down right creepy and not so much just jumping out and yelling “boo.” They went back to the basics of what is scary and put on a really great experience. Personally, this may be one of the best haunts I have been to in years. When you scare someone who has been touring and rating haunts for 15 years now…you know you have something great!

Halloweekend at Cedar Point is the ultimate haunt experience for the casual haunt fan as well as the seasoned haunt veteran! Bring your kids and enjoy the family-friendly daytime activities and rides, then come back to the park at night with the adults for a truly frightening experience! Halloweekend’s overall score came back as one of only a very few better-than-perfect scores we have ever given. Halloweekend earned a score of 11 out of 10, earning extra credit points for scare factor and the final rating of “FRIGHTMASTER!”

Great job on creating a top-notch experience! I can’t wait to visit again next season. Thanks again to Robin and John for showing us around the park and being so helpful to our tour group! Cedar Point’s Halloweekend is definitely a MUST SEE! We would highly recommend this attraction! It’s well worth the drive!

Visit their website at www.halloweekends.com.

2008 Frightmaster Award winner

Kings Island Halloween Haunt: Mason, OH

Click here for our full review of this haunt.

Kings Island: Halloween Haunt has really developed into an amazing overall haunt experience. They now boast 13 haunts as well as other roaming ghouls and attractions. Realistically, you won’t have time to visit all 13 haunts in one night, so the best bet is to pick your favorites and focus on seeing those. We visited Halloween Haunt last year and thought it was a great show, and it was even better this year! Halloween Haunt also added a new haunt this year named “Urgent Scare.” Scenery is amazing, and they do such a great job transforming the whole park into a creepy setting for a haunt enthusiast’s wildest dream. Halloween Haunt is reasonably priced based on the amount of choices you have and the quality that they present. My suggestion for serious haunt lovers is to visit twice and try to see everything… it is well worth the price of admission!

Halloween Haunt really raised the bar for the overall haunt experience and is a definite “Must see” for anyone who loves a great haunt! A very unique experience and we hope you check out Halloween Haunt in 2008! Our final rating is rated for Halloween Haunt as an overall experience. Halloween Haunt earns a final rating of 9.5 out of 10, rating Excellent for 2008 and wins the 2008 Frightmaster Award! This is Kings Island’s second Frightmaster Award, the first coming in 2001 for “Fearfest.” Congratulations on a great season, we are already looking forward to 2009!

Visit their website at haunt.visitkingsisland.com.

2007 Frightmaster Award winner

The Dent Schoolhouse: Cincinnati, OH

We have toured The Dent Schoolhouse for years now, and each year they have gotten better. This year is definitely the largest jump forward! They have dramatically improved the quality of the haunt by adding new scenery, more length, and new ideas to the existing haunt. The “Excellent” rating and Frightmaster Award is based on the overall effect and feel of the haunt, but mainly the ability to stay true to their schoolhouse theme without sacrificing quality. The actors are extremely professional, and the best part about this haunt is the dark “down time” between scares. So many haunts use constant scares and startle effects to overwhelm you, but the best scare is the anticipation of not knowing where the next ghost or monster lurks. The Dent Schoolhouse has done such a great job this year, and we can’t wait to see what is in store for 2008! This haunt has established itself as a premiere haunt in the area and is highly recommended by our tour members. Congratulations for winning the 2007 Frightmaster Award from HauntedHouseTour.com! Visit their website at www.frightsite.com.