Cursed farms, killer clowns, and ghost mills: Inside NJ’s top haunted attractions

😱 October is chock full of Halloween events in NJ

😱 Do you like to be scared?

😱 These are 8 of the scariest Halloween experiences in NJ

If Halloween is your holiday and you enjoy getting the bejeezus scared out of you, then you must participate in one or all of these bone-chilling, terrifying, haunted experiences in New Jersey.

ALSO READ: October brings a harvest of festivals to New Jersey 

Many farms in the Garden State offer haunted hay rides, haunted corn mazes, and other scary experiences. Plus, there’s always the spooky, fearful, and heart-pounding scare mazes at Six Flags Great Adventure’s Fright Fest to check out.

But, do you know about these 8 frightening, blood-curdling Halloween adventures happening this year in the Garden State?

Brighton Asylum - New Jersey’s legendary haunted institution

2 Brighton Ave #20, Passaic

Brighton Asylum is New Jersey’s most visited Halloween destination for over 13 years now. Experience three haunted houses, escape rooms, a horror museum, and more, filled with terrifying live actors, horror movie-style scares, and Hollywood-quality special effects.

The legendary haunted asylum shut down in 1952 due to staff and patient disappearances, as well as intolerable living conditions. But now, it’s reopened, and accepting new patients. Do you have what it takes to survive?

Tickets must be purchased online and run anywhere from $50 to $61.

Haunted Red Mill - 200 years of paranormal terror

56 Main St, Clinton

For the past 30 years, The Red Mill Museum Village in Clinton transforms into a haunted attraction each October. This year’s theme is Evil Rising. Visitors get lost in mazes, flee through trails, and take the most agonizingly slow hayride along the river before wandering through the vortex into allegedly the most haunted building in Clinton, with over 200 years of haunted history.

The Red Mill was built around 1810 and has a long history of hauntings and strange occurrences. There have been stories of a ghost hanging around the third floor wearing period clothing. Local legends include industrial accidents in the mill era, contributing to the haunted reputation.

Evil Rising will be presented on Fridays, Oct. 3, 10, 17, and 24, and Saturdays, Oct. 4, 11, 18, and 25.

Tickets are around $35.

The Conover Killings - A haunted trail with a killer backstory

3101 Hurley Pond Rd, Wall Township

Open on weekends from now until Halloween from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., if you really want to be scared, you must check out The Conover Killings.

This haunted outdoor walking trail is built around the story of a serial killer named Jonathan who murdered several friends during a game of manhunt using axes, pitchforks, hammers, and other weapons. He then murdered his mother, leaving her in the woods. After the murders known as “The Mill Massacre”, Jonathan vanished to the Conover Christmas Tree Farm.

Groups of teens who stumble onto the property become Jonathan’s next victims.
Regular admission is about $25 (cash only). The final weekend, the price jumps up another five bucks.

13th Hour Haunted House - Secrets of the Hayden family

105 W Dewey Ave Suite 5, Wharton

Formerly, The Haunted Scarehouse, 13th Hour features three haunted house attractions complete with special effects and movie-quality sets. There are also nine 60-minute escape rooms and a haunted hatchets attraction.

The haunted attraction is based on the story centered around the Hayden family. The Haydens moved into a farmhouse in Wharton in the 1970s. They were considered reclusive and odd, according to neighbors. The family kept to themselves. The children were rarely seen.

Then strange things began to happen. Odd visitors at odd hours, odors of decay, groans and human-like sounds, broken windows, and the farmhouse falling into disrepair. Hurricane Doria supposedly destroyed the house, forcing the Haydens to flee, leaving the house abandoned. Or is it?

Check out the website for tickets and hours.

C Casola Farms - Haunted hayride, zombie shootout & 3D horror

131 S Main St, Marlboro Township

One of the most terrifying haunted hayrides in New Jersey is located at C Casola Farms. The bone-chilling adventure begins with the Haunted Hayride of Terror, the 3D Haunted Barn, the Living Maze, and the Marlboro Zombie Breakout.

Take a haunted hayride into the back woods. Careful. You may see shadows and hear the horror of victims’ cries as they roam. If you’re not afraid of things that go bump in the night, then dare to take a ride.

Visit the haunted barn and walk through as haunting images and creatures cling to the walls. Fangs and claws are waiting for their next victims to come along. Just don’t fall behind or stray off the line.

The Living Maze is filled with terrifying twists and turns. In the Zombie Breakout, help Casola Farms get rid of psychotic zombies with paintball guns.

Open every Friday and Saturday through Nov. 1 at 7 p.m., ticket sales begin at 6:30 p.m. at the box office and end at 10:30 p.m. However, the haunted attraction stays open until the last soul has departed.

Night of Terror at Creamy Acre Farms - The largest Halloween park in New Jersey

448 Lincoln Mill Rd, Mullica Hill

Come celebrate the scary Halloween season at Creamy Acre Farms. The Night of Terror features a half-dozen frightening attractions and named one of HDTV’s “Scariest Haunted Houses.”

The 100-acre park, the largest Halloween park in New Jersey, according to its website, is inhabited by zombies, attack dogs, killer clowns, and chainsaw-wielding maniacs.
Then, there’s the haunted paintball hayride. Visitors climb aboard a wagon and use man-mounted paintball guns to defend the crew against zombies during a 15-minute ride.

The Ride of Terror is a 25-minute ride that is not meant for the weak-hearted. Creatures are ready to attack at every twist and turn.

Once you enter The Harvest, be prepared for terrifying surprises at every turn. That’s what you get for trespassing.

The hallways of Dark Dreams are filled with creepy dolls, dentist drills, rats, and more. If you don’t want to get stuck in a nightmare, better run to the safety of your car.

But check the back seat first.

Tickets are $40 per person for 4 haunted attractions, pre-purchased online, and $50 per person if tickets are purchased at the onsite ticket booth.

Scare Farm at Norz Hill Farm - Where legends and nightmares grow

120 S Branch Rd, Hillsborough

Embrace the madness and mayhem at Scare Farm as you’re sure to scream on this haunted hayride. This year, Scare Farm is hosting four horror-filled attractions.

According to the Scare Farm legend, the land is said to have been a sacred burial ground for chiefs, mystics, and medicine men of the Lenni Lenape (Faukgaowe) tribe, pre-European settlement. The burial sites were especially sacred and involved rituals tied to the fall/harvest moons.

In the 1500s, European settlers came, drove off the Native Americans, but the land was cursed with crop failures, animal deaths, and disappearances.

The fictional Atrum family purchased the land in the 1800s. Their son, Eli, supposedly loses his sanity, murders his wife and her lover, turns them into scarecrows, and disappears into the corn. The Norz Family acquired the farm for real in 1920. That’s when strange things began to happen, like mysterious fires, and more madness tied to the land.

The attraction is open weekends through Oct. 26. Tickets range from $35 to $50.

Farm of Horrors - 45 minutes of pure New Jersey fear

1051 Route 523, Flemington

Spend 45 minutes through 200 acres of fright.

Start your terrifying evening with a hair-raising hayride that “scares the YELL out of you,” according to the website.

The ride dumps you off in the middle of nowhere for a treacherous trek through the “Trail of Terror.” The haunted graveyard is home to ghosts, ghouls, and monsters. Visit the walking dead, and watch out for open graves.

Ready to go home? The only way back is through the “MassAcre Maize,” a casual run-for-your-life experience. The field is large so don’t get lost. You never know what’s lurking behind a corn stalk. It is rumored that the field is haunted by an ancient tribe of cannibal zombies.

Once that’s over, you’ll notice that the path is blocked, so you have no choice but to enter the final nightmare through the Carnival of Chaos. This decontamination center is complete with a testing lab. Doctors have worked through the night to try to cure an inhumane virus. But the virus is so out of control, you never know what those trapped in containment camps will do.

Open every weekend until Nov. 2. Tickets start at $33.

Watch your back, everyone..and Happy Halloween!

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