Chattanooga Times Free Press - ChattanoogaNow
‘Atmos-fear’ for thrills and chills
Do you love a good jump-scare? Things that go bump in the dark?
If so, check out one of these five area hauntings. While these attractions are raising the dead, they also raise funds for area nonprofits.
ACRES OF DARKNESS
› Where: Audubon Acres, 900 N. Sanctuary Road
› When: 7:30-9:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays in October
› Admission: $15, $5 discount for Chattanooga Audubon Society members
› For more information: http://www.acresofdarkness. com/
This year’s theme is “Prison Breakout!”
Visitors will have a choice to make on the Acres of Darkness trail in the Haunted Forest. They can play it safe and follow the trail to the family area, where there is a hayride, corn hole, outdoor games, children’s activities and inflatables. The more daring will continue the trail farther into the forest for the fright of their lives.
Scare factor: Recommended for teens and adults. Children admitted at parents’ discretion.
POSTMORTEM HAUNTED TRAIL
› Where: Tri-State Exhibition Center, 200 Natures Trail, McDonald, Tenn
› 8 p.m.-midnight Fridays and Saturdays in October
› Admission: $15
› For more information: 706-339-4917
Freaks and creeps walk the wicked woods of this trail. Visitors will come face to face with creatures, beasts, crazy loons and even hillbilly cannibals. These woods are filled with screams — yours!
Recommended for ages 13 and older.
RINGGOLD HAUNTED DEPOT
› Where: 155 Depot St., Ringgold, Georgia
› 7-11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays in October
› $10 haunted depot, $7 ghost tours, $3 hayride, $15 all-attraction combo ticket
› For more information: 706-935-3061
A historic train depot is an ideal location for a haunted house. Live music outdoors by different bands each night will entertain visitors waiting in line. The narrated ghost tour points out locations around town that are allegedly haunted and includes a
stop at the cemetery.
Scare factor: Ghost tour and hayride are familyfriendly. Parental discretion advised for haunted depot.
THE HAUNTED BARN
› Where: 5017 McDonald Road, McDonald, Tenn.
› When: 7 p.m.-midnight Fridays and Saturdays through Nov. 2
› Admission: $20
› For more information: 423-396-9790
This is the Haunted Barn’s 25th anniversary, so to celebrate everybody has a chance at a raffle when they purchase a ticket. A drawing for $50 will be held each night the barn is open until the last night, when the jackpot goes even higher.
This haunting began with five rooms and has grown into a spook-tacular 16 rooms, a maze and waiting area around a bonfire.
While waiting to enter the 16-room walk-through haunted barn, guests can sit by the bonfire, eat fried Oreos and listen to dance music played by a DJ until their number is up. Visitors can also shake a leg with one of the five monsters who greet them before entering the barn. The tour empties into a maze where unknown surprises await.
Scare Factor: This is not a themed event, but one that plays on phobias: for example. clowns, spiders, dark places. Parental discretion advised; management suggests parents wait to buy children’s tickets until they arrive and see children’s reactions to the monsters and other activities outside.
THE HAUNTED HILLTOP
›
Harrison
› 7 p.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays through Nov. 2
› Admission: $25 for haunted house and hayride
› For more information: http://thehauntedhilltop. com/
More than 200,000 square feet of terror, the Haunted Hilltop has remodeled its haunted house adding more space, more props and more parking.
Visitors wait outdoors by a bonfire where a scary movie 8235 Highway 58,