This essay is from the Haunted Attraction Network email newsletter for October 12, 2026. Subscribe to get it each week.
I’m writing this from Beijing, where I’m attending Scares at Universal, Universal Beijing’s Halloween event, for the first time. My full coverage will come later, but so far, I’m very impressed by the haunted houses themselves. They are built in standalone, custom-built warehouses, the same way Universal Orlando does it. They also seem to have a pretty good food menu (see my black eel pizza post on social for a preview).
Speaking of Universal, I published the full Halloween Horror Nights Singapore review this week with 50+ images and all the details you would need to understand how the event is structured. Pricing-wise, the S$290 R.I.P. Tour includes admission VS Universal Orlando’s 5-House R.I.P. Tour starts at $299.99 and does not include admission. House waits ran 60 to 90 minutes early on a non-peak Thursday and dropped to five minutes or less after 11:30 p.m., so I walked all four houses a second time. Watch the full R.I.P. Tour.
Remember the K shape? Two more surveys this week say it’s still here. CIT Bank found that 38% of Americans plan to spend $300 or more on Halloween, compared with 19% for Thanksgiving, and 46% plan to spend $100 or more on experiences such as haunted houses or hayrides. 63% say they are more price-sensitive about Halloween costs than they were last year. In the Midwest, one in four adults plans to spend less on Halloween this year, according to a Harris Poll for Meijer of 1,003 adults in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin, taken August 24 to 26. 91% plan to buy candy, 70% plan to decorate their home or yard, and 33% plan to dress up their pets. Both surveys are in our spending story, along with the Halloween & Costume Association’s finding that one-third of adults who wear costumes plan to visit a haunted house. As I said in July, hold both rungs: a premium tier for guests who want to spend, and a clearly communicated value ticket for those watching their budget.
In Australia, Fright Nights at Warner Bros. Movie World built an online game that turns the backstories of four of its five mazes into a choose-your-own-adventure story, with a new chapter and a collectible card every night through Halloween. The first card is free (mine was an Uncommon Killer Clown), credit packs run $4.99 to $24.99, and the prizes include passes back into the park. In June I wrote about Ocean Park’s trading cards extending the visit beyond the rides and shows, and haunts have done this too: Haunted Hills Estate sold a 30-day remote horror game for $30 back in 2020. I think more backstory for each maze is a good idea, and the relationship with a guest doesn’t have to end at the exit.
Updates on threads we’ve been tracking:
Hotel of Terror in Springfield, Missouri, is in its last season after 48 years. The city takes the building on January 1 to replace the bridge beside it, after a seven-year fight that ended in a $2 million settlement in May. Owner Sterling Mathis, who was 16 when he helped open it, says that with the settlement “it is impossible to rebuild.” It’s the second haunt I’ve covered this fall in a final season because of its property, after Wild Waves, and buildings and insurance remain the two existential threats for independent haunts.
On the insurance side, Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park sold for $14.8 million in bankruptcy court, less than half the $30 million investors paid in 2020. The 2021 death of six-year-old Wongel Estifanos on the Haunted Mine Drop left the park with more than $116 million in liability, now on appeal. The judge wrote that the death “certainly had an impact” on attendance, as did inflation and reduced consumer spending.
Disney raised Walt Disney World’s annual passes $10 to $120 and left Disneyland’s Magic Keys and its $104 entry ticket alone. Disney Experiences Chairman Thomas Mazloum told CNN that pricing is done “market by market, rather than with one broad brush.” The entry-level price stayed the same at both resorts, and the increases went to premium passes and add-ons. That’s the K shape as a pricing policy.
In the original-music vein, LVCRFT, which scores Dark Harbor and the LA Haunted Hayride, released a 27-track Halloween album hosted by Roger L. Jackson, the voice of Ghostface, with Thirteenth Floor’s Amy Hollaman, Plague Productions’ Jon Cooke, and Monte Revolta.
Also this week: Universal Orlando’s Horror Make-Up Show is coming back with Blumhouse in its name, John Carpenter’s Halloween has 1,876 screenings at 765 U.S. theaters with more than half on October 29 to 31, JAKKS’ horror fashion dolls sold out at Walmart within a day, TWIX brought back Hallowmas and Zombie Claus, Historic Hotels of America named its 25 most haunted hotels, and a Fort Wayne family’s free Halloween-night haunt draws 700 to 900 people after Hysterium sent them our way.
