1. Roller Coasters and Racing Ghouls
The Fright Fest at New England’s Six Flags provides a large variety of blood-curdling and alliteration-laden haunted houses including the Midnight Mansion, Tombstone Territory, and Wicked Woods, a farmhouse with a toxic dump theme. Populated by zombie cowboys and hillbilly monsters, the park’s standard rides remain open during the Fest to fulfill your scream quota if the cowboys and monsters haven’t done so already.
Route 159, 1623 Main St., Agawam. Every weekend in October, noon to 10 p.m. $30 plus additional fees for haunted houses
2. Still Waiting for your Hogwarts Acceptance Letter?
Try the Bedford School of Witchcraft and Wizardry instead. The acceptance rate is much more manageable, and “classes” take place in a 190-year-old haunted church. The house features a dueling club and a potions room, perfect for any aspiring witch or wizard.
75 Great Rd., Bedford. Oct. 29 to 30, 6 to 9 p.m. $6 in advance or $10 at the door
3. Creepy Cruises
If a land-locked Halloween is not your style, the USS Salem brings you the Haunted Ship, a once-powerful battleship that now provides spooks as a haunted vessel. Full of supernatural sea scares, the ship also provides a ghost tour for those strong enough to survive the initial haunts.
739 Washington St., Quincy. Every Thursday through Sunday in October, 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.
$15, group rates available.
4. Terror, Mass-Produced
The Factory of Terror is most famous for one of its bedrooms, the site of the unsolved and brutal Fall River axe murders. However, the other 30 haunted rooms and passageways will deliver frights driven by special effects, high-quality prosthetics, and a hair-raising assortment of background music.
33 Pearl St., Fall River. Fridays and Saturdays, 6:30 to 11 p.m., Thursdays and Sundays, 6:30 to 10 p.m. $21.
5. Salem’s Finest
Known as Salem’s oldest and best attraction, Dracula’s Castle channels everything supernatural and spooky about the nation’s Halloween capital into one haunted house experience. Teeming with vampires, witches, and ghosts, the Castle frightens even the citizens of Salem who make year-round residence in the haunted town.
90 Lafayette St., Salem. Open all year. Group rates available.
