Haunted houses weren’t always the spooky attractions they are known as today. In fact, they were once only an idea of fiction. Two thousand years ago, the concept of a haunted house was very different compared to today.
The earliest idea of a haunted house that historians have found dates all the way back to ancient Greece during the early 2nd century in the form of a letter from Pliny the Younger, a Greek author. This letter includes a retelling about a house haunted by a ghost in chains. He recounts that, despite its reputation, a Greek philosopher, Athenodorus, was not deterred from buying the extremely cheap house. When he actually encountered the ghost, he followed it to what turned out to be its grave in the backyard. When the body was given a proper burial, the house was haunted no more.
Actual physical haunted houses didn’t come until much later. They had their origins in Great Britain between the 19th and 20th centuries, when scary attractions were gaining popularity. For example, in 1802 the wax sculptor Marie Tussuad created an exhibit called the Chamber of Horrors in London. The exhibit contained the horrific faces of those executed by guillotine during the French Revolution. Today, the exhibit still stands under the same name.
The association of haunted houses with Halloween began during the Great Depression, when young teenagers were causing chaos during the holiday. On one such Halloween, hordes of teenagers flipped over cars and sawed off telephone poles. The solution for some communities was to introduce distractions such as trick-or-treating or “trails of terror,” which set a precedent for spooky attractions.
Professional haunted houses cropped up in the 1980s alongside Hollywood slasher movies such as “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Friday the 13th.” The industry rapidly expanded over the next two decades: today, more than 1,200 professional haunted houses operate in the United States, contributing to the $300 million industry.
The 32nd Halloween Horror Nights event took place 2023, featuring Dr. Oddfellow as its icon. It featured ten haunted houses and five scare zones. (Photo/Kylie Tirado)
Among the most well-known professional Halloween haunted-house attractions is Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights. Located at Universal Studios Orlando, it began in 1991 as a three-night event called “Fright Nights,” renamed to “Halloween Horror Nights” the next year. By 2000, icons for each Halloween Horror Nights event were established as a concept, creating classic characters such as Jack the Clown. Today, Halloween Horror Nights is possibly the most popular Halloween attraction in the U.S; more than roughly 30,000 people attend each night. Its haunted houses and scare zones are estimated to have made Universal more than $500 million in 2022 alone.
Though haunted houses of the modern era are very different from those of the past, one thing hasn’t changed: they’ve always been meant to deliver a good scare.
