UNFORGETTABLE FRIGHTS AND FUN IN FLANDERS
Drawing larger and larger crowds since 2020, Will’s House of Horrors, a home haunt on 20 Tinc Road in Flanders-Mount Olive, New Jersey, features all the elements of a professional haunted attraction. Open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights in October and even on Mischief Night, the House of Horrors charges only $5.00 for admission. Will Marseglia is creator, builder, and actor; his supportive and devoted family and friends help keep the show consistent and in rhythm. “I couldn’t run the show without them,” he says. “I am forever grateful for their help.” Despite having a demanding full-time job, his passion for entertaining has not flamed out.
Tinc Road is easy to find, the haunt stands out, and next door is a large parking lot. At the cemetery horror-movie creatures and other monsters and animatronics dare visitors to approach, flashing lights, gruesome voices, and special effects animating the scenes. All are welcome to take pictures while watching the displays turn evil. The front-yard setup alone is worth the cost. What began years ago as a private Halloween-night walkthrough has become an affordable, season-long exhibit. And being allowed to explore the grounds without having someone push you along is no small treat indeed.
The spacious ticket booth blends in with the entrance facade (no online sales, no advance tickets). Ropes separate the Enter line from the Exit line, organizing the main section. Seeing the details of the walls and door and the general layout and workmanship of the attraction builds excitement as the journey into the macabre begins. In the first room a narrator tells a story and then explains the rules. Now is the time to take a breath, brace yourself, and clutch someone’s arm, hand, jacket, whatever makes you feel safe and secure before stepping into the unknown.
The walkthrough is a professional presentation, nothing amateurish, each section detailed from top to bottom, actors blending in with animatronic monsters, emerging from hidden crevices and creeping up close but not touching. Hair-raising sounds and disturbances, imaginative shocks and scares, the intensity never letting up from room to room, never giving you even a moment to gather your courage or catch your breath. In Will’s world props and decorations fit together like puzzlepieces, bringing alive his darkest dreams. Move along with an open mind—and beware! How long it takes to go through this nightmare depends on how fast you walk, how frightened you get, how much you can handle. So. . . some groups take longer than others.
The House of Horrors is not a massive enterprise with a sizable budget, set designers, and creative consultants. It is a community event whose reputation in the business is ascending and whose long-term plans include expansion among other possibilities. And that is happening because of Will’s hard work and vision, and also because those closest to him and in the area support and admire his determination and ambition. What’s most important, though, is that everyone who comes is given the freedom to pace themselves, look around, and imbibe the addictive Halloween atmosphere. For five bucks, what a reward! And hey, why not go through more than once? You might miss something the first time.
Looking at the overall production, imagine the hours, labor, and dedication that go into setting up and managing the haunt, a significant undertaking for Will and his crew. Think about the cold October nights to be endured, the stamina required to stay upright and in character, having to give each and every guest the same show no matter how long the lines, how long the night, how tired the actors and staff—all for a price far below that of other Jersey attractions. That is why people have come from near and far and return again and again. Will’s House of Horrors is a place where Halloween enthusiasts can jump and scream and howl and celebrate the season with family, friends, and neighbors, a place where facing our fears brings out the best in us and renews our spirits. Don’t forget to add this merciless little haunt to your list of places to visit every Halloween.
MORRIS COUNTY, NEW JERSEY:
BREEDING GROUND FOR HOME HAUNTS
Number 466 Lathrop Avenue in Boonton, diagonal from the John Hill School, is a frightening place to be on Halloween night. No surprise that it won first place in the 2025 Halloween Decorating Contest. Congratulations! Prepare yourself to walk through a labyrinth of unnerving sights and sounds that begins at the driveway and ends in the back yard. Among other frights, guests encounter monsters and ghouls, professional props and blow-up props, and recognizable monsters and themes. Actors stalk and jump out, animatronics make noise, light up, and come alive. The exhibit is original, unpredictable, and festive, a free Halloween celebration for all ages. From 5:30-10:30 PM, visitors can go through the haunt again and again and take pictures or video and have refreshments. Heartfelt thanks to the homeowners for their hard work and Halloween spirit. Round of applause for the show.
The Halloween House on 2 Alcott Way in Succassauna—created, built, and operated by Craig and Madeline Heard and their family—is a free Halloween exhibit on a grand scale. Movie-like props and animatronics make guests feel as though they are touring a Hollywood studio. Enter through the main gate to find popular creatures and horror figures, scenes drawn from our most vivid nightmares, scenarios that inspire awe. The place is like a museum, staged with thought, care, purpose, and vision. Professional haunted houses have setups like this, but the cost of admission is high, and patrons are sometimes pushed through when lines are long and come out having missed a little here, a little there. Not here. You can go through this exhibit more than once. What makes this journey unlike other seasonal events is that no one rushes you along, no one disrupts the flow, no one sets the pace. The Halloween House, having just celebrated 37 years of haunting, is open on Halloween night only, from 5-11, with thousands of visitors roaming the grounds during the course of the evening. Parking is also free. Many thanks to the generous Heard family for turning their property into a Halloween festival where everyone can share their fears, interact with like minds, and have hours of fun. Standing ovation for the show.
13th HOUR HAUNTED ATTRACTION: JERSEY’S LEADER IN FEAR
One of the most original and detailed haunted attractions, 13th Hour rises from behind the Dewey Avenue bridge in Wharton, New Jersey, just down the road from Rockaway Townsquare Mall. The two-floor haunt consists of The House of Nightmares, The Attic, and The Dark Side of the Hayden House, through which customers walk on their own. And good thing. Having a guide would only prevent you from taking in the barrage of sights and sounds, each and every room decorated with passion, care, and imagination, giving visitors an unforgettable journey that gets better and more elaborate as the years pass. The walkthrough is so fluid, the themes and designs from room to room and scene to scene so smooth in pattern, and the overall layout seamless and not in any way disjointed, confusing, or seeming patched together. The truth is, an aspiring haunted-house owner could buy scary props, lights, smoke machines, animatronics, and other things and set them about and hang black tarps as walls, then hire inexperienced actors and charge a competitive price for admission. That formula might work for the short term. But for the long ride, a willingness to know your customers well and listen to and surpass their expectations over a number of years is the right way to forever tower over your imitators. To go through 13th Hour would show you firsthand that it takes talent, dedication, and vision to build and always improve an award-winning haunt, one that wins major industry awards while also winning the admiration of fellow haunters. Therefore, describing too much about the production would be a disservice. One must see it and live it to understand why thousands and thousands of visitors come back several times during the Halloween season, sometimes having to wait in long lines. Substantial credit must be given to the staff and security for moving people along, for reducing wait times, and for minimizing disruptions.
The actors play no small part in 13th Hour’s success. Because they interact with you, surround you, and portray a character—and not just scream in your face, which is the primary scare tactic used at other walkthroughs—they heighten your fear and steal your attention long enough for animatronics or someone or something else to cause the jumps and sustain the tension, a tension that never lets up. That is professional haunting—as it should be. In fact, those who enjoy watching horror-suspense-thriller movies would experience the same adrenaline rush walking through this serpentine maze of sets. In this terror trap you are part of the scene and not just viewing the nightmare from a safe distance. The action is non-stop as the whole building comes alive overhead and underfoot and all around you. No mercy. Remember Long Branch Haunted Mansion, Brigantine Castle, and Haunted Gingerbread Castle? Top attractions that have been gone for years. Well, now 13th Hour is drawing the crowds and dominating the chills-and-thrills market.
Christmas Haunt is the same frightening walkthrough combined with holiday flourishes. Again, special touches are in place to accentuate the theme and satisfy your desire for the macabre. The haunt has had a Valentine’s show as well as other seasonal events. Which means, no need to leave New Jersey to seek out Halloween excitement and adventure. Fun can be had and memories made here in Morris County, at the 13th Hour haunted house, where visitors can find, in addition to three haunted attractions, ten year-round escape rooms and even hatchet throwing!
Would you like to explore a supreme haunted house? Would you thrive on the challenge of solving complex puzzles to escape dark, foreboding rooms? Who wouldn’t! Go online and buy tickets, spend an evening in 13th Hour’s mysterious world and spread the word about Jersey’s number-one haunt, a haunt for all ages.