1. What the hell is HauntFreaks.com anyway?
We are an e-zine (internet based magazine) dedicated to haunted attractions.

2. What time are you open? What is the admission price? Where are you located? Can I get directions?
We are not a haunted attraction.

3. Ok, so what is it that you do?
We support the haunted attraction industry and the home haunter. We visit haunted attractions and yard haunts where we conduct interviews and take pictures so that over the course of the next year we can bring articles and photo layouts to our readers.

4. And you do this WHY?
Sometimes we wonder the same thing…. Just kidding. If you have been to the “about us” page, you already know why. It all started from a website about our vacation in 2000, people found it on the internet and started emailing us questions about Halloween Horror Nights. Basically, we found this whole little untapped community that revolved around a hobby we enjoyed. So in a nutshell, we do it because it’s been a lot of fun and we have met a lot of really nice people.

5. So this must pay pretty well?
Only in personal fulfillment, otherwise, not a dime. All of our expenses are out of pocket.

6. Why do you cover those piddling little home haunts that no one cares about?
This is probably the worst question we encounter, as we find these emails infuriating. We have explained it in various other articles on our site, but in essence, they are the heart of the haunted attraction industry. It all started with a guy throwing some pumpkins out on the lawn and covering himself with ketchup to scare the kids…. If not for the neighborhood haunt, we would not have the attractions we have today.

7. Where is “The 13th Floor?” That haunted attraction in Philly that is soooooo scary that NO ONE has ever made it thru… and if you do, THEY GIVE YOU YOUR MONEY BACK!
<sigh> It does not exist. It is an urban legend that exists in every major city, usually taking place in an old prison / asylum / hospital. Usually it consists of 4 or 5 floors, but leave it to those over the top Philly people to make theirs 13. And I know that you know someone who knows someone that has been there / seen the advertisement / heard it on the radio. But it does not exist. And yes, Philly’s radio station Q102 did a “live broadcast” from there last year, but it was a hoax. They said they were off “the boulevard” but never specified which one, people just assumed Roosevelt…. Sorry guys, we would LOVE to see this one come to fruition, but even if someone DOES build a 13th floor, it will not live up to the legend. Haunts are a business, and no one can safely make a profitable haunt that no one can get thru….

8. Is <insert haunt name here> scary?
We get asked these questions all the time, and they are the hardest ones to answer. After 3 full seasons of this, it’s really hard for us to gauge what is scary. When we ar walking thru the houses, we are looking at it on another level, the quality of the set up, the actors performances, the effects, and after the 10th one of the season, unless they swoop down and literally chop the head off of the person in front of us, we don’t jump much. (And no, no one has done that yet). When we talk with the haunters, we are often invited to walk thru the attractions by ourselves, which we often do in order to take photos without disturbing anyone else’s experience, but we always ask for a second walk thru with a group so that we can have a feel for how the general public reacts to the attraction, and it is thru these reactions that we can gauge the “scariness.” We’re happy to tell you if we think it is age appropriate for children….but in the end, you know your own children best. We have a 12 year old that JUST started going to the haunts with us this past season because he did not enjoy them until now. If your child needs a gentle push to go thru, that’s to be expected, but if you have the child that is openly sobbing because they are afraid, you might want to look into that babysitter. I can’t tell you how many sobbing children we have seen scolded because “we already bought your ticket!”

9. What is the best haunted attraction you have been to?
Quick! Name your favorite food! Kind of hard right? One might come to the top of your head immediately, but think about it… depends upon what mood you’re in… and there are so many other ones you enjoy for different reasons… that’s how we feel about the haunts. We do have our “favs” but they are varied, and it would depend upon what you are looking for. Entertainment value for your dollar? Knott’s Scary Farm in Buena Park CA. They are the granddaddy of them all and have been doing this for 31 years…. Plenty of houses and plenty of shows… but then we have “Goatman Hollow,” a small haunt located in Hyattsville MD, run by volunteers benefiting the local fire department, and they had some of the best cast, effects, and cohesive storyline that we have seen to date. And if you’re looking for the big party, there is Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights, where the “blood bars” are plenty and the entertainment flows out of the houses and into the streets. Up and coming Busch Garden’s Howl-O-Scream has taken a page from Knott’s and are beginning to stake their own claim in Florida ( APPLES & ORANGES PEOPLE, you can enjoy both… tho many have taken an either / or stance of the rival haunts). So when you ask us what’s the best, pull up a chair, it’s gonna be a long night…..

10. What is the admission price / dates of <insert attraction name here>?
We do everything we can to bring you up to date information about all of the attractions, but we are not officially affiliated with any haunt, so the information we pass on is found on the haunt’s official website.

11. When are you going to post Halloween Horror Nights / Knott’s / Howl-O-Scream?????
Lol… when we feel like it ? Seriously, we do save the larger haunts for the summer and early fall when the excitement is starting to build. Yes, we know that some of you want to see the story in November! But that’s just not how it works. Sorry.

12. Why do you go on hiatus November until March?
“All work and no play makes jack a dull boy…” (but in that Jack Nicholson in the Shining sense). We love the haunts and we have a great time doing it all, but by the end of the season we just need a break to regain our sanity before we’re both running around the house with an axe…. We work full time and have a family, so we have other obligations to family and friends to catch up on by October 31st. We enjoy our holidays and then spend the beginning of the year regrouping for the upcoming season and it gives us each a little personal time to pursue some projects of interest on our own.

13. You’ve been covering mostly east coast haunts and now California, do you plan to do any other regions?
We would love to! We have heard about some really great ones in Texas and in the Midwest, but as I said, all of our expenses are completely out of pocket and there is only so much traveling we can afford. We would LOVE to visit some of these other locations (so if someone wants to send us, let us know!).

14. Can I use the pictures from your site for my website dedicated to <insert haunted attraction here, but probably HHN>?
We do not mind if you use the photos from our site, but we would appreciate credit and a link in return, ditto for any text excerpts used on your site, and we would appreciate an email to let us know. We ask that you not use ANY of the graphics as our characters are HF exclusives. And even some of the HHN materials etc are “doctored” by Brian to be unique to our site.

15. So whatever happened to your spot in the travel channel’s HHN show?
Well, Brian and I met with Lightship Entertainment and they were great, we stammered and giggled thru our interview and they assured us we did great, after editing, we would look smoooooth. We were told that we would be shown with the website name on the screen and we were happy to gain the exposure despite being so apprehensive about being before a camera. Several months after the interview, we were advised that Universal brass had an issue with HauntFreaks.com being displayed, Lightship hoped to “go around this” with “webmasters, HauntFreaks” hoping that would be enough to direct traffic to the site. Then Universal came back again and said they did not want us in the show at all. “The show is slated to run for 5 years and what if the website turns into something weird?” So we were cut.

16. If you have no official affiliation with any of the haunts, what is your relationship like with the haunters?
As mentioned above, despite several years of positive press, Universal refuses to acknowledge us and goes as far as to advise their staff that they are not to leak information to HauntFreaks. I have visited their office and attempted to make contact with a PR person, but they are simply not interested bordering on hostile. There has been debate in the HF camp about continued coverage of HHN, but In the end, if the readers still want to see it, then we will still cover when we can. Other attractions have embraced us, brought us into their parks and consented to interviews; some don’t really understand WHY we do what we do (since we make no $), but press is press and they are happy to meet with us. Universal is the exception to the rule.

17. Why do you post spoilers?
Another issue the HF camp is divided on….but in fairness, the spoilers that are posted do little hurt any of the events. We never post a spoiler without a warning. To do so would be completely unfair, as fans come in several different categories. There are those like Brian that want to know every detail they can find, and it does little to deter their excitement, in fact it fuels it and they do not feel their experience is any the less for it. Then there are those that want to hear little glimpses of the event… what is the icon going to be this year? Who’s going to be featured in B&T? But they want some surprise. And then there are those that want to have complete blinders until they walk thru the gate. Most people probably fall into that center category. And in all fairness, in our defense, we do not post every spoiler that we are sent and we use our judgment as to whether or not we feel the posting of such information WILL negatively impact the event. For example, we have never posted a B&T script in season, if the script is posted at all it is the following season, tho we have had them in advance every year since we started. A lot of people have access to those scripts…. We don’t even solicit them.

18. You said <insert posted statement here> and that didn’t happen. What’s up with that?
That’s why they are called rumors. We don’t make any of it up, we pass it along as we hear it and we try to get a feel for our sources, so many people are trying to jump into the game anymore, and sometimes we all get burned by someone talking to hear themselves talk… or they get caught up in their own wishful thinking and pass it on as a possibility.

19. If I have information for you, can I remain anonymous?
You are credited or not credited as you request. Even if we are questioned by people of a certain themepark about our sources, we do not reveal them.

20. We met you at <insert haunt> and you don’t sound like you’re from Jersey!
For all of you that watch the Sopranos, that is North Jersey.

21. Sometimes your updates are a little slow, why is that?
All we can say is we try our best not to let the site lag, but sometimes we just run out of hours, and we offer our apologies.

22. Do you really visit all your featured haunts?
Yes we do. Any haunt that is covered has ben visited by the HauntFreaks crew and the pictures are our own. Occasionally, especially with the larger theme park haunts, we use pictures submitted by others, but our primary source is our own. We talk to the owners and management of the haunts face to face and usually keep in touch to find out what is new with their event before posting the new story. We DO have the section for "Reader's Haunts" and these are submitted by HF Readers and do not necessarily express the opinions of the HF staff and we make no statements in regards to their authenticity.