Halloween Fun

The 9 best Dallas-Fort Worth haunted houses for thrills and chills

Dallas-Fort Worth does not lack for great haunted houses. In fact, given the number of scare factories spread across the area, we might be able to claim the most per capita in the United States.

So where should you get your screams this Halloween season? We've rounded up the best for your enjoyment — or terror, as it were. It's not a complete list of DFW-area haunted houses, but rather one that guarantees genuine frights.

All of the haunted houses are open every weekend through Halloween; check each event page for additional dates and times.

The Boneyard Haunted House
Don't go looking for the Boneyard Haunted House in Arlington this year; it's now at Southwest Center Mall in Dallas. It features a great blend of high-tech effects and good, old-fashioned blood-and-guts scare tactics. The Boneyard promises to be even bigger in 2016, complete with new scenes, animatronics, and movie-quality props.

Cutting Edge Haunted House
Cutting Edge is a dark attraction filled with terrifying live actors, amazing special effects, and incredible monsters. Located in a 100-year-old abandoned meat-packing plant in Fort Worth, it is an intense, multistory, multithemed haunted house that uses the building's former tenant as wicked inspiration. Set aside some time for this one, as it takes visitors an average of 55 minutes to explore Cutting Edge.

Dan's Haunted House presents Twisted Fate: The Death of Unkle Kreep
Most haunted houses go the standard zombie, clown, or serial killer route, but not Dan's Haunted House in Lake Dallas. For three years running, there has been a Japanese demon theme, with a continuing storyline involving the eerily named Unkle Kreep. His fate this year is designed to creep out any and all visitors, which is what we want out of any good haunted house.

Dark Hour Haunted House
The rare year-round haunted house, Dark Hour in Plano boasts sets worthy of a Broadway production, professional actors, and a strategic use of technology to produces a genuine theatrical experience. Themed around the Witch of Coven Manor, you're not likely to see higher quality scares anywhere in the area.

Hangman's House of Horrors
Changing venues this year is Hangman's House of Horrors, now located north of downtown Fort Worth. It's an oldie but a goodie, celebrating its 28th year serving up scares. The haunted tour includes three separate attractions: the classic Hangman’s House of Horrors, No Place Like Home 3D, and Zombie Outbreak. Additionally, the 19-acre property will be transformed into a festival area featuring live bands, food trucks, free photos, festival activities, novelties, and more.

Moxley Manor Open House
The claim to fame for Moxley Manor in Bedford seems to be unique on this list: It was featured in the 2014 feature film The Houses October Built, about a group of friends traveling across the country looking for the best haunted houses. It promises a new level of fear this year, with the addition of the new Pitch Dark Haunted House.

Reindeer Manor Halloween Park
This haunted house complex in Red Oak may sound cute and cuddly, but that just masks the horrors it has in store. The oldest haunted attraction in Texas features three separate areas: Reindeer Manor Estate, 13th Street Morgue, and Dungeon of Doom, plus a bonus area called the Shadow House that has a terrifying pitch-black maze, where you have only a glow stick to light the way from the entrance to the exit.

Six Flags over Texas presents Fright Fest
You can combine your amusement park screams with terror screams at Six Flags Over Texas' annual Fright Fest. Young kids can enjoy fun Looney Tunes action during the day, and then the zombies, clowns, and other freaks come out at night to scare you at four separate attractions. For less intense fun, check out one of the Halloween-themed shows.

Slaughter House/J&F House of Terror
Slaughter House has moved from Deep Ellum to Garland, teaming up with another haunted house, J&F House of Terror, to double your scares. Slaughter House is now in its 16th year, making it the longest-running haunted house in Dallas County, and it will once again terrify with its group of murderous clowns. Not much is known about J&F House of Terror, but they're promising an all-new haunted maze.

Six Flags Over Texas can scare you in multiple ways at its annual Fright Fest.

Photo courtesy of Six Flags Over Texas

Six Flags Over Texas can scare you in multiple ways at its annual Fright Fest.

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Movie Review

Ryan Gosling tries to save the universe in Project Hail Mary

Photo by Jonathan Olley

Ryan Gosling in Project Hail Mary

The reasons behind the success of 2015’s The Martian, which earned over $630 million worldwide and got nominated for seven Oscars, had as much to do with the novel written by Andy Weir as it did with star Matt Damon and director Ridley Scott. Weir’s commitment to making an entertaining story that was also scientifically accurate proved to be easy to translate into a blockbuster movie.

The same is true for Weir’s 2021 novel, Project Hail Mary, now a film starring Ryan Gosling. Gosling plays Dr. Ryland Grace, who opens the film waking up from an induced coma, alone on an interstellar spaceship named the Hail Mary. As his foggy mind clears, he - and the audience - learn that he was recruited to help an initiative to save the world after it’s discovered that a mysterious phenomenon is causing the sun to cool down, threatening all life on Earth.

The film toggles back and forth between Grace’s time on the ship and his whirlwind journey of scientific discovery on Earth, with revelations coming on both sides. On Earth, he mostly deals with Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller), the unflappable and unstoppable leader of the international coalition dedicated to solving the problem. And in space, orbiting the far-off star known as Tau Ceti, he encounters another being he names Rocky, a five-limbed creature that looks like a boulder which teams up with him to try to save both of their worlds.

Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, and written by Drew Goddard (who also wrote The Martian), the film melds multiple genres into an astonishingly great whole. It starts off as a mystery, morphs into science fiction, transitions into actual science, becomes a thriller, adds in plenty of drama, and - for good measure - features plenty of comedy along the way. Shifting tones like this film does is tricky for many filmmakers, but Lord and Miller prove to be masterful at knowing just how much of each to include before it becomes too much.

One of the biggest keys to the story is the fact that Grace is not a hero in the movie sense of the word. He’s very smart, but he’s also an everyman, teaching middle school science after being shunned from academia. The circumstances of how he ended up on the Hail Mary are doled out in pieces over the course of the film, but it’s clear from the start that Grace’s talents are not the ones found in your typical astronaut. Ironically, it’s him being forced to do heroic stuff that imbues him with an atypical type of bravery.

The relationship between Grace and Rocky is unique, and Rocky ends up being as endearing an alien that’s been featured in movies despite the fact that he has no face and speaks only in musical tones. The film does a very effective job of putting the audience in Grace’s shoes, having to figure out ways to communicate with Rocky at the same time as he’s trying to figure out how to complete a mission he wasn’t trained to do.

Gosling is the ideal actor to portray a man like Grace. Essentially alone for much of the film, his innate charm and humorous delivery keep the film from feeling like an extended monologue. The flashback scenes to his time on Earth feature solid performances from people like Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall), Lionel Boyce (The Bear), and more, who fill in the pieces of the story without feeling out of place.

Project Hail Mary is a crowd-pleaser in all the right ways, delivering plenty of thrilling action and funny moments while also digging deep into science nerd elements. With a movie star like Gosling in the lead and successful filmmakers like Lord, Miller, and Goddard behind the scenes, the film makes an early case for being one of best of the year.

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Project Hail Mary opens in theaters on March 20.

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Halloween Fun

The 9 best Dallas-Fort Worth haunted houses for thrills and chills

Six Flags Over Texas can scare you in multiple ways at its annual Fright Fest.

Movie Review

Ryan Gosling tries to save the universe in Project Hail Mary

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