Halloween Frights

10 best Dallas-Fort Worth haunted houses coming back after a scary year

Halloween season in 2020 was muted by the pandemic, but Dallas-Fort Worth haunted houses and other attractions have made a big comeback in 2021. Every weekend in October features a good variety of chilling and fun options.

We've rounded up some the best haunted houses/Halloween attractions for your enjoyment and/or terror. We've tried to stay within the accepted limits of Dallas-Fort Worth; other options can be found if you venture a little further out.

All of the haunted houses will stay open open every weekend through at least Halloween; check each event page for additional dates and times. Also, make sure to plan your trip in advance, as most attractions have certain rules to adhere to COVID-19 safety guidelines.

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, multi-themed 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.

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 produce a genuine theatrical experience. Themed around the Witch of Coven Manor, it almost guarantees you're not likely to see higher quality scares or more attention to detail anywhere in the area. Even better, you can come back at Christmas, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, and other times of year to enjoy other holiday-themed terror.

Frights 'n Lights
A new Halloween attraction this year, Frights 'n Lights at Riders Field in Frisco promises to fill the gap between pumpkin patches and haunted houses. Guests can explore a trail lined with thousands of jack-o-lanterns carved in the shape of favorite superheroes, princesses, cartoon characters, and more. It also has a Trick-Or-Treat Trail for kids in costume, games, Halloween-themed rides, and food and drink, among other things.

Hangman's House of Horrors
Some haunted houses come and go, but Hangman's House of Horrors seems to be eternal. Now over 30 years old, the haunted house in north Fort Worth includes two separate attractions: the classic Hangman’s House of Horrors and Outbreak!, a smaller yet equally intense attraction where zombies abound from the dark corners and hidden chasms.

Howell Farms presents Pumpkin Nights
On the milder side is Pumpkin Nights at Howell Farm in Arlington, where guests can venture along a half-mile walking path where they’ll discover the Forbidden City, a Pirate’s Cove, and more fantastical lands built using over 5,000 hand-carved real and artificial pumpkins. The celebration continues with entertainment and games in The Village, the festival area.

J&F House of Terror
The J&F House of Terror is based on urban legends. The haunted house maze does something different every year and offers up intense scares in every situation. Actors are not allowed to touch visitors and will practice social distancing. This year the haunted house maze is completely inside, located at Firewheel Town Center in Garland, east of Barnes & Noble and Dillard's.

Moxley Manor Haunted 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 offers three haunted attractions for the price of one, with the original Moxley Manor joined by Regan's Revenge and Big Top Terror.

The Parker House
The Parker House in Denton features two main attractions: The Haunted Walkthrough at The Parker House, where guests become completely engulfed in the murderous mayhem in which Mary Parker subjected her victims; and Outbreak, where guests can take an interactive ride around the property in specially-equipped attack vehicles, going on a mission to defeat the zombies and save the world from the chaos created by failed attempts at finding a cure for the Outbreak virus.

Reindeer Manor Halloween Park
Don't get fooled by the cute and cuddly name of this haunted house complex in Red Oak; it just masks the horrors it has in store. The oldest haunted attraction in Texas features four separate areas: Reindeer Manor Estate, 13th Street Morgue, Dungeon of Doom, and The Bunker. The event also includes a less-intense area for kids, dances, stage shows, axe throwing, and more.

Six Flags over Texas presents Fright Fest
Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington transforms for the Halloween season, offering both Thrills by Day, a family-friendly daytime experience where younger park guests can enjoy trick-or-treating and character interactions; and Fright by Night, featuring six haunted houses, three terrifying scare zones, and roaming hordes of zombies and sinister souls wreaking havoc throughout the park. There will also be six all-new shows and frightening updates to some favorite rides.

Six Flags Fright Fest offers six haunted houses, three terrifying scare zones, and more.

Photo courtesy of Six Flags Over Texas

Six Flags Fright Fest offers six haunted houses, three terrifying scare zones, and more.

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Movie Review

Masters of the Universe is powered by nostalgia over good filmmaking

Photo courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios

Nicholas Galitzine in Masters of the Universe.

If you grew up in the 1980s, chances are you were either a fan of or knew about Masters of the Universe. The property, based on a line of toys from Mattel, spawned a popular-if-short-lived animated TV series, comic books, a comic strip, magazines, and a 1987 live action film starring Dolph Lundgren. It is now the latest ‘80s IP to get a nostalgic reboot in the form of a new blockbuster film.

Nicholas Galitzine stars as Prince Adam of the planet Eternia, who as a child is exiled to Earth to protect the Sword of Power from invaders led by the evil Skeletor (voiced by Jared Leto). Years later, Adam is now working in the human resources department of a generic company, well-versed in corporate speak but disconnected from his heritage other than a never-ending desire to find the sword he lost when he crash-landed on Earth.

Spoiler alert, he recovers the sword and is soon thereafter rescued from Earth by childhood friend Teela (Camila Mendes). Adam’s return to Eternia is less-than-stellar, as the citizens have difficulty believing he’s the long-lost prince, especially because he initially can’t harness the power of the sword. Naturally, he figures it out eventually, leading to a number of face-offs between him and Skeletor’s minions.

Directed by Travis Knight (Bumblebee) and written by a four-person writing team, the film is yet another cynical attempt at exploiting a certain group’s nostalgia without putting any effort into actually making a good movie. The very first scene of the film is a CGI-filled battle between characters that have barely been introduced, much less explained to the audience. For longtime fans, this will be no issue. For everyone else, though, it immediately signals that the filmmakers don’t care about making them care about anyone or anything in the story.

Instead, they substitute actual character development with a campy and self-deprecating vibe that’s in line with the original series. That’s all well and good if the intended audience was solely 50-year-olds, but for a movie that presumably wants to bring in younger audiences, it’s a choice that never fully comes through. Some characters try to be funnier than others, and most of the “jokes” land with a thud since the tone hasn’t been properly established.

Worst of all, there are never any meaningful stakes in the film. Adam is impervious to damage, something that would have been truly funny if commented upon, but instead is just treated as fact for no good reason. Skeletor is not intended to be a fearsome villain, as he often bumbles through scenes or line deliveries, but the lack of a truly terrible enemy keeps the story stuck in neutral. Combined with bloodless PG-13 fight scenes with no sense of realness to them, there is rarely anything about which to get excited.

Galitzine has turned heads as both a gay (Red, White & Royal Blue) and straight (The Idea of You) romantic interest, but he can never find his footing as the leading man here. The film never allows him to develop into a true action hero, so instead he comes across as a pretender most of the time. Mendes is okay, but she, too, isn’t given the opportunity to become much more than a sidekick. Idris Elba is entirely wasted as Teela’s father Duncan. Leto lets loose, which works because he’s the only character without a recognizable face.

There may be a world in which rebooting Masters of the Universe makes sense, but it does not exist when the film that is offered doesn’t even try to appeal to anyone who doesn’t have a deeply ingrained knowledge of the decades-old property. By relying on nostalgia instead of good filmmaking, the film may get good box office returns on opening weekend, but it’s difficult to imagine that it will endure.

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Masters of the Universe opens in theaters on June 5.

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