I was expecting the haunted house round-up to be a little on the low end this year since we were away for two of the weekends and didn’t get started until the end of the month – I told Henry, “We’ll just go to like, 2. I swear.” Yet somehow, we ended up for the 2025 season, including ONE IN ROMANIA!

This haunt sits at the bottom of the legendary Bran Castle (a/k/a Dracula’s Castle) in Bran, Romania. I won’t like – the area surrounding the entrance to the Castle is lined with lots of souvenir stands that MAY OR MAY NOT be ripping off tourists. I mean, if you want to tour Bran Castle and then buy a deformed Labubu, you can do this here! I bought a magnet and postcards, who cares. Take my money.

But also in this area is the haunted house that everyone online warns is a tourist trap. But as a haunted house enthusiast, can you imagine me going to DRACULA’S CASTLE (it’s not really but you know what I mean!) and then just strolling past the haunted house on the way back to the car without going in?! ME, the dork who still writes haunted house reviews in a paper journal?!

Thank god this was open because it wasn’t even 11am yet by the time we exited the Castle after our tour. As expected, no one else was there, no line to stand in, no wait. We paid the equivalent of $9 USD to the ambivalent young man in the ticket booth and then entered!

Ok my memory of this is wrecked because shortly after we left Bran, the curse of Vlad Tepes hit me by way of a violent stomach virus. But I do remember thoroughly enjoying it even though there was only one scare actor inside, creepily trailing Henry through several rooms.

But it was actually more aesthetic than I was expecting. I guess I was thinking it was going to be super low-tech and no frills, like the old YMCA haunts of the 80a where the walls were lined with garbage bags, but the scenes were kind of popping off, not going lie! There was one room in particular with a slight balcony, and you could look all the way up to the ceiling of the room above, and all the way down to the floor below. I don’t know how to explain it better but while I was distracted taking in all the decorations and scenery, there was a slight trick-floor action where it made you feel like you were tipping over the balcony. I screamed for real, lol.

Overall, it was pretty short and maybe they have more actors inside at night, but as a haunted house girlie, this was a must-do and with admission that cheap, WHY NOT?

I was so stoked that we got to do this!

The first haunt we went to back home was late in the season for us – 10/24! Usually we would have at least 4 or 5 under our belts by then but I was on a mission to make the best of it. We left right after work for Crawford School of Terror(I don’t even think I said goodbye to anyone, I was in such a rush to get there!).

This is usually one of my favorites. They got rid of the digital group # thing so we had to stand in an actual line which was whatever. We had gotten there pretty soon after they opened so the wait wasn’t too bad.

I usually have either a REALLY AWESOME EXPERIENCE HERE or just a so-so one. This was a so-so year but to no fault of the haunt. I still loved the theming and the actors (maybe the upper school-themed floor is kind of getting stale, I’ll admit), but it didn’t hit as hard this year and here’s why:

They just aren’t great at keeping groups from converging. I get that some people run through, others go slow, but if they could have some “check-points” where scare actors step in for crowd control, that would be really awesome because then we wouldn’t have caught up with the parents who brought two girls under the age of 5 in with them, one was so young that the dad was carrying her through, and the scare actors really toned it down around them which was sad for us.

However, it did allow me to have a super cringey and creepy moment with one of the actors after she told the little girls that they were cute and I said WHAT ABOUT ME AM I CUTE TOO with my hands spread out like a serving platter under my chin.

She hesitated but did ultimately say yes! I asked Henry later if he was so proud of me but he just scowled.

Not that I am normal in general but haunted houses really exacerbate whatever is broken in my brain and I can get real dumb and filterless.

This was us afterward when I was being sad that my favorite crowd-pleasing scare actor didn’t seem to be there that night (unless he was a new character that I didn’t recognize?). I do want to also add that I got a pumpkin spice latte from ten Crawford Cafe and it was excelsior. Also, the DJ was asking for requests and I kept saying DO YOU DARE ME TO REQUEST G-DRAGON but Henry wouldn’t bite. So I did not request anything but that DJ was admittedly playing some decent stuff unlike another haunt which I will get to in part 2!! (I’m still angry about it!!)

The following Sunday, we went to the Tour-Ed Haunted Mine. We’ve been here a few times over the years but this was one of the best visits! The people who run it are so friendly and you can tell the volunteers put their whole heart into their parts. I screamed and scrammed my face off, you guys.

There’s a good bit of indoor and outdoor walk-throughs until you get to the entrance of the mine which is the best part, obvi. We got into the mine cart thingie with two other groups, but our car was the last one to be unlocked by a clown so we were at the end of the group while waiting to go into the actual mine portion of the haunt. The clown ripped their mask off and tossed it to the side, revealing an older lady underneath who looked at me and said, “I can’t lock these doors when I’m wearing the mask!” We both chuckled and it felt like a really special moment (or just me needing to get extra therapy because I am always on the hunt for older women maternal figures to latch on to).

“You guys can hang back and go in after the rest of them,” she said, like she knows I’m always antsy about having to go thru haunts with large groups! Then she said I looked familiar and asked me my name and then was like “eh guess not” but then continued to make small talk with us for another minute or two before saying, “ok yinz can go in now. ERIN’S COMING!!!!! WE GOT ERIN HERE!!!”

Goddammit I can’t believe I fell for that!! lol.

Long story short, this was incredibly fun with a plethora of excellent jump scares waiting around every corner. The actors were relentless and effed with us so hard (Henry said of them kept pushing past him to get to me – I think he actually gets sad when he gets passed over because I’m the ultimate target. Poor Henry.)

They got me GOOD at the end, and I ran out screaming bloody murder not realizing that the exit spilled out right by the line of people waiting to get in so, super embarrassing for me but great publicity for the mine!

I was in such a good mood when we left. I love it when haunts make me feel like I’m in high school again!

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