This Home Haunt is Going Pro: How It Happens
Those who know us will know doubt know that we have an undying love for the ‘spooky season’. Every fall, we travel up and down the east coast to visit and experience dozens of haunted attractions across the country, most of them offering scare mazes with live actors, animatronics, lighting and atmospheric audio. We’ve been through some haunts in their first year of operation, some haunts in their 30th year of operation, some haunts in malls and some haunts out in the middle of nowhere. However, with only eight to ten operating days to work with, there are always attractions and experiences that we miss out on; none so often as the “home haunt”.
Home haunts may offer much the same experience as a “professional” haunted attraction - actors, fog, props, sets, lighting, sound loops - but with one key difference. A home haunt is typically erected on residential property; so, while guests (in some cases, customers) are making their way through the spooks and scares you’ve painstakingly crafted, your spouse may be peeling an onion in the kitchen fifteen feet north of your dungeon. Not unlike professional haunts in the industry, your experience at a home haunt may widely vary based on a number of factors - the walkthrough might be short or long, it might be filled with Goodwill finds or hand-sculpted set pieces, etc. But because the typical home haunt operates as more of a community activity than a business, the one thing that almost every home haunt has in common is a passionate architect. This is most assuredly the case for Dark Acres, a home haunt that we visited for the first time this past season.
Above: Dark Acres is a home haunt located at 3 Sequoia Dr, Ballston Lake, NY 12019. It opens for one night only on Halloween each year, but in the near future, its owner hopes to go pro.
John Acors, the owner and “imagineer” behind Dark Acres was in love with Halloween and haunted attractions long before the home haunt made its debut in 2012. The walkthrough experience was a labor of love, and one that would continue to see subsequent iterations and gradual improvements over the decade to follow. Thirteen years gone by, the haunt now offers a 2000-ft, ~5-minute scare maze with sights, sounds, smells that draw between 500 and 1,000 people every Halloween. The sets, while small, are comparable to the sets that would typically be built for a “pro” attraction - immersive, uplit and home to one or more dedicated scare actors who know exactly how to use the setting to their advantage. At this juncture, Dark Acres has more in common with a professional haunt than a home haunt - which is exactly why John is now looking to go pro.
“It’s really about money. especially in New York State. It’s very expensive in here. 5,000 ft - which is only about double of what I have here is half a million dollars - So buildings are very expensive here. But I have everything else. I could start building tomorrow for a pro hunt if I wanted to. I have all the tools that a pro hunt would have to do all of this fabrication.”
After getting a look at John’s prop, costume and fabrication workshop(s), it seemed to us as though he already had both the tools and the talent to take his home haunt to the next level. So, why is it that Dark Acres isn’t already making a name for itself in the pro world? As with many things, it mostly comes down to cost. According to John, to rent a 5,000-square-foot location would cost about half a million dollars - that’s for location lease, insurance and business registration, before you even consider the costs of hiring and managing actors and other essential staff. The costs of opening a professional haunted attraction are almost always front-loaded, with many haunts taking a few seasons to recover the initial investment - but depending on the state, the legal requirements, the nature of the haunt and the founder’s financial background, it can be a real challenge just to get the doors open for that very first night. Despite the obstacles, John is committed to this journey - and if the home haunt experience he’s crafted is any indication, he has more than enough passion, dedication and skill to see it through.
This year, Dark Acres introduced new ‘hard walls’, new set pieces, new animatronics and new projection and fog effects - some of which were purchases, others of which were designed and fabricated by John himself. The live actors were a bit of a surprise for us, which is a good reminder never to underestimate an up-and-coming haunter. Granted, most of these actors are family and friends of the Acors clan, but we can vouch that these volunteers are every bit as professional as the ones you’d see at the ‘big brand’ haunts elsewhere in the country. It was our honor and our privilege to be able to take a few private runs of the haunt experience, each round somehow being less predictable than the last, and we can vouch for the level of effort that John, Josh, Carlie and Diana put into the scares.
Above: The live actors at Dark Acres were a bit of a surprise for us, but these volunteers and family members were every bit as professional as the ones you’d see at the ‘big brand’ haunts - and they knew exactly how to use the maze to their advantage.
So, what’s next for Dark Acres? Well, for now, the home haunt will continue on as it has for thirteen years - a free-to-attend event for on Halloween night of each year, with optional donation to the local girls’ wrestling team. But behind the scenes, John continues to make moves towards his dream of opening the haunt for more than one day per season. “I have probably three different business plans; the one is 75 pages,” John told us, “I want to get to a point where I can say, ‘hey, this is good enough to throw out there’ and I think probably (we’ll be there) within about two years.” So if you live in New York State or don’t mind a bit of driving, keep an eye out - because Dark Acres’ first pro season may be right around the corner. Until then, you can check out our experience vlog below to get a sense of what the home haunt experience offers. Be sure to go out and support all of the home haunts in your area, too - you never know which one will be the next to cross over!
Dark Acres is a home haunt located at 3 Sequoia Dr, Ballston Lake, NY 12019. It opens for one night only on Halloween each year. Event and parking information will be posted on Dark Acres’ social media accounts closer to October 2026.
