Ok, I went to Halloween Park in York Haven, PA. About an hour and a half drive.

I had a BLAST. There were not too many people there (it is still only mid September and it was the first night they were open) but it was cool because me and Amy got to sort of have it to ourselves. The House of Terror (their main haunted house) is fun, has a ton of live actors and they had some impressive effects like a woman who levitates off the bed Exorcist-style. That effect in particular was very eerie and convincing.

The smaller side-attractions like the Electric Chair is also very fun. I recommend The Coffin, it was cool, they seal you in a coffin and then it feels like the nails are being pounded in, and your carried to the graveyard and buried..and there are some really great effects..the end of that "ride" is real good too I won't give it away. They give you a severed hand with a emergency button to press in case you get too scared.

The Séance Room was another side attraction that's really good, the ending of it scared me.

But the highlight of the night had to be the awesome House Of Doom. You get a candle..and have to escape the house. Every room seals you in..and you have to discover the clues so you can escape and go to the next room. It was very long, intricate and complex. I found myself genuinely stuck trying to find the exit or clue necessary to get to the next room. It also has a lot of scary surprises..with skeletons and whatnot jumping out at you, haunted beds and moving chairs.

At one point I was on my hands and knees in this creepy room's closet trying to find the secret passageway.

Another time I found myself locked in a tiny crypt, alone skeleton and two coffins on a dusty stone shelf my only company, lit only by the candle as I attempted to find the exit.

Another time I was in a graveyard carefully reading tombstones for my next clue.

It was SO MUCH FUN and the kind of thing only possible in these small town haunted attractions. The wait to get into the House of Terror was understandably long as they had to wait for people to figure out the clues, but very very worth it.

The Capital Times, October 10, 2006

What can I say? This one blew us away. Hands down the best!

The House of Doom amazed us. Imagine, if you will, being handed a candle, walking into a room where the door closes behind you. There are no visible doors, and to get to the next room you have to solve a puzzle. You almost work into a panic trying to get out. There are only four rooms, but trust us four rooms are enough.

The House of Terror was amazing; just the right amount of everything. Actors that you had to interact with in order to continue on, dark pathways that built so much suspense that you became ready to jump at anything, and just the right amount of special effects. This was damn near perfect.

After finishing the house you head straight into the Terror Visions in 3-D. This is the first 3-D attraction that made me really jumpy. Entirely clown themed, the rooms felt like something out of a neon circus. Clowns pop out from everywhere. Put it this way, the girl in front of us peed her pants. Literally.

Finally after exiting the 3-D portion, you head to the Island of Terror. All I need to say is Three Mile Island-Inspired zombie invasion. Not only that, but there are actors that are your allies. Yeah, actors who are trying to help you escape the island. How cool is that?

Be sure to check out the side attractions. The coffin simulator and the elevator were both highly enjoyable.

Overall, this is the best in the area. Creative, plot driven, and overall scariest experience.

York Daily Record, September 23, 2005
By Lauri Lebo

Grandma Eckenrode doesn't want you to escape. She would rather you stay for all eternity with her in the House of Doom. But you can save yourself. All you have to do is uncover the clues left behind. Just don't open the wrong door.

Last week, Stacey Eckenrode was working out the bugs of his latest creation. Eckenrode is the mastermind behind the House of Terror, the annual Halloween spook fest at the old Hykes Mill just outside of Strinestown.

For Eckenrode, getting the haunted attractions ready for the public each year begins the day after Halloween. He is constantly coming up with new ideas and redesigning existing ones.

While many of the haunted houses and hayrides in the region rely on your basic jump-and-scream technique to scare customers, the House of Terror is sort of a high-concept theater.

Each station on its island features a mini-skit on the basic theme of flesh-devouring zombies brought back to life after the 1979 nuclear accident at Three Mile Island. He has an elaborately designed "falling elevator" complete with a hydraulic system to simulate the stomach-turning plummet from the 13th floor.

With any new attraction, there are always a few glitches.

Standing outside the House of Doom, member of YISI.NET, a York marketing firm and designers of Eckenrode's Web site waited their turn to enter in a recent dress rehearsal in preparation for tonight's opening.

But not everything was going smoothly. Eckenrode has been through this before. He said he'd be able to fix the glitches in time for the official opening.

Later, outside, one of Eckenrode's regular ghouls joked about the time the haunted house scared a 13-year-old girl so badly that she peed in her pants.

Reminded of the incident, Eckenrode grinned and said, "That just means we're doing our job."

York Daily Record, October 8, 2004
Creeps by the Conewago
By Mike Caggeso

"Scary" isn't a bloody-faced clown taunting you in a 3-D fluorescent room. "Scary" isn't sidestepping a crazed chain saw wielder trying to nip at your shoes. And "scary" isn't navigating around loose limbs for 15 minutes in a pitch-black maze.

Well, yeah, it is.

But before scary takes a physical form at Halloween spots such as the House of Terror in Conewago Township, scary is an inspiration recorded in Stacey Eckenrode's haunted journal.

"At the weirdest times - in the middle of the night or when I'm driving - I'll think of something, and I write it down," said Eckenrode, creator of the House of Terror.

Walking through the immensely creative House of Terror, you'll see a skeleton's séance, pigs spit-roasting a man and a baby wielding a knife to a chilly remix of "Ring Around the Rosey."

"We've had people fall back through the drywall, so we learned not to use drywall," Eckenrode said with a laugh.

But Eckenrode said his vision of scary takes a lot of work to become a reality. And guiding him through this process isn't a team of specters, but rather his computer.

Eckenrode started the House of Terror eight years ago. Before then, he decked out his year with Halloween decorations.

When his father suggested that an empty feed barn by the Conewago Creek would be a great place to take his scares to the next level, Eckenrode's ideas of scary took on larger and more demented dimensions.

Perhaps the autographs of Linda Blair and Gunner Hansen ("Leatherface" in original "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre") hanging by the House of Terror's entrance are appropriate approvals.

Those horrific icons proved to us they know a think about scary.