The park was soon after deemed New England’s largest and most terrifying horror scream park, becoming a household name.” I was aware of SpookyWorld as a kid and had long wanted to go, but sadly our family was never able to make the trek. And as cool and creative as these types of “haunted” attractions were, they were only capturing the essence of something much bigger that had just been born in 1991 only a few miles north of us in Berlin, MA: SpookyWorld.Īs explained on their website, SpookyWorld was the “original horror scream park” and featured “haunted houses, sideshow attractions, celebrities and a notorious haunted hayride. For years his makeshift haunted house was a Halloween highlight for us kids. In fact, my aunt and uncle – who lived one street over from us in Pawtucket, RI – had a wild and wacky neighbor who extended his garage all the way down the driveway to the sidewalk and adorned the black curtain entrance with a “DO NOT ENTER” sign. These experiences ranged from the more legitimate haunted houses with some degree of staffing and infrastructure, to the homespun haunted houses mostly assembled for Halloween night in your neighbors garage or breezeway. In retrospect, they seem fairly hokey but they still possess a local flare that I find charming.Īlong with these local industries getting in on the creepy fun, we also witnessed a major surge in regional haunted houses and frightful hayrides.

During that time my viewing diet and that of my neighborhood pals consisted of all things spooky, culminating on October 31 with the big celebration.įor me, part of the magic and excitement of that era and time of year were the seemingly countless local car dealerships, restaurants, and retail stores hocking deals via their Halloween-themed commercials – “Come on down for some SPOOKY DISCOUNTS!” The commercials and radio spots peppered our local Providence-area channels and airwaves throughout the entire month of October. As a monster movie loving kid growing up in New England in the 1990s, October was the Holy month.

Method spookied still playing