A door opens by itself. The stairs creak with no one on them. There’s the faint sound of people whispering in an empty room. These things frighten us in our homes, so what makes us seek them out elsewhere around Halloween?

The haunted house has been an attraction since the early 19th century, when Madame Tussaud exhibited realistic wax figures of decapitated French royalty in London. Her exhibition was so popular that she went on to make it permanent, calling it her ‘Chamber of Horrors’. This horrifying-albeit original- exhibit left people wanting more, so in the following years additional haunted house-esque experiences were created.

At the turn of the 20th century, haunted house began to resemble the ones we’re so familiar with. France’s Grand Guignol theatre began to hold gory performances that were so shocking some patrons would faint. In England, the first ghost house train was set up in Liphook. This commercial horror attraction was a sign that the public now had a hunger for horror.

With haunted house attractions popping up all over Europe, the US was somewhat behind until the Great Depression. During the 1930s, the first Halloween-themed haunted houses started to appear. They appeared in the US around the same time as trick-or-treating did for the same reasons; to keep kids from getting into mischief. Neighborhoods would decorate their basements and have kids travel through them to reach candy at the end, which effectively kept kids busy for the whole night. So, while they weren’t particularly frightening, they did keep the local children from scaring anyone else.

With that being the history of haunted houses, how did they become the major attractions we know and love today? The answer to that lies with Walt Disney. Disney built his Haunted Mansion attraction in 1969, 20 years after he first had the idea approved. Designed to resemble the Winchester Mystery House, Disney created a story and a cast of characters to frighten children and parents alike. The attraction gained immense popularity, eventually spawning two movies and mountains of merchandise.

With Disney’s success, the haunted house industry was born. Now virtually everywhere you go around Halloween you can find a haunted house attraction. That includes in Plainsboro, where YAC will be holding their annual Haunted House Tour at the museum on October 27th, from 5-8pm.