In the spirit of Halloween, a good way to get scared and pumped up for the holiday is to go to a haunted house with some friends. Whether you are terrified of ghosts and goblins or, if you are up for a good scare, there are haunted houses all over Austin that will fit your October needs.

It seems that everyone around the country knows about House of Torment; one of the scariest haunted houses in the country, according to the Travel Channel. From personal experience I can say that House of Torment is worth the twenty dollars you pay for general admission. With its costumes, sets and terrifying monsters that come as close to you as they please.

Junior Kyle Gruber has had the opportunity to work for House of Torment last year.

“I love doing it, and I will definitely be doing it again next year,” Gruber said. “It’s always exciting and there is so much energy going on that it’s hard to not want to be a part of it.”

This year House of Torment’s two houses are “The Reckoning” and “Cursed.” The Reckoning is the first house you will enter with your group and is based on the apocalypse and what is believed will happen when zombies and aliens take over the world. This house takes about ten to fifteen minutes to walk through. You enter the house with four other friends, and you pray nothing jumps out at you. With its intense, realistic scenes and over-the-top costumes, “The Reckoning” is a house that is unforgettable. “Cursed” is just the same, only harder to walk through. The theme is based off of the ancient Aztecs and pirates that have come back from the dead and are hiding out waiting to take you back to their pirate ship.

But the House of Torment is not all our city has to offer this October. Austin’s hills are full of scares. The next haunted house you will want to look for is Scare for a Cure. Opened in 2007, this haunted house is a navigate-it-yourself house. You enter this house the way you would enter House of Torment; through a building. But, it leads you outside into the cold October night and you have to find your way out of the forest yourself. With your friends or family in tow you will run, duck, crawl and crawl into many different places. This haunted house is known to be much scarier then House of Torment.  It is said that Scare for a Cure is put on in the pitch dark and when your guide speaks, it is in your best interest to listen to him or her.

The last haunted house you won’t want to miss this October is the Mansion of Terror. The house opened back in September and will be open through mid-November. Just like the House of Torment, the actors cannot touch you, but they do sometimes get too close for comfort. The themes this year are Blood Frenzy and Death Asylum.

In the Blood Frenzy house, you will tour the decomposing home of  fictional Austin serial killer, Jon Eric Springwood, who has killed over 99 Central Texans in the last 15 years. Here, you will witness the last moments of his latest victim’s life. In Death Asylum, you are in an asylum overrun with patients who have become zombies. Expect padded rooms, claustrophobic passageways, mazes, zombies, and more.

Whether you’re terrified or too cool to care, these houses are the best you will find in a 30 mile radius of Austin. Be sure you get your Halloween season started by visiting these terrifying houses.