--- description: A century of scares, from Edwardian fairs to Six Flags title: See How Haunted Houses Have Evolved Over the Years image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt560ad69a68def787/69886ed65f570fe4aab1e1a7/gettyimages-569163483.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [History](/section/history/) ## History Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # See How Haunted Houses Have Evolved Over the Years  by [Arpita Aneja](/author/arpita-aneja/)  ## Arpita Aneja Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 29, 2015 10:26 PM CUT  FrightFair actor Jennifer Ubillus (CQ), 22, left, sprays hair coloring on co–worker Sarah Utso (CQ), 19, right, prior to taking their positions inside the Chatsworth haunted house on October 19, 2000\. DIGITAL IMAGE. (Photo by Brian Vander Brug/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images) FrightFair actor Jennifer Ubillus (CQ), 22, left, sprays hair coloring on co–worker Sarah Utso (CQ), 19, right, prior to taking their positions inside the Chatsworth haunted house on October 19, 2000\. DIGITAL IMAGE. (Photo by Brian Vander Brug/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)Brian Vander Brug—LA Times via Getty Images  by [Arpita Aneja](/author/arpita-aneja/)  ## Arpita Aneja Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 29, 2015 10:26 PM CUT These days, it only seems natural that you’d pay real money to enter a dilapidated building that exists solely to scare you—but that wasn’t always the case. Though Halloween has always been associated with the things that go bump in the night, the commercialized haunted house attracted is a relatively recent invention. Here’s how it came to be. **_Read more about the haunted house business, here in the TIME Vault:_** [Monsters Inc.: Inside the Weird World of Professional Haunting](http://time.com/vault/issue/2013-10-28/page/52/ "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4092535/haunted-houses-evolution/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4092535/haunted-houses-evolution/"},"headline":"See How Haunted Houses Have Evolved Over the Years","datePublished":"2015-10-29T22:26:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:11:21.907Z","description":"A century of scares, from Edwardian fairs to Six Flags","url":"https://time.com/4092535/haunted-houses-evolution/","keywords":["Business topic","Holidays"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt560ad69a68def787/69886ed65f570fe4aab1e1a7/gettyimages-569163483.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Arpita Aneja","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/arpita-aneja/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt560ad69a68def787/69886ed65f570fe4aab1e1a7/gettyimages-569163483.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"FrightFair actor Jennifer Ubillus (CQ), 22, left, sprays hair coloring on coworker Sarah Utso (CQ),","caption":"FrightFair actor Jennifer Ubillus (CQ), 22, left, sprays hair coloring on coworker Sarah Utso (CQ),","creditText":"Brian Vander Brug—LA Times via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4092535/haunted-houses-evolution/","name":"See How Haunted Houses Have Evolved Over the Years"}}]}] ```