With many haunted houses around the Indianapolis area to choose from, I chose to go to Hanna Haunted Acres.

Having been before, I was pretty familiar with Hanna Haunted Acres and its attractions. Hanna boasts four different house attractions for guests to walk through, each with different titles and themes. It is not uncommon for haunted houses to have more than one house to go through; however, having four separate houses ensures diversity among the attractions. Two other attractions that Hanna offers are a haunted corn maze and a haunted hayride, neither of which are offered at the other popular haunted houses in the area.

As far as the attractions go, I thought they were pretty fun although somewhat tame compared to other haunted houses. At other places like Nightmare on Edgewood and Indy Scream Park, the employees are allowed to touch and grab guests. Hanna, on the other hand, does not allow this, which can be seen as a positive feature for many people, but for others like myself, the grabbing and physicality of other haunted houses are what actually make them scary.

Hanna’s house attractions consist mainly of jumpscares, loud noises, and the creepiness of props rather than making their guests physically scared with contact. The corn maze relies also on creepy props, but the characters also get more into their roles by popping out at guests from the corn and even chasing them with chainsaws, which I thought was pretty fun.

The hayride is definitely tailored more towards easy-going guests although it was still fun. Guests file into a tractor trailer with hay and are taken on a path through the woods filled with huge props and scary scenes along with actors who jump on the trailer with the goal of scaring guests.

Another aspect that has to be looked at when comparing it to other places is the price of tickets. The standard ticket allows for entry into all six attractions one time each and is around $35 after taxes and fees. I do not think this is a bad price considering how much there is to do. Guests also have the option to buy other tickets, such as an unlimited pass to go through all attractions as many times as wanted or for the hayride only.

Nightmare on Edgewood’s tickets are pretty comparable to that of Hanna Haunted Acres, and they are both about the same distance away from Greenwood, so choosing between the two would really boil down to whether or not guests want to be physically touched during their experience. Indy Scream park is both more expensive and farther away.

Looking back, I had fun at Hanna Haunted Acres, and I do think it is a great place to go with friends and family around the Halloween season. However, after getting older, I view it more as a “childish” haunted house and would personally prefer to go to a house where the scares are more violent and physical.