Would you pay $2,000+ to stay overnight in an infamous haunted house?
The reasons behind why so many of us seek out scary experiences and the paranormal.
Ever wonder why so many people flock to haunted attractions in October, enjoy ghost hunting, or love to watch scary movies? Engaging in this type of recreational fear causes an automatic boost of “feel good” hormones like dopamine, adrenaline, and endorphins.
Entertainment horror gives us a break from the ordinary routine of life and completely hyperfocuses our attention on the present moment. If we are doing these activities with other people like friends or family, it can create an excitement-based bond or connection.
There are many haunted attractions that appear every October and some that are available all year long. Maybe you’ve heard of the Lizzie Borden or Conjuring houses? Both homes are available not only for tours but also offer an overnight option for those brave enough to stay.
The Lizzie Borden House
The historic Victorian-era Lizzie Borden House is a museum and bed-and-breakfast located in Fall River, Massachusetts. It is the site of the 1892 double-murder of husband and wife Andrew and Abby Borden.
On August 4, 1892, during the morning hours, Abby was attacked first. Her body was found in the guest room with several catastrophic wounds to her head. Later that morning, Andrew was attacked. His body was found on the sitting-room sofa with the left side of his face mutilated by several blows to the head.
The destructive and fatal injuries were caused by a sharp, heavy object. While the infamous Lizzie Borden nursey rhyme begins with “Lizzie Borden took an ax”, no definitive murder weapon was ever physically or legally identified.
Andrew’s daughter, Lizzie Borden (age 32), was arrested, tried, and acquitted for both homicides. To this day, the murders officially remain unsolved.
According to BostonGhosts.com, reported haunting activity includes disembodied voices and laughter, mysterious footsteps, sightings of apparitions, and rocking chairs moving on their own. Some guests lying in Lizzie’s bed have even reported being touched or choked.
Want to experience some of these ghostly encounters for yourself? According to the official Lizzie Borden House reservations page, you can get complete privacy by paying an additional “exclusive use” fee of $1,500 (or $2,000 during October) on top of the cost of reserving the six guest rooms. Depending on the day of the week and season you could expect to pay anywhere from $2,800 to $4,100+ for a single night of complete, uninterrupted and possibly terrifying privacy.
That premium fee also gets you a private, 2-hour staff-guided tour or ghost hunt with access to paranormal equipment until midnight, a complimentary continental breakfast, and souvenirs.
The Conjuring House
If you are looking for a possibly more affordable overnight haunted adventure, you might consider The Conjuring House (historically known as the Arnold Estate), located in Burrillville, Rhode Island. The working farmhouse was built in 1736. Tragic lore surrounds the property that includes fatal accidents, mysterious deaths, and suicides of the Arnold family that lived there for eight generations.
The house was made famous by Ed and Lorraine Warren, who documented the haunting activity that was experienced by the Perron family that lived there throughout the 1970’s.
Shortly after moving into the home in January 1971, Roger and Carolyn Perron, along with their five daughters, started experiencing unexplainable and frightening occurrences.
At first, it was little things like the broom missing or unexplained scraping noises in an unoccupied kitchen. There were random small piles of dirt that would show up on the floor right after it had been cleaned. Carolyn reported that she had opened an orange that started bleeding.
Then the children started to notice spirits. At first, they seemed harmless but eventually turned violent. There were physical attacks like hair pulling and being slapped. Carolyn was allegedly thrown across a room during a séance.
It wasn’t until 1980 that they finally had the financial means to move.
During the writing of this article, the official website for the Conjuring House states, “The property is not currently open for public tours while restoration work is underway. Guided tours are planned once that work is complete.”
GHamping (ghost camping) was offered at the property back in 2023 and stopped at the end of 2024. For $300 to $400 a night, guests could camp in one of eight themed tents spread across the property’s 8.5 acres. Previous owners of the house claimed that it was never the house that felt haunted—it was the land.
Overnight visits are planned to resume once tours open with pricing details to follow.
Why Haunted Attractions Can Be Enjoyable
Excitation transfer is a theory, developed by psychologist Dolf Zillman in 1971. The theory states that physiological arousal caused by an event can linger, carry over, and intensify the emotional or behavioral reaction to a separate, subsequent event.
Zillman’s excitation-transfer theory helps explain why people enjoy haunted attractions, specifically focusing on the transition from fear to joy or relief. Have you ever noticed how so many people will walk through a haunted house attraction laughing when just a moment earlier they were frightened and screaming? Or they exit laughing and smiling?
As you walk from one scary spot to the next, your sympathetic nervous system never has time to fully relax. Your fight-or-flight response remains engaged, spiking your cortisol, heart rate, and adrenaline. However, when you step into a quiet hallway or dimly lit empty room where no threat is detected, your brain realizes you’re temporarily safe while you remain physiologically charged.
Because that leftover energy needs somewhere to go, it transfers into this new situational context, amplifying your relief and causing you to burst out laughing. When you finally reach the exit and you know all the jump scares are finally over, the amplified energy still exists but is now redirected one last time towards magnifying your sense of triumph, leaving you with the heightened euphoria of having “survived.”
Seeking the Unknown
When engaging in ghost hunting or paranormal activities, people are often seeking a thrill, coping with grief and mortality, trying to satisfy their curiosity about the unknown, bonding with others (the living), connecting with history, or trying to find meaning in an otherwise chaotic world.
Paranormal research dates back to the nineteenth century with organizations like the Society for Psychical Research, established in 1882 London, that describes itself as “the first scientific organisation ever to examine claims of psychic and paranormal phenomena.”
Ghost hunting became popularized in the reality tv boom of the 2000s. Paranormal investigative shows like Ghost Hunters and Most Haunted caught much of the public’s attention. Viewership of Ghost Hunters grew from 1.3 million viewers to 2.6 million from 2004-2008.
According to a 2025 Gallup poll, 1 in 3 Americans is generally open to paranormal ideas, with women and people who infrequently attend religious services more likely to be open to paranormal beliefs than men and churchgoers. The data also shows 48% of U.S. adults believe in psychic or spiritual healing, and 39% believe in ghosts.
Scary Business
Spending money on haunted attractions has become big business. CNBC reported in 2013 that haunted houses have become a $300 million industry. According to the National Retail Federation, Halloween consumer spending is expected to reach $13.5 billion in 2026, and 49% of consumers reported they started shopping for Halloween in September or earlier.
Consumers are expected to spend an average of $115 per person, with overall spending being distributed across these core categories:
Costumes $4.4B
Decorations $4.3B
Candy $4.1B
From figuring out your costume to standing in line with friends at a haunted house, attending parties, or ghost hunting, Halloween spending can buy you fun and thrilling experiences. But remember to mindfully spend on the fun and treats this year.
Happy Halloween and happy spending. 🎃👻
If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading!!!
I hope today you’re met with kindness, especially from yourself.
💚💚💚
References
American Psychological Association. (2023, November 15). Excitation-transfer theory. APA dictionary of psychology. https://dictionary.apa.org/excitation-transfer-theory
Bahrman, J. (2026, October 19). Why do people like feeling scared? Newswise. https://www.newswise.com/articles/why-do-people-like-feeling-scared
Boston Ghosts. (2021, January 12). The Lizzie Borden House. https://bostonghosts.com/the-lizzie-borden-house/
Ghost hunting groups becoming popular. (2008, May 31). CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ghost-hunting-groups-becoming-popular/
Lizzie Borden House. (2026, September 12). Lizzie Borden fact vs. fiction. https://lizzie-borden.com/blog/lizzie-borden-fact-vs-fiction/
Mailman, E. (2024, September 25). You can book a campsite on the haunted grounds of The Conjuring House. Time Out. https://www.timeout.com/usa/news/you-can-book-a-campsite-on-the-haunted-grounds-of-the-conjuring-house-092524
National Retail Federation. (2026). Halloween data and trends. https://nrf.com/research-insights/holiday-data-and-trends/halloween
Serena, K. (2026, January 27). The Perron family haunting: Inside the true story of 'The Conjuring'. All That's Interesting. https://allthatsinteresting.com/perron-family-haunting
Society for Psychical Research. (2025). About the SPR. https://www.spr.ac.uk/about-spr
Vargas, E., & Lebron, S. (2025, May 30). True story behind The Conjuring: The 1971 Perron family case. The Tiger. https://thetigernews.org/12672/entertainment/true-story-behind-the-conjuring-the-1971-perron-family-case/
White, M. C. (2013, October 7). It’s aliiiive! Haunted-house industry scares up big money.
Yi, R., & Hogenboom-Jones, S. (2025, July 23). Paranormal phenomena met with skepticism in U.S. Gallup. https://news.gallup.com/poll/692738/paranormal-phenomena-met-skepticism.aspx
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