The scariest haunted houses in NYC

If you think there weren't great quality, white-knuckle worthy haunted houses in Brooklyn-slash-Queens, you're wrong: The Ridgewood Asylum and Haunted House has been a local crowd favorite for years. Operated by the beloved owners of The Deep End bar, The Ridgewood Asylum is part escape room and part haunted house and this year's iteration will be the biggest they've ever built. 

What we love about this haunted house is that it isn't just about jump scares, either: It's always meticulously thought0out, with storylines and plots and details you won't usually get from more commericial haunted houses in the city. The Ridgewood Asylum will open on October 11 and run until November 1. 

Prepare to scream in horror. Blood Manor is back from September 28 through November 3, marking more than two decades of terrifying New Yorkers. 

The 10,000 square-foot mansion at 359 Broadway in Manhattan boasts plenty of blood-chilling rooms, spooky corridors and a labyrinth filled with surprises that will make you jump in abject horror. But there's more: a great cast of actors equipped to instill maximum jump scares and state-of-the-art special effects and technology that combine reality with fantasy so that you don't quite know what's real and what isn't. Snag your timed entry tickets here.

Are you afraid of the dark? After exploring Dark Matter, a new immersive art exhibition at Mercer Labs in Lower Manhattan, you just might be. 

The exhibition, running on select evenings from October 4 to 30, is the brainchild of experimental artist Roy Nachum, Mercer Lab’s co-founder and creative director. Through immersive visuals, interactive displays, audio installations, oil painting and robots, Dark Matter explores the depths and darkness of the human psyche and paranormal expression. The show is available from 8pm-midnight in October; get tickets here for $52/adult.

In creating the exhibition, Nachum drew on his own nightmares for inspiration; "the exhibit explores surreal and hypnotic themes of darkness and the human psyche and the unsettling realm of nightmares, inner demons and paranormal occurrences," he tells Time Out.

What does Jimmy Fallon dream about? Coming up with bits for The Tonight Show? Rocking out with his band, The Roots? Or perhaps something more sinister? 

At this new Halloween experience called Jimmy Fallon's Tonightmares, you can peek inside the mind of the renowned host. This haunted maze experience at Rockefeller Center is open now with 10 chilling rooms, each featuring one of Jimmy Fallon’s spine-tingling nightmares. Tickets are on sale now for about $37/person.

The maze features a cornfield with killer scarecrows, an abandoned subway with not-so-human-like creatures, and even a performance from a zombie boy band, making for a truly thrilling evening. Those brave enough to enter can expect an immersive experience with terrifying sets, practical effects and scares behind every corner.

Ulster Park's Headless Horseman Haunted Hayrides and Haunted Houses is back with plenty of terrifying attractions. There's the classic hayride, a hauting walking trail, a corn maze and several haunted houses. 

All give New Yorkers an opportunity to slowly pass the creepy crawly things in the darkness and maybe even see the headless horseman himself.