Gatlinburg, Tennessee: Hauntings Ghostly Adventure

[This post has been updated to reflect the closure of Hauntings in 2015.]
The town of Gatlinburg, in the Smoky Mountains, houses a lot of sidewalk attractions and shops: museums, arcades, custom airbrushed t-shirts, taffy, miniature golf, more airbrushed t-shirts, etc. Several attractions are themed towards the bizarre and supernatural, including Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum, Ripley's Haunted Adventure, World of Illusions, Ghost Haunts Tours, and Mysterious Mansion.


I first visited an attraction called Hauntings in June 1991, during a summer trip to Tennessee. The show took place in a small room, dimly lit, with seating for about 20 people. Throughout the show, objects seemed to move by themselves (candle moving across mantle, spirit writing on slate board), noises were heard throughout the room (chains rattling, wolf howling), and an eerie voice narrated. At the end of the show, a figure appeared in the flashing of a strobe light, thrusting a chainsaw menacingly at the audience.

In 2009, I visited the attraction again. It had actually changed very little since 1991, although (unfortunately) the madman with the chainsaw had been removed from the show. Instead, there was something that occurred where a large head was moving toward the audience. I can't remember what that was about, but it managed to catch me off guard. Anyway, the video I posted contains narration from the beginning of the show. Most of it is pretty laughable, including a direct quotation of Rod Serling's opening spiel from The Twilight Zone, and annoying music ripped off from the Halloween theme.



Even though the attraction was pretty cheezy, it was refreshingly quaint. Unfortunately, it closed in 2015. The strip is increasingly being taken over by larger Ripley's attractions. Current Ripley's attractions in Gatlinburg:

Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies
Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum
Ripley's Davy Crockett Mini Golf
Ripley's Haunted Adventure
Ripley's Marvelous Mirror Maze
Ripley's Moving Theater
Ripley's Super FunZone