Backwoods Haunt Returns for Year Five | Half a Decade of Homegrown Horror

It started in October 2022 as a simple idea — do something fun for the community. No grand plan. No investors. Just a piece of land, some people willing to get weird, and a farmstead in Barco that already looked like something had gone wrong there a long time ago.

Five seasons later, Backwoods Haunt is still standing. Still growing. And 2026 might be the year that changes what you thought you knew about what we do out here.

Year Five looks different

New characters are coming. New props. New scenes built from the ground up. Big effects that we've never had the chance to pull off before, the kind of thing you feel before you see it. If you've been out here in previous seasons you already know we don't repeat ourselves, and this year is no exception.

But some things don't change.

The Goatman is still here. He was here on opening night in 2022 and he'll be here when the gates open this October. Same goes for Cricket and the Scarecrow, original characters, built from scratch, developed over five seasons into something you won't find at any other haunt in the region. These aren't costumes. They're characters with history on this property

What five years actually means

It means we've had time to figure out what works and what doesn't. It means the sets are deeper, the actors know their zones, and the property itself has become part of the experience in ways that took years to develop. You can't manufacture that kind of atmosphere. You either build it slowly over time or you don't have it at all.

Backwoods Haunt has always been a community-first operation —built by local people, run by local people, on a piece of Currituck County land that has more history than most people realize. That hasn't changed. What's changed is the scale of what we're able to bring to it.

2026 opens this October.

Every Friday and Saturday night, plus Halloween. Gates open at 7PM at McHorney's Odditorium, 4429 Caratoke Hwy, Barco, NC.

Online tickets are available now. Late October weekends will sell out , they do every year. If Year 5 is on your list, We cant wait to see you in the backwoods

Get Your Tickets → https://app.hauntpay.com/users/82509811/events

Backwoods Haunt is a live actor haunted attraction in Barco, NC — about 20 minutes from the Outer Banks and an easy drive from Virginia Beach, Norfolk, and Chesapeake.