Why would anyone pay money to be chased by a chainsaw or sit through a movie designed to ruin their sleep? It turns out your brain has some very good reasons. Your Body on Fear When something jumps out at you, a small region deep in your brain called the amygdala sounds the alarm before you've even had time to think. Your body flips into fight-or-flight mode: adrenaline surges, your heart pounds, your breathing quickens and your senses sharpen. For a few seconds, you are as alert as a human...

Haunted attractions are built to scare you. These places didn't need the help. Each one comes with a real history, a pile of ghost stories, and doors you can walk through yourself. Check current tour schedules before you go, since many sell out in October. No. 1: Eastern State Penitentiary (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). Opened in 1829 and closed in 1971, this crumbling fortress pioneered solitary confinement. Its long, decaying cellblocks are as eerie at noon as they are at midnight. No. 2:...

Two weeks until Halloween, and there's more horror available right now than any one person can watch. Here's our shortlist, sorted by where you'll find it. New on Streaming This Month Hokum (Hulu). Missed it in theaters? Damian McCarthy's witch-in-a-hotel shocker, one of our picks for the scariest movie of the year, is streaming on Hulu this month. Evil Dead Burn (HBO Max). The brutal new Deadite chapter landed on HBO Max on October 2. V/H/S/Mixtape (Shudder). The found footage anthology is...