Halloween is coming up, and we’re sure your Russian girl and you are in for some creepy fun. You’ve probably visited Chernobyl and Pripyat (and if you haven’t, why didn’t you!), and you’re ready for more creepiness. We’re publishing a series of three posts about where to go and what to do with your new Russian bride, in order to scare yourselves silly. Yes, around America, New Orleans (the hotbed of creepy things and places), and even just right from home—scaring yourselves silly through movies.

Hope you’re excited to join us as we take you through this series of vicarious trips, just as we’re excited to tell you all about these. If you can’t make these trips this month, shoot for next year! Bookmark this series, and use this as your bucket list or travel guide one of these Halloween months.

So, let’s start? Today, we’ve compiled a list of great places in the US where you could take her and have a bit of a scarefest.

Alcatraz, San Francisco, California. An American shouldn’t miss visiting the Alcatraz at least once in their lifetime. The island itself has a really rich history, and a person on the hunt for the island’s “creepy factor” will no longer be able to tell if the hair-raising feels are coming from the penitentiary, or if their source is rooted in something more deeper and more ancient. Visit the island, then have a geekfest of sorts with your girl by challenging each other to google facts and stories about the island, discussing them, and enjoying the horrific Halloween chills as you realize how far back Alcatraz’s mystery can be traced.

New Orleans. New Orleans is peaty, dark, mysterious, and has a lot of great Creole and Cajun cuisine. There’s a reason why the Queen Bey is a big fan of the city, and this Halloween, you’ll have one more reason to love it: The abundance of the creepy houses and spots in New Orleans. In fact, New Orleans is so fascinating as a “haunted city,” that we’ve compiled some of its most interesting spots in a separate article. Watch out for that, if you’re planning to choose New Orleans as your “Halloween Honeymoon” location this year or the next.

Ax Murderer And Other Creepy Houses. America is full of Ax Murderer houses and other similar spine-tingling places to visit. The Amityville House, for example, earned its fame when Jay Anson published a book about the Lutz Family’s experiences in the house. Prior to their reported strange experiences in the house, the house was witness to a gruesome massacre of the DeFeo family. The multiple murders were committed by the surviving DeFeo son, Ronald DeFeo, Jr. He claimed that “the voices made him do it.”

The Lutz Family acquired the house in 1975, the first occupants of 112 Ocean Avenue since the massacre. They then reported experiences such as hearing voices, being bitten by lion sculptures, and seeing green slime on the walls. While the truthfulness of the account has since been debated, the iconic home on 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, Long Island, New York, is still a tourist attraction for thrillseekers. The residents after the Lutzes have reported no strange activities, however.

While you and your new Russian bride could do what other tourists do—drive by and catch a glimpse of the home, there are other homes across the country were you could come and visit, book a tour, or book a night and experience the chills and the thrills:

  • Lizzie Borden House, Fall River, MA. In 1892, husband and wife Andrew and Abby Borden were brutally murdered through hatchet blows. It was a crime that rocked the nation at the time, and their daughter, Lizzie Borden, was tried and found “not guilty” for the murders, in spite of how she was the most likely suspect. It was said that Andrew Borden had quite a few enemies, and no one was surprised that he met an untimely end. Since she was tried and acquitted, though, Lizzie Borden lived the rest of her life in comfort, which was a stark contrast to the extremely frugal, even miserly life, that her father gave her and her family. Since then, she has become a cultural icon, even making an appearance on The Simpsons. This article on History.com sheds more light on the iconic crime. You and your new Russian wife may book a stay at the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast/Museum through its Facebook Page. This Halloween weekend, you may also be able to catch a play based on the reenactment of the murders in NYC, as well as paranormal tours on the last Tuesdays of October. Relive chilling slasher-murder history at its finest!
  • House of Death, New York, NY. This is the house where Mark Twain’s ghost reportedly still hangs out on. Aside from Mark Twain, this apartment is home to several other hauntings, and a real-life horror drama: A drug-addicted lawyer beat his illegally-adopted 6-year-old daughter and left her without medical care for hours. She later died in the hospital because of the extent of her injuries. Aside from Mark Twain and this grisly crime, the area is also known for apparitions of specter women, as well as a gray cat. A former resident even wrote a book about her experiences in her unit, which included seeing a shriveled grape in the middle of a clean dinner plate, even though she and her husband have not bought grapes in months. Bring your new wife and have fun reliving the stories in this place! Tours that include the House of Death can be booked with Untapped Cities.
  • Villisca Axe Murder House, Villisca, IA. If you want to go back in time and experience a night in a home with no running water or electricity, and the possibility of experiencing ghostly activity to boot, you can book an overnight tour in this preserved crime scene. A family of six and two house guests were murdered in this home in 1912. The case remains unsolved, but the late Darwin and his wife Martha Linn purchased the home and started hosting paranormal investigation tours in 1994. You may book a day tour or an overnight stay in the historically creepy home with Martha Linn.

For more haunted houses to visit, here are three lists you could explore:

Creepy Museums. America has a lot of great museums dedicated to the creepy, the odd, and the haunted. Here are a few of those spine-tingling museums:

    • The National Museum of Health and Medicine. This is a museum dedicated to, well, medicine. This museum not only houses around 24 million specimens, and counting, but there are a lot of curious exhibits, as well. One exhibit that may prove interesting, albeit a little revolting, is the hairball exhibit. A sample of what awaits you and your wife is available on the museum’s website: Hairballs: Myths and Realities behind some Medical Curiosities. The exhibits also feature animal specimens, as the page suggests. They also have exhibits on advancements in military medicine, Biomedical Engineering, and other interesting medical topics. It’s going to be a field trip that promises to be informative yet creepy, at the same time.
    • The Mütter Museum. If either or both of you would like to catch a glimpse of parts of Albert Einstein’s brain at least once in your lifetime, then a trip to the Mütter Museum is definitely in order. Mashable hailed this museum as “bizarre,” and this museum of medical history, maintained by The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, started with a donation from American surgeon Thomas Dent Mütter, MD. Since then, the initial collection of 1,700 specimens has grown to about 25,000 objects, including The Soap Lady, a saponified corpse honored with her own exhibit. Medical curiosities sure make for very interesting and creepy field trips.

 

  • Museum of the Weird. If you want a more eclectic experience, this museum in Texas may be more to your liking. Yes it has its share of skeletons and skulls, but it also has exhibits of two-headed creatures, mermaids, aliens, the frozen Ice Man, and side shows, séances, and other performances designed to draw out the chills. The gift shop is said to be quirky, so after enjoying the exhibits and the side shows, make sure to drop by for souvenirs. Visit their website and Facebook Page for more information.

 

If these three museums are not enough, plan a whole year’s worth of trips to creepy museums from these lists:

And if international creepy museum-hopping is a thing you and your Russian bride want to do:

Relive childhood field trips with a creepy twist, learn new things while getting a good dose of the chills, and bond with your new Russian wife this Halloween season by touring these weird, odd, and creepy museums.

Iconic Cemeteries. And lastly, where dead men can no longer tell tales. Visiting the resting place of the department amps up the creep factor by leaps and bounds. And so, here are three lists of the creepiest, most haunted cemeteries around America, and the world:

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Can’t Wait To Have Your Fill Of The Heebie-Jeebies?

Visiting these creepy places not only makes for a really good scarefest, perfectly in time for Halloween. Horror movies are perfect date night choices for a reason: Your creeped-out Russian girl may well grab you and hug you more, for protection. There’s a science to this logic, too: People often mistake the fear response for sexual attraction. So take the fear factor a step further this Halloween, and take your Russian bride spook-hunting with you, across America, and possibly across the globe.