2014 Haunting Trends For Halloween: 'The Hunger Games,' 'The Maze Runner' & 'Divergent's' Contributions

Witches, zombies and vampires will be taking over this Halloween as America Haunts highlights the most popular haunting trends for 2014 but some settings like "The Hunger Games" and "Divergent" are also becoming major influences.

"People have become accustomed to highly realistic special effects in their entertainment media, such as movies and television programs and video games," said Arnett-Bequeaith.

"Particularly hot are young adult fiction and movies like 'The Hunger Games,' 'The Maze Runner' and Veronica Roth's 'Divergent' series. Our haunts aim to make visitors believe they have been transformed onto those sets."

America Haunts, an association of more than 30 elite haunted attractions throughout the United States, sees eerie apocalyptic landscapes, terrifyingly realistic demons, the most frighteningly wicked witches and convincingly undead zombies as the newest haunted attraction trends in 2014.

"We have a responsibility to our visitors to make sure we keep our attractions fresh and keep on the cutting edge of what's scaring people today," said Amber Arnett-Bequeaith of America Haunts.

"While horror, end of the world and supernatural themes remain hot, we have to be cognizant when the trends that scared people yesterday are no longer as effective.

To combat this, our members annually change 50-75 percent of their properties so our visitors never quite know what to expect."

Some of the other 2014 trends in horror and haunted attractions America Haunts foresees include:

Interactive and high-tech features such as 3D video, animatronics and holograms
More sophisticated themes and stories woven into the haunted attractions
Waning interest in movie icons
Vampires are trending down a bit, but are still part of the mix
Witches
Zombies
Post-apocalyptic themes
Time-travel themes
Vikings
Medieval characters