Scare season on Long Island stopped being theoretical on Friday night, when Bayville Scream Park turned its lights back on for a run that goes all the way to November 7. The rest of the Island's haunts have been saving themselves for this coming Friday, September 25, when Wading River's Darkside and Bellport's Haunted Playhouse both open their doors after dark. Here is where to get scared this fall, what it costs, and which night to pick, checked against each attraction's own pages this weekend.

The range is wider than people expect. At one end is a $25 walk through the woods in Center Moriches where every dollar goes to a camp for children with disabilities. At the other is a park in Bayville running five haunted houses at once with hidden bars for the adults. In between are a 20,000 square foot movie set in Wading River and a farm in Melville that grew a haunted corn trail. None of them requires a bridge toll.

Bayville Scream Park: five houses, three hidden bars, open now

The Island's biggest one-stop scare operation is already running at 8 Bayville Avenue, with five haunted houses under one ticket: Bloodworth Haunted Mansion, Uncle Needles Funhouse of Fear, The Cage, the Bayville Haunted Asylum and the Temple of Terror. Value nights start at $39.90, quieter non-peak nights at $56.90, and peak Saturdays in October at $61.90, with closing times that stretch past midnight on the busiest dates. Adults get their own reasons to go: three bars hidden inside the park, among them Diablo's Lost Tequila Cantina and Dr. Decay's Toxic Quarantine Club, which are exactly as advertised.

Families with younger kids get the same sets with the monsters switched off at Not-So-Scary days, Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 5 through November 1, plus Columbus Day, October 12. It is the rare haunt that works for a 7-year-old at 2 in the afternoon and terrifies their older sibling at 10 the same night.

Darkside Haunted House, Wading River: the East End's heavyweight

Darkside opens Friday, September 25 at 5184 Route 25A, and it remains the haunt serious scare people drive for. More than 20,000 square feet and over 30 built-out scenes split between The Village, a cursed hamlet where the undead have the run of the place, and The House, which saves the worst for last. Yelp once ranked it among the ten best haunted houses in America, and the production values are the reason. Tickets are $40 online and $50 at the door, and the timed-entry system with a virtual queue means you book a slot instead of standing in a two-hour line. The Monster Midway outside adds games, food and vendors for the group members who tap out early.

Gateway's Haunted Playhouse, Bellport: a new nightmare every year, and a bargain this weekend

The Gateway, Bellport's year-round professional theater, turns its scene shop and stages into a walkthrough haunt each fall, and the whole point is that it never repeats: a new theme, a new path and new characters every season, built by the same people who build its Broadway-caliber sets. This year adds Mr. Tickles 3-D Funhouse, a separate clown-soaked attraction that runs $8 online on top of the main haunt.

The opening weekend is the deal of the season: $30 online for September 25 and 26, against $44 online and $54 at the door once October arrives. The calendar is stacked with one-night twists: a masquerade night October 9, a zombie invasion October 14, Hollywood horror characters October 15, a clown takeover October 21 and a glowstick-only night October 22, when the house lights go off and you carry your own. First responders get their own night October 8. Kids get Not So Scary afternoons, Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 3 in October at $25, and a Much Less Scary evening October 27. The run ends November 1.

Schmitt's Farm Haunt, Melville: the corn trail nobody else has

The Schmitt family farms Pinelawn Road by day, and by night from late September through Halloween the property at 26 Pinelawn Road becomes two attractions on one $47 ticket: The Haunt, a full haunted house with live actors and animatronics, and the Haunted Corn Trail, an acre of standing corn with fog rolling through it, which the farm says is the only one of its kind on the Island. There is something honest about a farm haunt: the corn is real, the dark is real, and the parking is free. The box office opens at 7, Fridays and Saturdays fill first, and the calendar hides a Clown Takeover night for people who want their phobias efficiently combined.

The Spooky Walk, Center Moriches: 38 years, $25, and every dollar does something

The oldest entry on this list is also the cheapest and the easiest to feel good about. The Spooky Walk at Camp Pa-Qua-Tuck, 2 Chet Swezey Road, runs four nights only: October 16, 17, 23 and 24, from 7 to 9. It is about 45 minutes through the camp's dark woods, it costs $25, and it has been running since 1989, which its organizers say makes it the longest-running haunted walk on Long Island. Every dollar of it, all of it, funds Camp Pa-Qua-Tuck, the Center Moriches camp for children with disabilities. Volunteers build it, volunteers haunt it, and four sold-out nights carry real weight for the camp's year. If you only do one haunt this fall and want the money to matter, this is the one.

How to pick your night

Go early. Every operator prices and staffs for the two Saturdays before Halloween, which means the same houses are cheaper, shorter-lined and better paced on an early October Friday or a Sunday. The opening-weekend $30 ticket in Bellport is the best value on the Island right now, Bayville's value nights are the move for groups watching the total, and the Spooky Walk's four nights will not wait for anyone: they are two weekends in late October and then the woods go quiet for another year.