A popular Long Island haunted house, Darkness Rising in Copiague, will not open this Halloween after the Town of Babylon closed it. The town says the attraction was operating inside a building that had no certificate of occupancy for that use and lacked the required fire protections. Owner Kevin Baird, who has run the 12,000-square-foot attraction for two decades and rented the Chetick Avenue space since 2019, said he had already put 100,000 dollars into this year's build. With the approval process expected to run past Halloween, he canceled the 2026 haunt, while the town says it is willing to work with him for next year.
A well known Long Island haunted house will not open its doors this Halloween. Darkness Rising, a seasonal attraction in Copiague, has been canceled for 2026, disappointing fans who had come to expect the annual scare on the South Shore.
The attraction is a substantial operation, spread across a space of about 12,000 square feet. According to its owner, Darkness Rising has been scaring Long Islanders on the South Shore for the past 20 years, building a following over two decades of Halloween seasons.
The person behind the haunt is owner Kevin Baird, who has rented the space for the attraction on Chetick Avenue since 2019. He described spending two months building out this year's version before learning that it could not go ahead as planned.
The reason for the cancellation lies with the local authorities. The Town of Babylon said the haunted house was closed because it did not have the proper permits to operate, halting the attraction before it could welcome visitors this season.
In a statement, the town spelled out its concerns in more detail. It said the haunted house was operating inside a building that had no certificate of occupancy for that use, and that it was running without the fire protections required for that kind of attraction.
For Baird, the timing left little room to fix the situation. He said that by the time they went through the approval process it would already be after Halloween, forcing him to cancel the haunt. He added that he had already put 100,000 dollars into this year's build before it was shut down.
Despite the setback, both sides pointed toward the future. The town said it is willing to work with Baird on the process for next year, while Baird said he hopes to find a new location so the attraction can return for Halloween 2027.