This Haunted House Is Dedicated to the Halloween's Scariest Treat: Raisins

Certain Halloween truths are inevitable. If you hand out full-size candy bars, you'll be the busiest house on the block. If you leave a bowl of candy outside with a sign saying "Take only one please!" that bowl will be empty before you've left the house. And if you hand out little boxes of raisins, don't be surprised if trick-or-treaters later bombard your house with those very same boxes.

Yes, even the raisin specialists at Sun-Maid realize that — as good as their product may be the other 364 days of the year — it's the last thing most kids want to see on Halloween. And this year, the brand is leaning into how "scary" it is for a trick-or-treater to discover they're being handed raisins: Sun-Maid has set up up a tongue-in-cheek "Raisin House" that embraces kid's fear of the shriveled grapes.

Courtesy of Sun-Maid

Located in Merchantville, New Jersey (about a 20-minute drive east of Philadelphia) Sun-Maid's Raisin House currently features plenty of raisin-themed Halloween decorations visitors can view from outside. The Jersey town has an annual tradition of rebranding as "Monsterville" in honor of Halloween, which inspired Sun-Maid to take over the house at 3 East Cedar Avenue for their own house of raisin horrors.

Then, on Halloween day, Sun-Maid promises things will get even more immersive. Trick-or-treaters will be able to walk up to the front door of the house and take Sun-Maid snacks from an "interactive hand sampling wall" featuring a spooky mix of both decorative and real hands. And for anyone who dares enter, Sun-Maid says one part of the house "will be turned into a 'scare corridor' where zombies dressed in red bonnets will hand out samples at the end — a place for you to confess your rai-sins."

Additionally, Sun-Maid says that those same bonnet-bearing zombies will participate in the town's Halloween Zombie Run and, of course, will be handing out more Sun-Maid samples along the way. It's all part of a larger promotional campaign where Sun-Maid is encouraging people to use TikTok to "Tell Me You're the Raisin House Without Telling Me You're The Raisin House."

"We know there are a lot of occasions for eating better-for-you snacks like whole fruit raisins — we just recognize that Halloween certainly isn't the preferred time," Harry Overly, president and CEO of Sun-Maid, explained. "This year we're acknowledging that there's perhaps nothing scarier than getting raisins on Halloween — except being the house that hands them out. We look forward to finding our place in the pantry and lunchboxes as soon as the stomach aches from all of the candy go away."

The moral: If your house gets TPed for handing out raisins this year, even Sun-Maid can say, "Hey, I warned you!"