From Circus to Carnival…

Longtime visitors of this site know it was a bit confusing when the new Circus of Freaks opened in Des Moines a few years ago, due to there previously being a Circus of Freaks listed on this site (we even hosted their website). But, since that other one was not operating (but still intending to come back) we figured folks would figure it out.

Earlier this year, the Barnum Circus of Freaks changes its name. Per Facebook:

Now if the previous Circus of Freaks returns, there will be only one.

Progress?

And so it begins…

If you are visiting this site, you probably like haunted houses. Most folks are not into them. But, even those of us who do like them, don’t like them until late October. Only the truly “into it” folks start planning haunted house visits before then. And the stats for this site show that…

Virtually no visits to this site in the weeks leading up to October. Only a few hundred last week. The real thrills come later, as we see more folks start searching for things to do on the week of Halloween-proper.

And, for what it’s worth, the folks visiting outside of late-October are mostly hitting the page for The Haunt, the Slaughterhouse themed bar downtown which operates in the months when the haunt itself is closed.

Let’s see how 2025 does… But I don’t expect nearly as many visitors this year. The new A.I. search engines do a great job listing haunts before you even get to the search results:

I had to go to Page 2 of search results to even find my site, just after the listing for Slaughterhouse (when I searched last night). I feel bad for folks who do this for a living. 😉

Reviews updated!

The reviews page has been updated as of 10/4/2025 with the start-of-season reviews from Facebook, Google and Yelp. Oddly, several of these went down in review count since last year for some reason. Can pages/accounts delete reviews they don’t like?

Also, not all haunts are in Yelp, which is a shame since iPhones use Yelp for reviews in their Maps app. For example, Sleepy Hollow’s iPhone map entry shows Yelp reviews:

But it seems Apple may also have its own review system. I see some haunts have 0% rating on iPhone currently with no reference to Yelp:

iPhone rating as of 10/4/2025
iPhone rating as of 10/4/2025

And Slaughterhouse has 100% rating from 12 ratings, and Zombie Hollow has 0% from 1 rating:

iPhone rating as of 10/4/2025

…and while the Slaughterhouse number of ratings matches the number of review on Yelp, the rating on Yelp is 4.0 out of 5:

This means iPhones may show either Yelp or whatever this other rating system is. If anyone knows how it works, leave a comment.

But, I will try to add the Apple ratings to the Reviews page, too, when I can.

REVIEW YOUR FAVORITE HAUNT! And since not everyone uses Yelp, or Google, or Facebook, or iPhone, review on multiple sites.

Haunts for 2025

I have slimmed down the website a bit this year due to lack of time, and I do not plan to use the directory plug in I have been using the past few years. It is $$$ to renew the full license, so we’ll see what next year looks like.

I only have name and website link so far for the haunts that have submitted information, but I plan to get full details added when I get a moment.

Updating for 2025 soonly.

I expect to start updating this site for 2025 later this week. I am greatly motivated after spending two days exploring the fully-immersive “Dark Universe” section of the new Universal Epic Universe theme park in Orlando last week. That place is a dream for anyone who appreciates classic Universal horror movies, for sure.

Dark Universe at Universal Epic Universe

Please REVIEW the haunts!

Many of the haunted houses can be reviewed on Google (shows up in Android phone searches), Yelp (shows up in iPhone searches) and Facebook.

You can find links to the review pages for haunts here:

Review the Haunted Houses

There is currently a long-running haunt that has the lowest rating of any of the area haunts. If it is your favorite, give it a boost by leaving a review.