Iowa-based haunted house information, since 2010. Posting haunted house videos since 2006.
Zombie Hollow was the most amazing walk through Halloween display around during its years in Urbandale, Iowa. A few years ago, the creator moved to Winterset.
For 2023, Zombie Hollow is now a commercial haunt experience in Winterset. They have been added to the index, the map and calendar.
Due to limited parking, you must by a timed ticket in advance. Find out more about this must-see Halloween experience here:
The Carlisle Haunted Woods is back this year, and even has a website. Last year, I could find nothing about this except a photo of a flyer someone sent to me. This year, I can point people to an official website.
It is running A LOT of nights – 14! That gets it right up there with some of the other well-established haunts in the area.
There is also a one-night Carlisle “Haunted Trail” event as part of a city festival, but that is a different thing.
Get details here:
I added this link to the above-mentioned haunt pages:
10/4/2023: https://www.dmcityview.com/business-feature/2023/10/04/the-business-of-fear/
I have finally gotten time to start updating the haunted house list for 2023. Only a few of the local haunts are in there now, and there may still be some items yet to be updated for this year so be sure to check with the official website.
More to come… Hopefully I will have all the local haunts updated accurately this week.
HAUNTS: If there is an error, please let me know.
Find it here (updates in progress; not everything listed yet):
Or here is a direct link:
You should be able to “subscribe” to this calendar on Android or iPhone, and have it available in your Calendar app.
Ames Tribute has their annual story on the Haunted Forest, published 10/3/2023:
Fan-favorite Club Blood is back again, at least in name. The previous Club Blood was an all-ages “silent disco” attraction at Sleepy Hollow Sports park. It was decorated with hand-painted floor-to-ceiling banners of classic horror movie icons in different poses. (The wonderful work of their staff artist and set decorator, Tina.)
This year, Des Moines gets Club Blood again, but it will be an bar at Adventureland’s Phantom Fall Feast. Those of you who know area haunt history may recall that a former general manager of Sleepy Hollow went to for work Adventureland, but it is unlikely this had anything to do with them using the name (he left just before the park was sold to Palace Entertainment a few years ago). The naming of Club Blood is likely just a coincidence (Kansas City’s Worlds of Fun also featured a Club Blood scene in its vampire haunted house, if I recall).
But who knows. Sleepy Hollow always used the phrase “All night fright” in its TV ads (I made many of those TV ads over the years), and last year Adventureland started using “Fright all night.” After Club Blood this year, maybe we’ll see the amusement park add Blazing Jack-o-Lanterns or something next year 😉
Website updates for 2023 will begin before the end of the month.
We are back from our most recent excursion. So far this year, we have gone through twenty (20!) haunted houses. Most recently, we visited Halloween Horror Nights 32 at Universal Studios Florida as well as year three of SeaWorld Howl-O-Scream.
Though these haunts look great, and have actors at every turn, the Universal haunts had a scare level of about zero. You are walking through them in a continuous “conga line” chain of people, so every scare is spoiled ahead of you. We didn’t get startled even one time during our seven hour visit, nor did we hear anyone else scream except for twice from chainsaws in a scare zone. Beautiful sets, great sound, wonderful costumes and makeup … but it’s really just walking through creepy sets with folks acting out to pre-recorded sound clips. If you are looking for scary, I do not recommend, but if you like scary looking things, it’s top notch.
SeaWorld’s offering, however, startled us often through the much shorter evening — mostly due to their scare zone actors hiding in the shadows and bushes and such. They were in many unexpected places, and it was a really good time. The haunts were not anywhere as fancy as Universal’s, but the actors got to do their thing — they could talk, yell, bang and follow you — just like we are used to at “real” haunted houses around here. It was a much funner time overall, but the food offerings were not nearly as good as the tons of speciality booths at Universal.
Now that we am back, and kind of burnt out on haunted houses, attention will turn to … haunted houses in Des Moines. And around Des Moines.
I do not plan to renew the index software I’ve been testing the past few years, and my old haunt index script I wrote does not integrate with this WordPress blog website, so I’ll be doing everything manually like I did when this site started in 2010. This will just make it take longer 😉
I have a few more tasks I need to take care of first – including a visit to try to fix some zombies at an area haunt and two haunt articles to update/write for some other sites – then we’ll see what needs to be done here.
More to come…
Merlyn Linn let us know that he plans to operate the haunted house this year. No information is available on their website yet, but be checking it for details: