Club Blood is back (but not at Sleepy Hollow)

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 “soon”…

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…

Future Nightmares at Merle Hay Mall

Those who visited Sleepy Hollow Sports Park in 2013 should remember SinnX. His DJ/music/lights/sound show was impossible to miss.

Sinn X – 10/5/2013

Sparky is back, and this time he has his own thing opening up at Merle Hay Mall. According to his website:

 “FUTURE NIGHTMARES” is an all ages scifi horror themed theatrical music show…. with high tech art displays , high powered lights, haunted house special fx, and animatronics.  

http://futurenightmares.com

I sure how the mall knows what is about to hit it.

More to come…

Best haunt for very young kids – Adventureland

Updates:

  • 2023-10-08 – additional quotes.

When Adventureland di their first Halloween event in 2018, they made it an adults-only 21+ event at the hotel. There was nudity (from a movie playing on the wall of the banquet area) and some profanity, but it was mostly just a fun party environment without “those pesky kids.” It was really a nice event, but that was the only year it happened.

In 2022, the new owners of Adventureland, Palace Entertainment/Parques Reunidos (Madrid, Spain), started up the Phanton Fall Fest event. Much like Sleepy Hollow, this event would have one admission price that allowed access to multiple haunted houses. One haunt was an upcharge and not included with the ticket price.

The haunts open in the evening, but the park is open during the day and all ages can show up and ride and eat all day.

If you are looking for good “starter” haunted houses for very young kids, this is the one to consider. Some of the comments from last year:

  • “My daughter went to fall fest, did all the haunts, and loved it. She was five last season.”
  • “Our girls were 7 and 6 last year for Fall Fest and they loved it.”
  • “Fall fest has a family atmosphere during the day and a scary creepy atmosphere after dark. Even when the scare actors come out in the evening, before dark they are wonderful with the little ones.”
  • “Last year my 3yo and 6yo did fall fest (all the haunted houses except the Alice in wonderland one). They loved every bit of it and can’t wait for this year.” (*Alice in Wonderland is the one that is the add-on cost, FYI.)
  • “took my almost 11 yr old son last year and it was his first haunted event snd he loved it. It was the perfect level of spooky for him. We love watching ghost hunting shows but he still gets scared to watch movies. So for him to enjoy this with me who loves the darker side of things I was absolutely elated! He super excited to go this year. We have season passes.”

So it looks like it’s a great place to take the little kids. But maybe not too little:

  • “Evening is not for toddlers. In my opinion. My son was 7 and he was a little scared when it got dark.”

These comments line up with others I heard last year, so unless they change directions, this is the haunt to consider if you have some preschool or elementary aged kids that want to get started visiting haunted houses.

Buyer Beware: Haunted Tavern

Updates:

  • 6/8/2023 – More details from Tea Room.
  • 6/12/2023 – Tea Room has officially been reserved.

UPDATE: This event, which was selling tickets to a venue they didn’t have reserved, has now reserved it. Fortunately, no one snagged their date before they did 😉 Things are looking more legit now.

The Haunted Tavern cocktail/storytelling experience that is selling tickets for two nights in July does not even have the venue reserved for those nights.

No, someone inquired about holding a story telling event here, but they have not paid a deposit or signed a contract yet.

Tea Room response

Buyer beware. Even if they are just disorganized, selling tickets for a date and venue that is not even reserved is problematic.

UPDATES: The Tea Room has heard from the organizer, and they want to proceed with the event. No contracts have been signed yet, but we will update you when this happens.

Please note the Eventbrite listing is “no refunds” — you have to contact the organizer for any refunds. If you buy in advance, also keep in mind Eventbrite keeps their service fee, which is almost $6 per ticket. We assume you’d get the $3.49 in tax back.

Haunted Tavern – four drinks and ghost stories for $53 coming in July

6/6/2023 UPDATE: Sadly, this may be another “America is Haunted” thing. We contacted the Tea Room to see if such an event was coming there, and they have no agreement.

“No, someone inquired about holding a story telling event here, but they have not paid a deposit or signed a contract yet.”

Tea Room response

BUYER BEWARE. They could just be disorganized, but selling tickets for a date and location without actually having that location reserved on that date seems … problematic. Original posting below:

A friend sent me this link:

https://www.hauntedtavern.com/tickets

While initially I thought it might be another “America is Haunted” thing like we had show up here in 2014, I have been able to find a few YouTube videos from this event in other locations. “Seems legit.” I have written the organizer and the host (Tea Room wedding venue downtown) to get confirmation and based on what I hear back, I’ll add them to the index and share more details.

You get four small cocktails, with ghost stories told on stage in between. It’s an interesting concept, and with places charging $10+ for a tiny cocktail anyway, it seems like a reasonable price (even if the drinks looked tiny in the video I watched).

Depending on our travel schedule, we may try go down and get an interview with the organizers.

Here’s one of the YouTube videos to give you an idea on what it is: