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.

Happy Halloween! Haunts still open!

Happy Halloween. Due to the weather forecast, Beggar’s Night was rescheduled from Thursday October 30th 2024 to Halloween. This somehow made national news, with news alerts coming in from all kinds of sources stating that this was the first time Des Moines children would trick-or-treat on Halloween since 1938. 1938! I have not looked in to this to verify – why would the headline be wrong? 🙂

We are not done with haunted houses yet! There are several in the area that will be operating Halloween Friday, Saturday and even Sunday. Check the calendar and directory to find out more.

And as always, check with the official haunt website or social media page before heading out. Schedules change.