Fire damages Linn’s Haunted House.

There was a fire in the basement at Linn’s Supermaket on September 10th, 2024. Merlyn Linn no longer owns the grocery store, but my understanding is they have a contract/agreement with the store’s current owners that allows them to keep running the haunted house in the basement. Now they have cleanup/repair to do in order to meet the opening weekend.

There is a Go Fund Me page for folks who would like to help this haunt continue to operate. This will be its 40th year (established in 1984).

Here is the Des Moines Register article discussing it:

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/entertainment/2024/09/19/linns-haunted-house-fire-2024-opening-date-delay/75274601007/?fbclid=IwY2xjawFZaYBleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHZzd99i_fqBxX4QluzyUBn4nsgLdOhCXSzuoT2O7-OfP_vI_bd5O8Z-eSg_aem__0MoW_ZNCLMXcGvlPO3y4Q

Adventureland Halloween $29.99 offer.

Adventureland is running a $29.99 discount for their Phantom Fall Fest. If you plan to go, buy tickets now and save some money.

Note that there is a $4 processing fee, plus taxes, and you will need to pay $21 for parking, bringing the total to $58.56.

You can save money by carpooling and splitting that parking fee with your friends. Also be sure to read comments and reviews from last year. Like all haunts in the area, some folks praise it as the “best thing ever,” while others say it was a complete waste of time and money.

Linn’s Haunted House back for 2024

Des Moines’ oldest haunted house, Linn’s Supermarket Haunted House, has announced it will be open this year. Since the sale of the supermarket, there has been serious concerns about whether or not the haunt would continue.

Per their Facebook page, this year’s haunt will open on October 4, 2024. I will update this site with more details when I have them.

Ames Haunted Forest has closed.

In addition to Tormented Souls Haunt shutting down, the long-running Ames Haunted Forest has also ceased operations.

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/local/2024/09/04/ames-haunted-forest-closing-halloween-attraction/75058174007/

To see more links to news articles and video segments about this, see the Ames Haunted Forest page here.

I am glad I got to see it as many times as I did.

Haunted Woods returns for 2024

Updates: Corrected year. See directory for full list of days open.

The surprising (literally) Haunted Woods returns for 2024. This haunted walk, which originally operated about 25 years ago, took some time off, then returned in 2022. We missed it that year, but did see it last year and boy where we impressed. They had a very cool style to their “distraction scares” that we really enjoyed.

The index and calendar has been updated with their initial information for this season. They provided these details:

  • Haunted Woods – Mare Witch Project III
  • http://Hauntedwoodsdsm.com
  • Opens October 4, 2024.
    Fri & Sat. – 7pm – 11pm
    Sunday – 7pm – 9pm

Don’t miss it!

Happy “Halfway to Halloween”

With Disney doing a “halfway to Halloween” event in 2022 (they started theirs’s about April 17th), it looks like this could become a thing similar to “Christmas in July.”

“Halfway to Halloween” is generally thought to fall around April 30th1. It’s 6 months from last October 31st and 6 more months until the next October1. However, the exact date can vary. For instance, in 2023, Disney celebrated “Halfway to Halloween” starting from April 17th23, and a show named “Halfway to Halloween” was released on April 25th4. So, it seems the celebration can span over a period of time in April.

Bing.com

I am typing this on October 30th, 2023, with the prediction that someone will be doing some kind of Halloween themed event around this time. Let’s see what happens…

A.I. generated songs about The Haunt “Charles Swarovski”

Over the years, I have created hundreds of low-end radio jingles for various morning radio shows. I have also created custom music for haunted houses (the largest project were all the synchronized fairy tale songs that were part of Twisted Tales at Sleepy Hollow, ages ago.) It is a fun hobby.

But a few days ago I learned about SUNO AI, which creates music of pretty much any style (from death metal to roaring 20s ragtime). It is not perfect, but still quite fun.

Inspired by the “guard” dummy at the bottom of the stairs at The Haunt downtown (he has a name tag that reads Charles “Chucky” Swarovski), I decided to write up some words and see what the A.I. could do with them. (I kept tweaking the words a bit form version to version, as I was experimenting with SUNO, so there will be some minor lyrical differences.)

This playlist has four different versions of the same lyrics — it is an interesting demonstration of how the A.I. can make different styles of music.

The machines are coming.

Ames Haunted Forest Renaissance Faire?

11/20/2023 Update: Their website has been updated to have more info on the first page.

Coming to the haunted forest in 2024 will be a different type of walk thru the woods.. the new Ames Renaissance Faire. As of today, November 19, 2023, not much is on their official website – in fact, the main page doesn’t even give the date (never a good sign of being organized), but some clicking around reveals the weekend of April 13-14, 2024 will be the date.

There will probably not be any chainsaws…