As children, Halloween was a holiday filled with clever costuming and candy gorging. Unfortunately, once adulthood is reached it’s no longer socially acceptable to dress up like a Ninja Turtle and sprint door-to-door. For many college kids, Halloween is just another excuse to dress slutty and get trashed.

Although that won’t stop all of us from indulging in a child-like Halloween, many people are still left trying to figure out how the heck to celebrate with style. For those who take their Halloween scaring seriously, one tradition has endeared as the ultimate scary Halloween experience: The haunted house.

The haunted house remains the staple of haunted attractions among holiday thrill seekers. Fortunately, this Halloween, Ames will play host to several haunted attractions. Here is a sneak peak at a few of the most anticipated.

The Haunted Forest

“Our claim is that we are Iowa’s number one haunted attraction, and we’ve never had anyone dispute that,” says Lee Ballard, part owner of the Haunted Forest. The Haunted Forest is located in the forest one block to the east of Jack Trice Stadium. Although not technically a haunted house, the Haunted Forest guarantees to offer scary Halloween thrills.

“This is our seventh year of operation, and each year we keep adding to it to make it better,” Ballard explains. The Haunted Forest is run by Ballard and his brother and uses land owned by their father, Orville.

For the first five years, the Ballard brothers hired a “professional haunter” from Texas to help them get on their feet.

“The forest consists of a 30 minute walk through 15 scenes in the dark of night. We have 30 experienced actors that are constantly moving and scaring people in the forest, and we also use several automated props.”

Most of the forest’s actors are actually Iowa State students that volunteer their time to raise money. Caroline Johnson, junior in geology, is working her third year at the haunted forest.

“I got started volunteering my freshman year. A friend of mine asked me if I wanted to try acting there and I basically got hooked,” Johnson says. Actors play everything from chainsaw-wielding murderers to creepy forest-dwelling creatures.

“This year I’m a little creature that hides in the woods and I pop out and snarl and claw at people. Then I chase them on to the next scene,” Johnson says.

Ames Jaycee’s Haunted House

“This is the first year since 2002 we’ve had a haunted house, so this year’s theme is ‘Awakening: Back from the Dead,'” says Sara Gatchel, marketing director for this year’s haunted house. Although absent from the haunted house scene for two years, the Jaycees aren’t novices when it comes to scaring. The Jaycees have been building haunted houses since the 1970s as a philanthropy. Gatchel says all proceeds go directly back into the community.

“We’ve planned several unconventional scares for this year’s haunted house, so it won’t be predictable like a lot of haunted houses,” says Andy Sturtz, one of the builders and designers for the project. This year the haunted house is located at 2509 N. Grand Ave, between Sears and Walgreens in the old Ames Racquet and Fitness Center location.

“The haunted house used to be located at the Cyclone Truck Stop on Dayton, but this year’s location was donated by Hunziker Property Management,” Gatchel says.

This year’s haunted house has been built by haunted house veterans and includes a torture chamber, a graveyard and a full-scale electric chair complete with lights and sounds.

“There’s also a top secret, extra scary bonus that we aren’t going to unveil until we open,” Gatchel says, “but it’s guaranteed to be very frightening.”

Goreville

Last, but far from least, Goreville is a Halloween tradition put on by Iowa State’s own students – the gentlemen of Lambda Chi Alpha. The fraternity transforms itself into a haunted house for Halloween weekend to raise money for Childserve, an organization that helps children with special heath needs.

“Goreville is one of the largest philanthropies at Iowa State,” says Thomas Hansen, junior in animal science. Hansen is one of three co-chairs heading up this years’ event.

“We start by transforming the front of our building into a medieval castle, complete with a moat and a working drawbridge,” says Jeremy Flathers, junior in advertising another of the Goreville co-chairs.

“The haunted house aspect of Goreville takes place in six different skit rooms. Some of the guys actually move out of their rooms for a week so we can build the skit rooms in their rooms,” he says.

The themes of the skit rooms have yet to be decided, but Flathers says that in past years Goreville has mimicked movie themes.

“In addition to the skit rooms, there will be a giant maze in the back lot of the building for people to go through, but the haunted house isn’t the only attraction Goreville has to offer,” Flathers says. Hansen says the men of Lambda Chi Alpha have a few more tricks up their sleeves.

“On the hour we will have, out in front, a mock hanging on gallows and a choreographed rendition of Michael Jackson’s Thriller,” Hansen says. Flathers says the Thriller dance is one of Goreville’s most popular attractions.