Maybe it is the feeling of being able to get scared without taking the chance of getting hurt. Maybe it’s the fact that you get to hold that significant other tightly and have them count on you for protection from what lies ahead. Or maybe for some it is like living out a horror film — without the ax to the head.

Whatever it may be, fear-seekers love their haunted attractions. Drive by any of Ames’ haunted attractions on any given night during the Halloween season and chances are you will see a line of people patiently waiting to pay their money so they can have the wits scared out of them.

Ames Jaycees’ Haunted House

The Ames Jaycees are no stranger to the haunted house business — in fact, the group has been putting together its haunted house since the 1970s. In 1998, the Ames chapter even won some awards on the national level among Jaycees chapters.

Erin Isvik, marketing director for the Ames Jaycees and sponsorship chairwoman for the haunted house, is in her first year of involvement with the haunted house.

She is reluctant to give away too many of the details of the house in fear that the secrets will be revealed, but she is confident that people will enjoy it.

“When I’ve told some of my friends that I am working on it, a lot of them tell me, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve been to that one. It’s really scary,'” Isvik says. “It’s really popular and people seem to really like it.”

The Jaycees themselves completely design, construct and work the house, which is located at the Cyclone Truck Stop, 1811 S. Dayton Ave., off the Dayton exit of Highway 30.

Isvik says a trip through the Jaycees’ haunted house will take about 20-30 minutes, depending on how lost one gets in the maze.

Every haunted attraction needs to have something that sets it apart, especially when it is competing against two others in the same town.

The Jaycees’ niche this year is a six-room set-up that will depict six different horror movies, including the “Halloween” and Hannibal Lecter series. Plus, Isvik says that there is no way one can get out of the haunted house without doing two things.

“Two of our key trademarks are that you will crawl and you will have to go through a maze to get out at the end,” she says. “Those are two of our big keys that we always try to have.”

Isvik herself got a taste of just how scary the haunted house can be when she took her first turn as a monster inside the haunted house and “scared the living daylights” out of one unexpecting man.

“There was a group of girls and they had this one guy at the very front,” Isvik explains. “It was really great getting to see the reaction of a 6-foot, pretty tough-looking guy scream like a girl.”

The Ames Jaycees’ Haunted House is open from 7 to 10 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, and from 7 p.m. to midnight on Saturday. During the week of Halloween, it opens on Wednesday as well and is open from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. both Wednesday and Thursday, and from 7 p.m. to midnight on Friday.

Haunted Forest

Lee Ballard is very confident that his haunted forest will scare you. So confident, in fact, that if you aren’t satisfied, he will give you a full refund.

“I’ve had several people say, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve got 10 people coming in here, that’s going to be $100. Is it worth it?’ I tell them any one of you aren’t 100 percent satisfied I’ll give you all of your money back,” Ballard says. “I’ve never had anyone do that. I’ve had a lot of people come up and shake my hand and say it’s the best thing they have ever been to.”

Lee and his brother have been running the haunted forest, located just east of Jack Trice Stadium, for four years now. You may have seen advertisements or signs for it that hype it as “central Iowa’s best haunted attraction,” and this is a slogan that Ballard strongly believes in. Although he says there really isn’t any way to rate it, Ballard believes customer feedback provides enough data for him. He says he has people driving in from Omaha, Minnesota and Iowa City, among other places.

One of the things that separate the haunted forest is its abundance of actors. Don’t expect to get scared by a bunch of props because Lee and his brother use the skills of about 30 actors.

“One of our mottoes is that machinery doesn’t scare people, but people scare people,” Ballard says. “We have some extensive props, but for the most part we rely on our actors.”

Every year, Ballard uses the talents of actors from local Ames theater groups and this year the ISU men’s rugby team is also part of the act. Money earned by the rugby team will go toward new uniforms.

The creepiest part about the haunted forest may be its real setting, though. Ballard believes that the natural conditions such as the cold, rain and trudging through the forest add greatly to the mystique. After all, take a couple wrong turns and you will find yourself within steps of the creek that runs directly behind the forest.

And be prepared to get lost. Ballard says to expect it.

“Groups get separated and lost from each other all the time,” Ballard says. “We had a group this year, I think it was a mother, a father and then their boy. They went in together but the parents waited outside for about 15 minutes before he finally found his way out.”

The haunted forest is open from 7 p.m. to midnight on Fridays, Saturdays and Halloween and from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday. The forest will stay open until Nov. 2.

Gorevile Manor

Don’t think that just because it’s put on by ISU students that Gorevile Manor isn’t a legitimate haunted attraction.

The Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, 203 Ash Ave., has been running its haunted house for 27 years. And it’s all for a good cause. During the last two years the men of Lambda Chi have raised $16,000 for ChildServe.

Justin Hines, Gorevile co-chairman and senior in biochemistry, said at Gorevile you don’t have to wait until you get inside for the fun to start. Gorevile Manor is built with a medieval atmosphere, complete with a moat and drawbridge in the front and life-size gallows. Every hour the house treats visitors to mock medieval hangings and a choreographed dance to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” Hines says that surprisingly it is the dance that attracts many people.

The haunted house itself features a haunted castle facade, six skitrooms and a maze at the end.

Hines believes that one of the things that will appeal to Gorevile Manor is its cheap admission fee. Whereas the haunted forest and Jaycees’ haunted house are $10 admission, Gorevile Manor eases up on its prices for the financially strapped college crowd, with advance tickets at $4 and $5 at the door.

It also caters to the college crowd as far as content. Hines says they know who their customers are, and therefore shape the scare-factor around that audience.

“We don’t tend to have small children there and for the most part I would say it’s for an audience of about anyone but small children,” Hines explains. “It’s a scary house, we’ve had people crying and things like that but that’s good, that’s the goal. We want to make it scary because most of our audience is college students and that’s what they want.”

Hines believes Lambda Chi Alpha has indeed succeeded in making the house very scary. He says some people don’t even make it past the line to get in, thanks in large part to him.

“Personally, I pride myself in being the scariest person at Gorevile,” Hines brags.

“Every year I scare people out of line and they leave. I don’t really like that actually because that costs money.”

Gorevile Manor is open from 7 p.m. to midnight Oct. 31 through Nov. 2.