Drive about 30 minutes south on I-94 from Milwaukee, and an oddly shaped building appears beside the road in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin.
On a haunt night, the midway between its haunts fills up. Barrels of trash burn for warmth, an old butcher shop stands along the walk, and flames leap into the air as costumed monsters spill out into the crowd.
Two routes wind through the building, and a third waits outdoors. The first one starts at a control panel, with a visitor pressing the button for a portal called Sector 6.
Each season the Abandoned Haunted House Complex opens again, and everything past that portal stays out of sight from the road.
New owners take over Vance's beside I-94
By late June 2011, new signs were up on a long-idle building beside I-94 in Mount Pleasant.
From the outside it had an unusual shape: an arched roof over the middle, flat-roofed wings on either side, faux-brick paneling, and a six-sided, steeple-like peak over the main entrance.
Repairs were underway inside and out.
Parts of the interior had been reinforced, roof work was in progress, and the surrounding property had been cleaned up.
The building had housed Vance's, where the bar also featured live entertainment; a 1990 listing called it Vance's Bar at 2819 Highway 41.
Two haunt operators bought it in April 2011.
One already ran haunted attractions elsewhere in Wisconsin, and the other had worked haunts in Milwaukee.
The village had cleared the way in February 2011, when the Plan Commission approved a haunted house there as a seasonal use, open each year from September 10 to November 1.
At the end of June 2011 the Village Board rezoned the land from agricultural to Business Park.
A sprinkler plan stalls the 2011 opening
The haunt had been promoted for the 2011 Halloween season.
The plan was to open that fall and run for about 30 days with about 60 seasonal workers.
Inside the roughly 15,000-square-foot shell, the owners meant to build their maze from flame-retardant materials and paint.
By mid-September 2011 the maze walls had not gone up.
The fire department had to approve a sprinkler design before the interior could be built, and the question of how much water the system needed was unresolved.
Rather than open without that approval, the owners postponed the haunt for a full year and announced a new date: October 5, 2012.
That fall the building stood ready on paper, its maze unbuilt and its first season a year away.
Ambush and Hysteria open in 2012
Abandoned Haunted House Complex opened in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, on Friday, October 5, 2012, as a haunted attraction with two indoor houses, Ambush and Hysteria.
The two ran as one connected walk-through, with new walls and themed rooms built inside the old bar.
The route passed rooms of aliens, clowns, and spiders, a tunnel under a cemetery, a spinning vortex, and a hospital set called Pleasantville Hospital, a joke on the town's name.
The rooms were dark, a soundtrack played, actors waited in the scenes, and one setting gave way to the next without warning.
For that October the haunt planned on a payroll of more than 100, whereas the 2011 plan had called for about 60.
Adult tickets cost $20, cash only, and $10 more bought a fast pass.
By November 2013 a Blackout Night sent guests through the darkened houses with a single glowstick for light.
In October 2014 the indoor route held a prison set on two floors, with a cellblock and a warden's office among its rooms, and 80 actors were working on one night that month.
The I-94 rebuild brings a field for Stalker
Road work on I-94 reshaped the haunt's eastern edge in 2015.
Wisconsin had already obtained and graded land there for a relocated frontage road, while the owners added the parcel next door so the haunt would still reach the new route.
On December 16 the Plan Commission approved the expanded site 6-0, with room for Stalker Haunted Cornfield, an outdoor paintball gallery, and additional seasonal grass parking.
The approval came with limits.
No temporary structure in the field could stand taller than 15 feet, and each one had to come down or go into storage by November 30.
Stalker opened for the 2016 season on an eight-acre field, about 4.5 acres of it given over to parking, with a corn path running past built scenes and actors.
In September 2017 a timed walk through all three houses took 18 minutes in Stalker, 17 in Hysteria, and 16 in Ambush.
Axe throwing in 2019, two houses a night in 2020
In June 2019 the Village Board approved the haunt's first beer license, 4-2, with two trustees voting no. Beer service that season depended on the South Shore Fire Department signing off on the fire-alarm system.
The same season brought axe throwing. By October 2019 the waiting area between the houses had become a stop of its own.
Actors worked the lines around warming fires, while guests could pose for photos, buy food or drinks, browse souvenirs, or try axe throwing.
The haunt opened under pandemic rules in 2020, but the midway remained part of the visit.
Entry came in 20-minute ticket slots, with masks and temperature checks at the gate.
Guests saw two houses on a given night while the third stayed closed as the season's rotation changed.
Outside them, the video screen, food, fires, and axe throwing were still there.
All three houses were open again in 2021. Stalker led through a cemetery and mausoleum and into a walk-through built like an old dark ride.
Ambush mixed a church section with an old Chicago L car.
Hysteria began with its time-machine opening, then jumped from a jungle to a medieval castle with artificial snow before reaching a vortex tunnel.
About 100 actors worked that season, trained beforehand in a program called Ghoul School.
135 actors walk in at The Rising
Inner Fear arrived in 2025, a timed challenge of about 10 minutes for up to two people, open to guests 16 and older.
It sits beside the three main houses, Ambush, Hysteria, and Stalker, along with axe throwing.
Stalker's route runs through shacks, built scenes, and trees on rock paths, mostly under cover, and it stays open in rain.
Scenes across the houses are changed or replaced each season.
Each night opens with The Rising.
Guests in line by 6:30 p.m. watch the costumed cast walk into the houses before they open at 7 p.m., with burn barrels set out in the waiting area.
Admission to the three houses is $45, and a few thousand visitors come through on each open weekend.
The season's last weekend falls on October 30 and 31, and Blackout Night is scheduled for November 7, with Hysteria run in darkness and one LED candle per group.
The 2011 plan called for about 60 seasonal workers. This season, 135 actors work the houses.
Independent Publisher Notice
BestAttractions is an independent editorial publisher. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of any location, business, property owner, manager, government agency, or organization described in this article. Comments posted on this page are not forwarded to, reviewed by, or acted upon by any entity mentioned in the article. For official inquiries, complaints, applications, bookings, or other requests, please contact the relevant entity directly through its official website or other verified channels.