Tucson’s Slaughterhouse opened its iconic doors one last time last weekend, giving Tucson one last chance to get scared – really scared.

The experience has four different haunts in its last season, the Boiler Room, Cirque du Slay, City Meats and the Graveyard, which was newly rebuilt after recent demolition.

Similarly, the Apocalypse haunt on the third floor was also demolished this year, but was not rebuilt for the last experience.  

“We added a lot of cool stuff actually this year and we’re ramping up the number of actors because we wanna go out in style,” said owner Bobby Sutton.

“We are not gonna go out on a down note, so we plan to bring it this year,” Sutton said.  “If you’ve been to the SlaughterHouse and you loved it, you gotta come back. Check us out one more time because we’re gonna raise the ceiling a little bit on this one and we’re gonna go for it all and leave an impression.”  

Last year, the haunted house’s 20th season, was supposed to be SlaughterHouse’s farewell after the owners put the property at 1102 W. Grant Road up for sale. Sutton said he had a purchase agreement last December but the sale isn’t expected to be finalized until January.  

That’s when Sutton pitched the idea of one last season to the new owners, who he said agreed.

 SlaughterHouse’s surprise comeback brings slight changes, including fewer attractions due to the planned demolition. 

This will be compensated through cheaper ticket prices, which hopefully in turn brings new and first time visitors. 

“We got some new features inside the haunt as well. We moved some things around and we’ve upgraded some things, so it’ll be a different look,” Sutton said. “Even if you’ve been here every single year, you’re gonna see something definitely different this year.”   

Sutton and his partners converted the old Farmer John Meats plant into the SlaughterHouse in 2010, after hosting it at several other Tucson area locations since 2004. 

“We were very much a part of the growth of Tucson and the growth of the youth of Tucson and we were always scary,” Sutton added. “We were never trying to be just spooky or just Halloween fun times; we’re gonna be scary and that was our thing.”

In 2021, haunted house reviewers from the website Scurryface ranked  the Slaughterhouse as the No. 1 haunted house and the top haunted house in Arizona in both 2023 and 2024.    

Sutton credited his two children, Tyler Sutton and Sierra Martin for much of the business’s success. Both kids took on key management roles in the last few years; Sierra is the general manager while Tyler leads operations and designs the sets. 

“Who knows if the kids decide to resurrect it some other place at some other time,” Sutton said, “but we had a great run and that’s all we could’ve hoped for.” 

SlaughterHouse is open at 7 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays through Nov. 1. Tickets are $20 through slaughterhousetucson.com and no one 4 or younger will be admitted. 

Arizona Sonoran News is a news service of the University of Arizona School of Journalism.