SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — If you’re looking for a good scare, a haunted house in Springfield is back for its 45th year in business.

After the city tried to seize the Hotel of Terror through eminent domain, owner Sterling Mathis is moving forward with another season of ‘ terror ‘ — thanks to some help from the community.

Mathis said negotiations to buy the building are still ongoing and they are making progress but for the time being, he is thrilled to be able to open for another season.

“We had some concerns on our end and they had some concerns on their end so we are trying to get it worked out. I wanna keep the Hotel of Terror going and bring it back bigger and better if possible if we can get together and work it out with the city,” said Mathis.

Scaring the people of Southwest Missouri since 1978, Mathis said business has been doing well since they opened up for the season on September 8th. 

Earlier this year, the city tried to invoke eminent domain on the Hotel of Terror so they could demolish the building and move forward with plans to daylight Jordan Creek. 

Mathis received tremendous support from the community where he collected more than 1,500 signatures to stop the bill from going through. 

Mathis tells me he had a few people tell him that they didn’t even know his business was still open after his legal battle with the city.

But that didn’t stop this group from enjoying the spooky festivities.

“It was pretty spooky, there were some moments where I was like oof, I didn’t expect that for sure. 10 out of 10 moments,” said Hotel of Terror visitor, Paul Hood.