Statesville review

           Statesville Haunted House is located at 17250 Weber Rd, Lockport, IL 60441. Tickets are $30. VIP tickets are $45. Now, I know a lot of people make a mistake and they assume that Statesville Haunted House is the actual penitentiary that is across the way; this is not the case. Starting off, right away you enter the bottom level of the Watchtower and they basically make up a whole bunch of stuff I love. They put on a marriage ceremony between strangers and had us singing SpongeBob’s theme song. It was pretty much a big “laugh now, cry later” situation. Then they take you inside and you wait in the hallway where they repeatedly play their commercials. This is probably the only part I didn’t like, as it was so repetitive.

         Finally you go into the haunt and you meet the new Warden. He says his speech and the haunt begins. We soon came to a room that had a hole in the wall that a guy would slide a bed in front of, and we each had to give him an item for him to grant us access into the room. (Note: bring small things you don’t mind giving away). The next room is another room where they line you up single-file (there are a lot of rooms like this) and where I was standing, the ground just happened to have been slightly messed up. An actor picked up a rock as a prop and gave it to me. I can now say I carry a piece of Statesville wherever I go. They had a room with a bunch of cages that had mechanical dogs, which I really, really loved. I remember a room with this clown that is sitting on a trapeze that’s swung right in front of my face that I thought was really cool. I really thought he was gonna hit me though and stopped until he stopped swinging. One of the last things I remember from the first part of the haunt was this female clown that came running at me in a mirrored hallway and her getting really upset because I refused to react no matter what she did. So, she played a prank on my teammate and made her walk face-first into a wall. Best part of the haunt right there, hands down!!!

           The next half of the haunt was the City of the Dead. It was a really cool animatronic base part of the haunt. The winning feature…giant spiders that had me curled up screaming all over again. Also, not a super fan of snakes; at least, not as big as they were in this haunt. Overall, I think the best feature of this half was it was an old decrepit mine and the architecture is just awesome. The walls actually feel like real stone in some spots. I’m pretty sure I scratched up my arm on one of them. I think the only balloon wall was the very end…watch for the step, I wasn’t, and I had security laughing pretty hard when I almost fell over. I would definitely come back here next year. I had so much fun and it was well worth the wait. I can’t wait for next year now. http://www.statesvillehauntedprison.com/