Hayride of Horror Review 2023
Hayride of Horror Review 2023
Hayride of Horror is located 199 Woods Dr. Lockport, IL.60441. General Admission is $15 allowing entry into Hayride of Horror or Curse of the Bayou, Combo Pass is $25 allowing entry into both Hayride of Horror and Curse of the Bayou, and Speed Pass is $35 and takes you to the front of the line for Hayride of Horror and Curse of the Bayou. For group rates, please visit their website. https://app.hauntpay.com/events/hayride-of-horror/event_times/1333808
Starting off the night, we were joined by Honk the Clown and Witch. Spent a good minute talking to a few old friends at the entrance and getting to know our newest friends. I somehow have now been officially dubbed honorary clown by Honk cause that is the energy I give off. Takes a special person to bring out my chaos, and I had an amazing night clowning around and fitting right in while interacting with the actors that night. (Thank you, both of you!) In the line, we were entertained by the Ring Master and the Magician. Ring Master and Witch get on like two angry bees. It was hysterical watching them bicker about who had more talent when it came to magic…meanwhile the Magician is a few feet away just cutting someone in half in a box and there are guts spewing everywhere.
A few things I want to talk about on the Hayride that were the most memorable to me were the girls dancing around the vine covered pole, and the rebels from the glow tunnel. I remember everyone on the hayride naming all the characters they recognized like Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees. When we passed the girls, a few people were trying to think what they were from and I think we finally just decided it was just ring around the rosie when they all started falling to the ground and retching in the dirt. A few…there aren’t rooms in an outdoor haunt so I will say “sets” down from the girls, we passed by some thug like guys carrying bats and stuff. They reminded me of Lost Boys til we hit the black light tunnel and they lit up with UV paint. The one talking to me and trying to get me to sing I think had a green skull painted on him, and like always, I was just staring at the bright pretty colors. The last thing from the Hayride that got my attention was, being the furthest back on the cart, I had often been looking back. Leaving the scene with clowns, I turned around to see a clown that had to be about 8ft tall with glowing red eyes lumbering quickly after us. How we went past him and none of us noticed, I don’t know, but when I saw him I just automatically called out to the rest of the group because I was about to start freaking out if that thing had climbed up on the cart with us.
The second half of the haunt was Curse of the Bayou. There were a couple of good scares that happened here. One was what happened with one of my cousins. At one point on the trail, you step through a doorway of this little half shed, and there was an actor that must have popped out cause I saw my cousin take two steps to try to run and I just saw her disappear in a tumble of arms and legs as she tripped right in front of me! I STILL don’t know how she fell like she did, but we were laughing so hard a few of us in our group were crying. That is the first time someone in our group got spooked and fell like she did. Another one was just barely up the path, where my other cousin had gotten ahead of the group, and there was someone crawling around on all fours growling while a light overhead flickered. He backtracked so fast trying to get to the back of the group, he slammed into me and almost threw me to the ground because we collided so hard. I also want to mention the maze we went through. This maze is hands down the best maze I think I have ever been in! I still don’t know if we looped around on ourselves a few times, or it legitimately just all looked the same, but it felt like we were in there forever, and I passed the same 2 to 3 actors almost 4 times each. One of them knew the pathing cause they were darting back and forth to get from one pop out to the next and we bonked shoulders twice and had to hold on to one another so we didn’t go to the ground. It had me laughing and smiling and I kinda want to go back to keep exploring the maze til some kind of path makes sense!
All in all, I think everyone in my group had a good night that night. Between seeing some of our favorite characters, to the first hayride most of them had been on. The pants being scared off a few of us, to laughing at actors silly antics, and just enjoying an experience unlike any other haunt I have been to yet. If you have not yet been, I highly recommend Hayride of Horror and Curse of the Bayou because there is bound to be something for everyone to enjoy!
Haunted Hills Haunted Attractions Review 2023
Haunted Hills Haunted Attractions Review 2023
On October 21st, we visited Haunted Hills Haunted Attractions. When visiting the attraction, you can not park on the property. They have special parking at Deep Rivers Water Park which is at 9001 E. Lincoln Hwy, Crown Point, IN 46307. There is a parking fee of $5. You can buy the parking pass on the Haunted Hills website when you buy your tickets, or you can pay in cash at the parking lot. I recommend that you check the weather before you go to Indiana, because if it’s raining or rained the day before I would suggest that you bundle up and wear shoes that are waterproof or shoes that you don’t mind getting dirty. After parking your car, a bus will take you from the parking lot to Haunted Hills. Prices for the event are as follows: General Admission is $25 which includes Haunted Hills Hospital and Sick Billy Sideshow, $30 includes Haunted Hills Hospital, Sick Billy Sideshow and Fear Lab Haunted Experience. If you are buying tickets at the ticket booth, it will be $5 extra on site, so keep that in mind when buying tickets for the haunt. If you visit their website, they go more into details about ticket prices and other deals they have. https://www.hauntedhillshauntedattractions.com/tickets.html
Now it’s been a while since Halloween Blast has been to Haunted Hills, which was back in 2019. We did go in 2021, but it was a black out special event so we are really not going to count it because you couldn’t see anything which is why it is called black out. Since the last time we went they have moved to their new location and is now called Haunted Hills Haunted Attractions instead of Haunted Hills Hospital. Before you go into the attractions, you are put into a virtual queue on your phone. Once your time is up, they will send you an email or a text letting you know when it is time to head to that attraction. There are a lot of things to do while you wait in their midway, so you don’t have to stand around and be bored. They have a food stand with hotdogs, burgers and some amazing lemonade along with a few other goodies. They have an escape room, gift shops, Tarot Card reading, carnival games, a movie screen and a lot of photo ops selections in the Midway. And of course they do have monsters walking around interacting with the crowd.
So the first attraction we tried out was the Fear Lab experience. Before you enter the Fear Lab, you must put on goggles. These goggles block your view from seeing anything, so when you enter the haunt you have your hands on the shoulders of the person in front of you.. Not to give anything away, this haunt is based on messing with your senses. You can’t see anything, but you feel everything. The whole point of this attraction is that you have no idea what is going on except what you can feel, smell and touch. There really is not too much one can say about it without giving anything away and spoiling the Fear Lab, but a lot of people have that fear of being in the dark and feeling helpless about what is happening. You touch things and you’re like, “what was that? Is it alive? What is it?”.
The next attraction is Sick Billy Sideshow. Do you hate clowns? Good, because this attraction is full of them! As you head through the haunt, you walk through carnival games that look like they have been abandoned. We already knew this wasn’t a good sign thinking, “what terror awaits us?”. As we walked through Sick Billy Sideshow, we saw a person laying on a knife throwing wheel that looked like something went terribly wrong. Later on in the sideshow, we walked through a circus maze that we had to find our way out of, but be careful because you may not be alone. Sick Billy Sideshow is just one huge circus show that went terribly wrong. Clowns trying to get you to play their games, or become their games. They even have a ball pit in this attraction filled with bubbles. Unfortunately because of the rain, there weren’t that many bubbles when we visited, but I liked that it was something I haven’t seen anywhere else.
The final attraction we went to was Haunted Hills Hospital. Yes you heard right, it’s called Haunted Hills Hospital. When I saw the name I got so pumped up! Once we got into the hospital, we were locked up right away in cells. Once it was time, we had to be checked in and hosed down like you would if you went to a real asylum back in the day (they didn’t use water, so you won’t be getting wet!). Finally, we were checked in with the doctor, and we’re set to receive shock treatment. When we walk into the shock treatment room, you see the doctor playing with the machine and shocking himself! As you make your journey further through the hospital, you meet an inmate that found a way to escape out of Haunted Hills Hospital through a hole in the wall. He told us to be careful of the dogs out there. Once through the wall, we heard and saw the dogs, but kept going until we escaped. Now let me tell you, this was fun! This attraction right here brought back the memories of the old location video but they have added more. At the old location, it was called Haunted Hills Hospital and when you got into the queue line, they were like cell blocks. Seeing them put us into cells, it brought back a lot of memories, so this is great storytelling. You get locked up, you go through the check in procedures, and now you have to escape to get out of this madness of a hospital! As you walk through the hospital, it has this look and feel with the cell blocks, inmate jackets hanging, and the psychosis of people running around the hospital. We had a blast in this attraction! Haunted Hills has done a lot of changes since we were there in 2019. They moved to a huge location! They have multiple attractions and a parking lot! Plus, they are now called Haunted Hills Haunted Attraction. So over the years they have made a lot, and I mean a LOT of new changes! The best part of this trip was seeing the Haunted Hills Hospital Attraction. To see that yes, they have a huge location now, they didn’t forget how they started and walking through the hospital was just so many memories of our first time visiting them. Now of course it is not the same, but it made the hospital better by keeping the main parts. Now, there is a journey to escape the hospital. They already have plans next year to make it better, and bring even more changes! To see Haunted Hills evolve over the years from one attraction to now into three is just wonderful to see. We know they are going to keep challenging themselves to get to the next level. We wonder what is next for Haunted Hills? What new changes will they come up with next year? Indiana better get ready, because Haunted Hills Haunted Attraction isn’t slowing down anytime soon!
Hells Gate Review 2023
Hells Gate Review 2023
On October 19, we visited Hells Gate. The haunt is located in Lockport deep in the woods but to get there you need to take a bus. The bus parking is located at 301 W. 2nd Street, Lockport IL 60441. From there, the bus will pick you up and take you deep into the woods. Prices for this event are as follows. General Admission $37 online, at the box office is $42. Vip is a shorter wait, that goes for $55 online and at the box office is $60. Instant Access, which is no wait, is $70 online and box office is $75. All Access is $150 online and $200 at the box office. All Access includes one Instant Access ticket, one Hells Gate t-shirt, a backstage tour of Hells Gate and a photo of you with your favorite character. All ticket prices, both online or at the box office come with a fee, so remember that when buying your tickets. So after you get off the bus, redeem at the ticket counter or buy your tickets there.
So as we arrived we immediately saw a lot of actors walking around. Hells Gate has a little bar by the entrance as well where we saw Sharky, Witch Doctor, Scraps, and so many more working the line nearby. We didn’t get a chance to meet all of our favorites because business was picking up at Hells Gate as buses were arriving. We did however bring a teddy bear to calm our nerves, but then Fluffy came around. If you do not know who Fluffy is, he is an escaped inmate from Statesville Haunted Prison who is hiding out in the mansion with his friends. Fluffy loves teddy bears. Karen knew how much he loves bears, so she handed it to him as a gift from the Halloween Blast crew. He ripped it apart, gutting it to put on a fence with the rest of his stuffed animals. It’s always good to see our friends again, but it was time to find the mansion in the woods.
As we followed the trail, we realized a couple of new things. One was when you first walked into the forest. They placed Jack-o-lanterns all over and even made an arch of pumpkins which was a really cool, nice touch. As we walked the trail we came across some small cabins,but then came across a bigger, scarier looking cabin. This looks and feels like a real cabin! It had a table and chairs with a massive moose head hanging on the wall! Then we saw a cellar all chained up with a white light flashing from the floorboards. Someone was trying to bash their way out of the cellar doors. I thought it was time to leave before something bad happens. As we walk the path through the woods and into the Cemetery, we have to point out that the haunters (a.k.a. actors) did a fantastic job of hiding and waiting for the right moment to attack! We were very impressed! We are going to jump ahead so we don’t give away the whole trail part.
So we finally arrived at the mansion. If you have never been to Hells Gate we won’t spoil the opening. If you have, then you already know about the twins. What is so cool about this haunt is you try to escape the darkness before it consumes you. You see the twins throughout the Mansion, which is a really nice touch to the story telling. If you do not know the story of Hells Gate, I strongly recommend you visit their website or visit their youtube page to see what is going on, because it all ties into the story of Hells Gate and you actually get to become the story by trying to escape and survive the darkness. You go through many secret passages and through walls. One cool room you go through is the doll room. This room is full of dolls, from top to bottom. You have big dolls to small dolls. Easter egg, the little doll house is actually the Mansion you’re walking through which again is such a great touch to detail! The last room we will touch on is the darkness. After all the running from the darkness, you hit the core of everything going on. Let me tell you, the Zombie Army crew did an excellent job! You look around and there are just oozes of black darkness everywhere; even the floor you step on is like the darkness is trying to suck you in. It is not just like, “oh, let’s throw some black paint here and call it the darkness cave”. No, they made it look and feel like this is the center of everything bad that is going on, like a portal has opened up and it is taking over the house!
We can go on and on about the details of the rooms, but then what would be the point of you going? In the very beginning of Hells Gate’s early days, the creator John Laflamboy said, “It’s not just a haunt, it is an adventure!”. Over the years, they have added more and more to the story. You have now become part of the story by going deep into the woods…walking through the cemetery…all of it leading up to the Mansion which is getting taken over by the darkness you have to escape. It was a whole adventure from start to finish! Now the acting is always on point, but this year if you’re in the front, middle or back, no matter where you are they will get you because they just don’t go for the front, they do every single part of the line. If you think, “hey, I’m in the middle, they won’t get me”, you are wrong my friend! They have it down to the minute of when to pop out, then they will reset. So if they get the front, they disappear and will circle back to get the last person as well. We are blown away how great the pop out scares have gotten. If anyone from Hells Gate reads this and you’re a haunter…you did a phenomenal job! Can you escape the darkness, survive the trail? Come find HellsGate!
The Nightmare Review 2023
The Nightmare Review 2023
On October 21st, we visited The Nightmare Haunted House located at 509 East Hunter Lane, Minooka, IL. 60447. This home haunt is free to all, but they are accepting cash donations for Shorewood HUGS!
While this haunt is run out of a garage, don’t be fooled! There is plenty to see, and the acting was top notch! While waiting in line, we met with plenty of actors and one tried giving one of our managers a haircut! They really know how to keep the people waiting to go in entertained and excited!
Once inside, you receive instructions from a demon, then you are free to begin the haunt. Let me tell you, they used every space possible for actors, scenery, and more! The thrills were never ending! The Nightmare doesn’t feel like a home haunt, it feels like one of the bigger haunts with how much detail they put in the rooms. Plus ,the performances inside the haunt and outside are top notch acting by The Nightmare’s crew. That just tells you what level Nightmare Haunted House is at. We keep coming back because these guys keep stepping up their game every time we do, every year taking it to the next level. If you want to build a home haunt, then you have to visit The Nightmare and see how it’s done! This is a haunt that is made with love and it shows. This crew brings you a show, it’s not screaming and boo, they put on a whole performance and we were just blown away by how great they were! Outside the haunt, there is jewelry for sale made by the actors, as well as candy for anyone to take a piece on the way out. On the poster behind the booth, you can scan a QR code for merchandise and like mentioned before, there is a donation jar for charity. I highly recommend The Nightmare, this haunt does not disappoint! It is also a free Halloween activity for the season! All the donations go to a great cause. For more info go to https://www.shorewoodhugs.org/ to learn more.
Evil Intentions Review 2023
Evil Intentions Review 2023
Evil Intentions is located at 900 Grace Street, Elgin, IL. 60120. Tickets are $38.35 for General Admission, $53.75 for VIP, and Instant Access for $79.50. This will be Evil Intentions final year at this location. So what is next for them? Well keep your eye on their website and social media to find out what they are planning! Upon arriving at the haunt, most of our crew had to use the bathroom. Little did we know that the monsters weren’t going to wait for us, as they started banging on the door and trying to cut the door open with a chainsaw! They were really going at it, trying to get to us! Once we headed over to enter the haunt, we saw another actor with a handheld saw, sawing at his side with sparks flying everywhere! Once inside in the line, we were immediately pounced on by about six actors…maybe more. I’m telling you, I thought we were not going to make it out of the haunt that night! First the bathroom, and now in the queue. These actors wanted us and they were not playing around! We looked up, and they were crawling all above us on the ceiling of the cage that the line is in. They would slide between the bends in the line on a small platform between us. These haunters were intense ! Once we got to the front of the line, we saw four caskets. Little did we know, those were how you enter the haunt!
So here are a couple of rooms we will highlight. One of them is the The Nun and Mannequin rooms. The nun room is full of nuns and they are all just standing around. This creeped us out heavily because there are SO MANY! The same goes for the mannequin room. You walk in, and the room is full of them just standing around. In both rooms, you don’t know which one is real. On top of that, to get to the next room, you have to walk by them and through the crowd. These rooms make your hair stand on end! The next room is the surgical room. As you walk down a hall, you look down on your right and see a nurse and a doctor doing surgery. The doctor noticed us and came up to the wall, trying to reach us and saying we look like good patients to do surgery on; good thing he couldn’t reach us! We thought we were safe and away from the doctor…but we would later find out that we weren’t. One last room we want to touch on is the demon room. There was santic writing on the walls and the room was lit up in red. We saw a skeleton creature which was so cool. In the room, they had this giant creature that was a statue. As we watched the skeleton creature, we did not realize that the statue was an actor and it made the Halloween Blast owner scream when it walked up to him and he wasn’t expecting it.
Let’s talk about acting real quick. I don’t know what Evil Intentions has been feeding their actors, but oh man they are nuts! In one room inside the haunt, they had a cage maze, and all the actors were running around climbing all over the cages. They were on top of the cages and I mean it was insane
in that room! Then in other rooms, they acted all possessed, really making you feel uncomfortable at times. The actors at Evil Intentions are fantastic!
Evil Intentions has made the casket company home for years. It is hard to take in that this is the final year at this location. Over the years ,they made the casket company into a satanic playground for their actors. I’ve said this over and over again through the years, Evil Intentions has that uneasy feeling as soon as you walk in. This show is like no other, and they’ve been doing it for years! It’s like a satanic show and it carries through into the set design, costumes and even how some of the actors perform. All that combined, and you get the most uncomfortable show…which is a good thing. When you go to haunts, you want that feeling; you want to be scared and they do it as soon as you walk in, they don’t wait until the show begins. This haunt is called Evil Intentions for a reason, and its proved it over and over again through the years. If you think you can handle the evil that fills that casket company, then check them out!
Soul Reaper Review 2023
Soul Reaper Review 2023
Soul Reaper is located at 30820 111th St, Wilmot, WI 53192. General Admission tickets are $35 and VIP Fast Pass tickets are $39.99. When you first pull up to Soul Reaper, it looks like a barnyard and instead of having cute pigs and cows they have souls brought back from hell waiting to devour you! While waiting outside, I made friends with this cool clown who can play with fire. Something new we noticed this year was the entrance. They made the front of the barn into a house with windows and it had a balcony with a huge Soul Reaper sign hanging from it! This is absolutely amazing design work by Darkwood Designs.
Inside the haunt, you are introduced to Madame Mizery who owns the mansion we are in. Don’t mess with her and the order she sends you through the haunt, because she WILL send you by yourself! Karen, one of our managers for Halloween Blast, found out the hard way and was made to go in by herself. Madame Mizery then looked at me and warned me if I don’t listen to her rules, then I will pay. There was a hallway with pictures all over the walls. What was very interesting about the pictures is if you look at them, they are pictures of the Soul Reaper crew. We thought that was such a great thing to do. As we walk through the haunted house we enter a room with hanging stuffed animals. The actor asked me which one I wanted. I saw a blue manatee I liked so she said she will give me a manatee if I give her my head. Later on I would meet the doctors who were operating on patients in an inhumane way. There’s bodies all over the wall and loads of blood. The doctor wanted to operate on us, but luckily we got out of there! It was a very interesting section to say the least. Another room that stood out was the Swamp of Souls. I really liked this part of the haunted house because of how detailed everything was. As you walk in, you see a green light with fog flowing around giving the illusion like souls were flying around in the swamp! Our journey through the Soul Reaper Haunted House was coming to the end and it was time to meet Satan himself. As we travel through the Underworld we walk by some cells that have bones inside. I’m guessing whoever they belonged to was locked up too long. We finally arrived in the throne room where we got to meet Satan and his minions. He stood up and told us to kneel him. We of course didn’t, so his minion tried to saw our legs off with his chainsaw. I thought it was time to leave at that point!
In the end we had a great time at Soul Reaper. They have a couple of new changes. One was the front of the barn turned into the Soul Reaper house. Another addition was a DJ playing music while you wait in the queue. After talking to the owner, he told us his plans for next year. Unfortunately, we can not say what they have planned, so you just have to wait and see. In the end it was a great show. The Soul Reaper crew did an amazing job and put on a great show. I definitely recommend that you go visit them!
Hoppers Haunted House Review 2023
Hoppers Haunted House Review 2023
Hoppers Haunted House is located at 11576 IL-2, Rockford, IL. 61102. Tickets are $20 at the box office. This is cash only, if you have a card they do have an atm next to the box office. As you arrive at Hoppers, you see an ambulance with the lights going. Once we stepped into the queue, we were blown away by their amazing artwork on the wall. This was all hand painted. You can see Freddy Krueger, Jason, Chuckie and so many iconic horror characters painted on the walls. The black light shining on the artwork really put the cherry on this masterpiece. We cannot tell you how much we loved it!
So Hoppers Haunted House is kinda like the dark of a black out haunt. Not all of it is in darkness. So the halls of the haunt are so dark you start to get a sense like an actor will jump at you. One thing that I really wanted to point out was that the actors did an amazing job of popping in and out of scenes. Now like we said, the whole haunt is not dark. When you get to the scenes with the actors, the room is lit up. Sometimes, they would even jump out of their scenes and would follow us around the haunt up to a point.
As you travel from scene to scene, everything goes dark. David, the Halloween Blast owner, was using his hands to figure out where we were going and he accidentally touched an actor, but instead of the actor immediately jumping out to scare us, they waited and followed us around for a bit then jumped out to scare us. So this actor did a really great job making you think, “oh, you’re safe”, but just when you’re not expecting it, bam! Also, when they walk in the dark, you can’t hear their footsteps at all! They are so quiet moving around in the haunt. It is amazing how they get such great scares with something so simple. Hoppers did a great job with the darkness, because it starts to create an anxiety feeling of, “ok, where are the monsters? I can’t hear them or see them.” They really throw you off and catch you off guard a lot in the haunt. Now, one of David’s favorite scenes was when they threatened to put us in a refrigerator. It was a whole scene like an industrial freezer. It had smoke as if you had left the door open for too long. At one point in the haunt, we walked out into the woods and one of the actors was so quiet that when we walked past, he jumped out from the side and scared Karen half to death!
As we said in the beginning, Hopper Haunt is kinda like a black out haunt but not the whole thing. They do have lit up areas where an actor does their thing. Sometimes, they will move from room to room to stalk you in the haunt which is insanely creepy. When you do walk into the dark areas of the haunt, they take full advantage of it. Just when you think you are safe is when they attack. If you have never been to Hoppers Haunted House, go check them out!
Abandoned Haunted House Complex Review 2023
Abandoned Haunted House Complex Review 2023
Abandoned Haunted House is located at 2825 SE Frontage Road, Mt.Pleasant, WI. 53177. Ticket prices are $40 for the three attractions, $45 for all three and axe throwing, $55 for Quick Pass which allows you to skip the line for all three attractions, and $90 for Quick Pass admission to 3 haunted houses at Abandoned AND 3 haunted events at Burial Chamber in Neenah, WI. (MUST GO TO ABANDONED FIRST TO REDEEM TICKETS!)
When visiting, please dress warmly because it is SUPER cold! They do have bonfire barrels to warm yourself and they sell hot chocolate for $3. They also sell many other food items like hot dogs, popcorn chips, etc. One warning though: Be sure to wear gym shoes! They have a lot of uneven spots and gravely roads. My favorite part about this haunt is the beginning! At 6:45pm, they have a show called The Uprising! It’s where every single character comes running out into the crowd! I love this show because it’s so cool to see everyone in costume! You’re able to appreciate them more. If you think about it, you’re not able to see some of the haunters when they are hiding. So I suggest going early! The other cool thing about Abandoned is that it has 3 haunts: Stalker, Hysteria and Ambush. Just before we went into the first haunt, we met Emily. She came up to us and saw the Halloween Blast owner. She wanted to make him pretty so she drew all over his face. The rest of our group got a kick out of it!
My all time favorite haunt was Stalker because it is so creepy! This section of the three attractions has a real corn maze! Not many haunted houses have real corn mazes here in Illinois. On top of that, Stalker has really cool rooms. For instance, there is a slaughterhouse and it has dead pigs hanging from the ceiling. They have red lighting that gives it an uneasy vibe with the sound of pigs squealing all around you. Another thing is that they have scares that come from below! You don’t expect someone to get at the level of your feet, but oh man do they! Stalker also has an old school haunted house carnival ride in the middle of the corn field. As you walk up to the ride, you see two clowns that give out candy and pickles! They were clowning around and asked Victoria, one of our new reviewers this year, to shove a pickle up the Halloween Blast owner’s butt! That was definitely something different…I’ve always seen candy given out but never pickles. Now unfortunately, the ride was broken down so we had to walk through the carnival haunt. Let me tell you, this section scared the daylights out of us! It was very dark and you couldn’t see anything in front of you. There was a lot, and I mean A LOT, of jump scares!
The next haunt is Hysteria. You travel in time to places all over the world like London and all the way to Egypt! Our first time in, our time travel was to the jungle. They had a running waterfall, which I fell in love with! The jungle was so creepy, but also had a peaceful feeling to it. Our next stop was London. In London they had Jack The Ripper stalking you and he actually follows you throughout the haunt. All I have to say is, Jack the Ripper did a PHENOMENAL job popping in and out of rooms! He did not miss a beat and he did a great job scaring Victoria as we walked through. He tried to kill us, but we escaped! There are a lot more places Hysteria took us, but we will let you check it out for yourself!
The last haunt we entered was Ambushed. If you’re naughty, you will get spanked by a nun! Victoria was and paid the price, getting spanked before we entered. I loved how they did the psych ward in the hospital. We were able to see the patients in their rooms on a monitor, which is a cool feature. Now, we weren’t able to visit Abandoned last year, so this was the first year we got to see their hotel section. The hotel looks and feels like a real hotel. They had the check in desk, as well as a bellhop. As we were walking through, we saw a mirror in the lobby of the hotel. The mirror has a really cool effect where it looks like a long hallway, but all the sudden we would see people in the mirror before they disappeared. This gave us a good scare!Abandoned Haunted House Complex has made a lot of changes since the last time we went to all three attractions. Abandoned already has plans for next year. Walking through all three attractions, the haunters scared us from high and low. They even got our manager a couple of times and she is hard to scare! The haunters were on their scare game that night and they did not hold back; they made sure our visit was a terrifying experience. After we caught our breath, we got to hang out with Itchy and Scratchy, the resident clowns of Abandoned. They made some questionable balloon animals. We had a good laugh with them, and they were fun to be around. With all this being said, we can’t wait to visit Abandoned again next year as they put on a hell of a show!
13th Floor Review 2023
13th Floor Review 2023
13th Floor is located at 5050 River Rd, Schiller Park, IL 60176. I am going to give the max prices I am finding for their busiest nights; depending on what night you go, you may pay less. General admission is $32.99, Fast Pass is $44.99 and cuts down a ⅓ of the wait time, and Skip the Line is $56.99 and upon checking in, you have instant access to the haunt. The last ticket is Platinum, which is their VIP ticket for $84.99, giving you instant access to the haunt, a free photo and VIP lanyard, a free one time pass to their mini escape room, and 13% off retail pricing for their gift shop. For group rates, season passes, and monster free hour tickets, times and dates, please visit 13th Floor website under their tickets tab. https://13thfloorchicago.com
Before going into the haunt, we had the chance to meet Pumkin and Siren. I may or may not have almost broken Pumpkin for a second. We took a photo with her and she held out her hand like she wanted something in return. I started checking my pockets for anything to hand her and I pulled out a pack of gauze having had a tooth pulled that morning. She takes it from my hand, and is just staring at it before bursting out laughing and asking why I had GAUZE of all things. We then also met their new character this year, Siren. It’s just good manners to me when one shrieks at you, you do it back. The sound that came out of me was so pathetic. She asked what was wrong and told me not to worry, once my transformation was over, my shark teeth would never run out.
Once inside the haunt, we didn’t even make it through the first hallway before I was spooked. I thought all the scares were over when I turned to say something to my coworker and the elevator behind him opened up and an actor flopped out of it. Not the most pants wetting scare, but enough to make me jump, so it still counts. My favorite thing I saw in the haunt that night was a room with a strobe light and a floor that tilts back and forth. The walls are gray and there were red smears on them. Combined with the lights, It feels like the walls are coming at you. It took my eyes a minute to even attempt to adjust, but the effect never stopped. Was one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a haunt to date.
Last thing I wanted to tell you about was their gift shop. They have SO MUCH stuff to look at. I lost count of the shirts. They have bags and stuffies and blankets. Hair clips, barrets, and little horns that glow in the dark. Somewhere I think I saw pins. It was so much to take in! I know there was more, but I can’t remember off the top of my head. What I do know is I had a really good night going to 13th Floor this year. It’s about 20 minutes through, but it doesn’t feel like it when you are having that much fun. Come experience it for yourself!
Midnight Terror Review 2023
Midnight Terror Review 2023
On Friday the 13th, we visited Midnight Terror! Midnight Terror is located at 5520 W. 111th St, Oak Lawn, IL. 60453. There is no parking at the haunt anymore. The haunt has buses and a parking lot that is 8 mins from the location. As soon as you pull up the parking attendants are going to hand you a flier to show you where the parking lot is. The parking garage is the Metra Parking Garage located at 9525 S. Tulley Ave. Oak Lawn, IL. and the shuttle bus will be waiting outside. The shuttle buses are still operating on the following days this month: October 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 30, 31. Do not use GPS. When we used GPS, it took us to the back of the garage and we were circling the backstreets for 10 minutes trying to get out. So make sure you follow the flier’s instructions to get on 95th and follow the signs. For tickets, it is $5 cheaper if you buy them online than at the box office. For exact prices on days you are visiting go to https://midnightterrorhauntedhouse.com
As we arrived, we saw the Lord of Midnight Terror walking around on stilts. When we went, it was raining a little, but don’t worry, they have a tent for the outdoor waiting area. The other part of the queue is inside the haunt. In the tent, they had a DJ playing music from out of a coffin and a couple of actors working the line as we waited. One actor had an eyeball on his tongue, which was disgusting! As we walked into the indoor part of the queue, we met a couple of more actors waiting to make us their next victim. On the walls, they had tvs with the rules of the haunt, which was interesting to see because not many haunts do that. Most have a designated person or an actor tell you as you are ready to enter the haunt. Midnight terror switches it up, putting it on the TVs instead.
Once we entered Midnight Terror, the first room we entered was a cave. Inside the cave, a huge demon creature comes out of the wall! We loved seeing this huge wall creature! As we turned the corner, we were met by the Lord of Midnight Terror standing above us. Smoke surrounded him as he stared down at us like peasants and pointed the way to the terror that we were about to face. After the cave, the first part of the haunt had a factory vibe…It’s hard to describe. The Actors were all around us, popping out of walls, trying to attack you from above, and peeking around corners. There was nowhere we could run. One of the rooms had toilets stacked on top of each other like an archway you had to walk under. This is an amazing design by the Midnight Terror crew!
In the second part of the haunt was Black Oak Grove High School. As soon as you walked into the school, it felt like the school went to ruins. Books out of place and damage everywhere. Chairs stacked on top of each other…it looks like the apocalypse happened. One of the things I want to point out is the barber selection. As you enter a hallway, you can see hair blocking your path. You must walk through the hair which was disgusting! The hair was dirty and matted. We were then met by the barber who had a customer in his chair. He begged and screamed for our help, but as soon as we walked out of the room, I turned to look back and I saw the barber shave his hair. You don’t see many actors keep acting as you leave the room, so to see this put a huge smile on my face. One more room we want to talk about is a living room where a girl is standing on a fireplace, acting all possessed. Then all of the sudden, the room lights up with writing all over the walls with the floor lit up red like hell was underneath you!
Midnight Terror is testing the waters with trying new stuff, like the whole having the haunt rules on the TVs in the queue instead of someone telling you. When you go to multiple haunts, you hear the same stuff over and over. Midnight Terror realizes that. Another thing they worked on is acting. Not every room has to have someone screaming, “Get out!” and just screaming. They put on a show for people, talking with you and having dialogue, creeping you out and when you’re not paying attention, another actor pops out of nowhere and scares the pants off of you! This happened to us. An actor was talking to us, then out of nowhere we got scared because we were too busy to realize another actor was setting us up to scare us. We don’t want to give too much away or give too many details about what happened because the scare was that good. Midnight Terror also did a great job on keeping out conga lines. Conga lines are when your group runs into another group and now it is this huge line walking through the haunt. No one likes conga lines, so Midnight Terror makes sure that that doesn’t happen by giving time between sending people into the haunt and then also adding a small break between the two sections. They want to make sure you get the scares that everyone wants when walking through a haunted house. From the first time we visited Midnight Terror to now, they have evolved so much and it’s made the show better over the years. They used to have nothing at the end of the haunt. Now, they have a whole midway with drinks, an escape room, the gift shop and now a small carnival with games to win prizes! The crew loves feedback! They want to give you the best show they can, and that is what we love about Midnight Terror. They want to make the money you pay for a ticket worth your while. They give you a hell of a show, and we can’t wait to come back next year for more!
