Terror In The Timbers Review
Terror In The Timbers is located 37W955 Big Timber Rd, Elgin, IL. 60124
Tickets are $65 per car or suv. The Trail of Terror is additional $25 and it is a walk through woods haunts.
This is our first time visiting Terror In The Timbers. As we arrived, we found out that to enter Terror In the Timbers there is only one way to get into the haunt. You must be on the east side of Big Timber road. If you come down on west Big Timber Rd, like we did, cops will not let you enter and make you get on the east side of the street.
So once we entered the parking lot, aka car waiting line, there was a huge sign that said turn on 99.7 radio station for the spooky music. It was so creepy the music they were playing. They also have porta potties, if you want to use the restroom while you wait. We recommend going to the bathroom before you go into the haunt. As we said, Terror In The Timbers is a drive through haunt. As we waited in the “car line”, there weren’t any line actors, but there were two people doing fire performances. Finally, it was our turn to experience Terror In The Timbers for the first time. When we got into the haunt, we had a character come right up to the car and start knocking on the window. He did some funny movements with his tongue as if he was licking the windows. The actors do a pretty good job of hiding then come out of nowhere and run up to your car. They really get up close and personal. Oh!! Make sure you lock your doors or surprises happen!!! We found out the hard way, that’s all we are going to say. As you drive through the forest, they have areas that will have green and red stop lights. Please pay attention to the lights as they are a part of the attraction. At these stop areas, they had pretty amazing setups and creative…tunnels I guess is what you can call them. Now, there IS a steep hill at one point so please wait until the car in front of you drives up the hill and you have clear space to get your car up the hill safely.
The second part of the haunt was a walk through called Trail of Terror. We met Panda as she gave us the rules of the haunt. The last rule was different! It was to make sure you clap through the tunnel, or else you would get kidnapped and attacked by hellhounds. As we walked through the woods, we met the hellhounds who were guarding the bridge. Next, we walked through a cabin in the woods. It was old, broken down and creepy. Unfortunately, the cabin wasn’t abandoned. As we walked the path, they had carved jack-o-lanterns to guide you, which I thought was a nice touch. We ran into Nicky, who climbed a tree and looked down on us. We were getting nervous thinking he was going to attack us from above. Then there was Winnie, who asked us who wants to stay behind with her in the woods. Of course the owner, David, would call out his friend Mike and volunteer him to stay, but Winnie wanted both of them. What made this so funny is she screamed, “Mike is coming” so in the rooms coming up knew Mike’s name and really freaked him out. We all laughed pretty hard because Mike is this scaredy cat of the group. I think the entire haunt in the trail knew Mike’s name after that, because they kept screaming his name a ton. We can not end this review without talking about Smiley. So first off, Smiley doesn’t talk. So Karen introduced herself and said she was from Halloween Blast. Smiley acted like he was typing on the computer. She then asked him if he wanted chocolate. He put his hand out as Karen gave him a piece. He was about to eat it then threw it at her…RUDE!!!! Karen loves chocolate, so that made her pretty sad. Smiley wanted to join us through the walk though as even the monsters are scared of him. Let me tell you, we fell in love with his smile. All the actors in the haunted trail did a great job. There weren’t that many actors in the Trail of Terror, but the actors did pull the weight of the missing actors and made it a fun experience for us.
This haunt was a new experience for us. We have never done a haunted drive through. We didn’t know what to expect from it. Some people did not like it, because I think when you think of haunted houses, you think of the walk through ones. Now a little background on Terror In The Timbers, they first opened up last year in 2020 where half of the industry was shut down due to Covid. This haunt took a risk and made it a drive through where you stay safe in your car. This was something new and they were very successful last year. To us, this is a new unique experience and a fun one at that too. The Halloween Blast crew had a blast! Plus seeing the actors doing scares through the car window is really something different than what we normally see at haunts. And if you are itching for a walk through haunt then make sure you purchase the Trail of Terror add-on. If you want to try something different this halloween season, then check out Terror In The Timbers.
