Stephanie Passialis
Contributing Writer
This Halloween, you and your friends can curl up in your dorm room and watch a scary movie, or you can venture to live one at some of the most frightening haunted houses in the local area. Notorious for its wide range of spine-chilling haunts, Illinois offers some of the top haunted houses in the country each October, most of which are located a mere half hour from North Central campus.
At No. 11 on HauntedHouseChicago.com’s list of the top thirteen haunted houses in the Chicago area in 2013, Evil Intentions is located approximately 35 minutes north of campus at 900 Grace Street in Elgin, making its permanent residence at the location of the now-abandoned Elgin Metal Casket Company. Providing the perfect aura for its blood-curdling endeavors, this location was also home to other supernatural phenomena even before Evil Intentions made its way onto the scene.
According to the haunted house’s official website, five mutilated bodies were discovered in the basement of the casket company in 1903, and another dead body of an employee was found stuffed in a casket in 1950. The location was also rumored to have a chilling history of mysterious, dark cloaked figures wandering the site in the 1980s.
“The building has been around since the early 1800s and is an urban legend in the area,” says owner of Evil Intentions Mike Fitzpatrick. “It has been proven to be haunted by many ghost hunting groups and psychics. This building alone is so scary it makes some customers leave before they even walk in the door.”
Pair this rich, haunting history with sixty top-notch live actors dressed as satanic clowns and demons and Evil Intentions Haunted House becomes one seriously intense horror experience. General admission for the attraction is $25.00.
Ranking at No. 13 of HauntedHouseChicago.com’s Top 13 List, the custom-built Massacre Haunted House lies a mere half hour west from North Central’s campus. Formerly located in Naperville, the haunt now resides at its new permanent location of 299 Montgomery Road in Montgomery. There, with a group of up to seven other brave souls, guests must navigate through a labyrinth of over sixty rooms teeming with the terrifying, where live actors and animatronics pull no punches in procuring screams from their victims.
And as if one haunt was not enough, Massacre allows guests a second opportunity to scare themselves senseless at its second attraction: Fear Factory 3D, where special effects glasses provide a whole new kind of terror experience. General admission for both Massacre and Fear Factory 3D is $23.00.
Finally, ranking at No. 7 on HauntedHouseChicago’s.com Top 13 List is Basement of the Dead Haunted House in Aurora. A mere twenty minutes west from campus at 42 W. New York Street, Basement of the Dead provides its own chilling back story to go along with its location. According to the haunted house’s official website, the haunt is located at the previous site of Walker Laundry, where legend claims a father-son duo of maintenance engineers were severely maimed and scalded when the company’s boiler exploded in 1964. Never seen again, the two are said to haunt the building’s basement, where they seek revenge on the unfortunate victims who wander warily into its depths.
“Just the line to get into the haunted house alone is almost as terrifying as the haunted house itself,” says Rachel Framarin (sophomore), who attended Basement of the Dead last year. “Live actors immediately try to scare you and grab you before you even walk through the door.”
Like Massacre, Basement of the Dead also offers patrons a double dose of terror with their acclaimed attraction Shattered 3D, where one’s nightmares of being chased by a demonic clown become horrifying reality. General admission for Basement of the Dead is $18.00; a combo package of $25.00 provides admission to Shattered 3D, as well.
If you are searching for something to do this Halloween season, consider venturing out to one these top rated haunts. Didn’t see something you liked? Illinois is home to a variety of spooky sites; visit HauntedHouseChicago’s.com for more information.
