5333 Prairie Stone Parkway, Hoffman Estates, IL
year: 2013
**NOTE: Ticket prices above reflect costs at the time of our visit. We note that the current ticket prices have now dropped to $27/$50 VIP. However, this was not the case when we visited early in the season.
CarnEvil is a first year haunt located at the Sears Center in Hoffman Estates. We at Horror Tourers are always interested in new haunts, so we were interested in going to this one. However, the high price was a big deterrent. $35 for a first year haunt is pretty pricey, particularly when the only similar haunt in that price range is the long-established Statesville Haunted Prison, which, like it or not, has a reputation behind it for quality scares. However, during their opening weekend Carnevil ran a 2 for 1 admission, so we decided to take advantage of it. In line with the haunt name, CarnEvil has an overall carnival theme, and features three separate haunts, each with its own theme. The first is the Doll House, which has a waxworks theme, followed by the crypt, which is, as the name suggests, a crypt, and finally there is Carny Town, which is actually a sewer setting with cannibalistic inhabitants. Taking these in order, the Doll House is the shortest of the haunts, clocking in at around five minutes total. While short, there was quite a bit of detail inside, including some of the best morgue scenes we have seen., as well as a half-bodied live actor and a giant live actor at the end dressed in some type of post-apocalyptic armor/hazard suit. He was huge and had a glowing helmet and a detailed mask inside the helmet, too. The end of the Doll House featured a rather lame outside portion that looked like a paintball course.Visitors had to find the exit, but given that it was well lit and wide open it wasn't too hard. The crypt was the longest of the three haunts (over 15 minutes), and it was by far the best. Every room had large, detailed sets, particularly the walls, all of which was made even more impressive by the fact that the haunt was set up outside and not in an actual building. It even had one room that looked like an outside entrance to a crypt, complete with artificial plants and fog effects. In walking through, we really got the impression that we were in a cemetery in some place like Louisiana, where the heat and humidity play havoc with the living and the dead alike. Some of the best scenes in the crypt included a giant mechanical ghoul that jumped out at visitors, but was really a distraction for a cleverly place live actor, a section done up like a crumbling mausoleum, complete with three full-sized coffins placed at odd angles, and a voodoo altar setup that really gave us the creeps. |
Commentary
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Finally, there was Carny Town, which fell in between the other two haunts in length, clicking in at about 10 minutes overall. Carny Town actually began in a sewer pipe, and continued the underground motif throughout. As in the crypt, the sets were highly detailed, with rusty pipes and sections with weeds, fog, and water. Also inside was a cannibal house setup, where the cannibals invited visitors to stay for dinner. While we see this type of scene a lot (and frankly are getting a bit tired of it as there is only so far one can go with it) this one had some entertaining actors, including an old granny character with a walker who followed visitors around and generally mumbled in an amusing fashion.
The last section had some excellent slaughterhouse sets, some including full length life size pig carcasses hanging from the ceiling, and also had some standout acting. There was a pig-faced character with chainsaw who didn't speak but simply gestured excitedly at visitors, and a crazy cannibal offering people chicken as they left. He even offered Horror Tourer Paul a bite of his rubber chicken, which Paul gladly accepted!
As a further note, there was lots of wait entertainment to be had, featuring a wide variety of actors in various costumes. We spotted a few clowns and even a ghoulish baseball player who offered to use peoples' head for hitting practice. All of the actors remained in character throughout, even when not interacting with visitors.
Overall, we enjoyed CarnEvil but felt it was a bit too short and a bit too pricey, especially for a first year haunt. We also felt that patron flow into the Doll House was very slow, with too much time between groups. We suspect this was due to the elevator portion of the haunt, which took up a good deal of the entire five minute length.
We were actually asked how much we thought a good price would be, and we came up with $20, given that the haunt was similar in style and length to the former Dream Reapers haunt that closed down in 2012. We might even say $25 at the high end, but certainly no more than that. We noticed when writing this review that the price for admission actually went down BEFORE the haunt season was over, which is a good sin that the operators are at least taking visitor comments into account.
Although CarnEvil has a lot to offer, there is room for improvement. We've be interested in seeing it again, but it all depends on the pricing for next year.
The last section had some excellent slaughterhouse sets, some including full length life size pig carcasses hanging from the ceiling, and also had some standout acting. There was a pig-faced character with chainsaw who didn't speak but simply gestured excitedly at visitors, and a crazy cannibal offering people chicken as they left. He even offered Horror Tourer Paul a bite of his rubber chicken, which Paul gladly accepted!
As a further note, there was lots of wait entertainment to be had, featuring a wide variety of actors in various costumes. We spotted a few clowns and even a ghoulish baseball player who offered to use peoples' head for hitting practice. All of the actors remained in character throughout, even when not interacting with visitors.
Overall, we enjoyed CarnEvil but felt it was a bit too short and a bit too pricey, especially for a first year haunt. We also felt that patron flow into the Doll House was very slow, with too much time between groups. We suspect this was due to the elevator portion of the haunt, which took up a good deal of the entire five minute length.
We were actually asked how much we thought a good price would be, and we came up with $20, given that the haunt was similar in style and length to the former Dream Reapers haunt that closed down in 2012. We might even say $25 at the high end, but certainly no more than that. We noticed when writing this review that the price for admission actually went down BEFORE the haunt season was over, which is a good sin that the operators are at least taking visitor comments into account.
Although CarnEvil has a lot to offer, there is room for improvement. We've be interested in seeing it again, but it all depends on the pricing for next year.