1940 George Street, Melrose Park, IL
year: 2013
Eleventh Hour has always been a bit of a tradition for the Horror Tourers. It is usually one of the haunts, if not THE haunt that we visit on the first haunting weekend of the season. As such, it's always a nice kickoff event for us that starts us off with a bang and sets the tone for the rest of the season. It would have been the case in 2013 as well, but problems with their new setup meant opening weekend was delayed by a week, so we wound up visiting Eleventh Hour during our second weekend of haunt visits.
As mentioned, Eleventh Hour moved to a new, larger location for 2013. We had seen some photos of the setup, and some of the sets were very elaborate, so we were naturally quite excited to visit and see the entire thing. What we found was a bit of a mixed blessing - some great new sets, but a theme that left a few things to be desired. In recent years, Eleventh Hour has featured three haunts and a corn maze, with the corn maze usually coming first. The three haunts consisted of a house portion, a crypt portion, and then a dark maze/open portion featuring creepy clowns and other freakshow type entertainment. At their new location, all of these three haunts have been grouped into one, with some new sets being added on the front end. The good news is that the new sets are very elaborate, with the best being a huge, life size street scene. It is extremely detailed, featuring sidewalks, streetlights, porches, various building types, and even fire hydrants. This area is followed by a large open mausoleum/crypt set. with giant tombstones, skull covered walls, coffins, and various other props. These, and other new sets such as some wooden bridges and a zombie lair, are an excellent addition to the previous Eleventh Hour sets which follow. The bad news, which we got when we heard the "rules" of the haunt, was that the primary theme of the new Eleventh Hour was a zombie one. While we don't mind zombies, the impression we got was that the entire thing would be a zombie "zoo", with zombies in cages or simply walking around amongst people. While we're happy to say that's not all it was, it still did feature a lot of zombies, and there is really only so much you can do with that theme. One of the good uses of the zombies was to feature them coming at visitors when walking along the street scene. It was very well done, and the sets were so realistic that it did seem like a scene from a movie, which was excellent. We were also happy to see that the major portions of the old Eleventh Hour house were still present. One of the things we always loved about Eleventh Hour was their set design, and the new location preserves it. We enjoy looking at the details and the set dressings as much as we enjoy the actor performances, so we were happy to note that this was not lost in the move to the new place. There were also some very clever actors inside, including a panic stricken "victim" who incessantly talked to visitors, advising them on how to act like a zombie so the real ones wouldn't notice them. He babbled on and on, following visitors through the entire section he was in. When I (Bryan) walked by him, he kept telling me to "do the walk", so I started dragging my foot like a zombie. He, in turn, congratulated me and kept giving me guidance on how to make it even better. It was a nice touch. |
Commentary 1
Commentary 2
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Another cool actor was a shirtless guy in overalls who had a high-pitched, childlike voice that sounded like Adam Sandler in The Waterboy. He kept following us, whispering things like "ooh, I wonder what happens in here" and "oooh, that doesn't sound good" and other funny comments. Good stuff!
The bad parts included an "elevator" ride that was simply an exercise in frustration due to the fact that too many people were packed into it, and the final portion of the haunt, which simply consisted of large walls and bars that people had to navigate through. There were few actors here, so it wound up simply being an exercise in finding the correct way out., which, for us, gets old really quickly.
One other point we have to mention, although this was not the haunt's fault - part of the lights were out, making it hard for use to see some of the new sets, and causing us to get lost a couple of times. We lost Laura, and even inadvertently found ourselves inside a portion of the haunt used by the actors. This was ultimately to our benefit, though, as it helped us find the way out of the final maze bit.
Overall, we'd have to say that the 2013 experience at Eleventh Hour was not up to the level of our previous visits. Even with the great new sets, the theme seemed to leave something to be desired, and the layout was not as enjoyable as in years past. There just seemed to be something missing. It might have been teething troubles, though, and we're certain things will be better in 2014, when Eleventh Hour gets a new theme (which we won't reveal here - stay tuned)!
The bad parts included an "elevator" ride that was simply an exercise in frustration due to the fact that too many people were packed into it, and the final portion of the haunt, which simply consisted of large walls and bars that people had to navigate through. There were few actors here, so it wound up simply being an exercise in finding the correct way out., which, for us, gets old really quickly.
One other point we have to mention, although this was not the haunt's fault - part of the lights were out, making it hard for use to see some of the new sets, and causing us to get lost a couple of times. We lost Laura, and even inadvertently found ourselves inside a portion of the haunt used by the actors. This was ultimately to our benefit, though, as it helped us find the way out of the final maze bit.
Overall, we'd have to say that the 2013 experience at Eleventh Hour was not up to the level of our previous visits. Even with the great new sets, the theme seemed to leave something to be desired, and the layout was not as enjoyable as in years past. There just seemed to be something missing. It might have been teething troubles, though, and we're certain things will be better in 2014, when Eleventh Hour gets a new theme (which we won't reveal here - stay tuned)!