900 Grace Street, Elgin, IL
years: 2013
Note: Evil Intentions does not allow photos inside.
Evil Intentions is a pay haunt located in Elgin, Illinois. The Tourers first visited this haunt in 2012 and were very impressed with its foreboding atmosphere and creepy scenes. The haunt is located in an actual abandoned casket factory building, which alone adds to the creepiness factor. However, there is much more to the haunt than just that. Gloomy red lighting and Satanic imagery greet the visitors, and from the outside the haunt building looks as though something evil is happening within. Once inside, visitors enter the haunt through a set of sliding doors, and their clown host welcomes them to their doom. From that point, Evil Intentions is a maze of twisty corridors, loud music that plays in various odd patterns, strobe lights, and detailed set pieces. Sets include a toxic waste area in the basement, complete with dripping water sounds and the smell of oil, a morgue, a surgery, some creepy clowns in a playroom, and a strange set featuring a cased creature with a man’s body and a horse’s head who grunts and whines while making sparks fly by running some type of metal object against his cage -very unusual and unsettling. Groups are purposely kept apart so that they do not encounter anyone else within the haunt. Overall, this works very well and increases the feeling of being alone and abandoned in some evil nightmare. One clever room sees visitors go down into the basement and through a couple of sets with no one in them. However, a surprise lurks in the corridor, and the empty sets are there to lull visitors into a false sense of security before they have to run for the exit! The exit really isn't the end, though. It's simply a way to get to the next portion of the haunt. After walking along a small outside section, visitors approach a set of church doors. Inside is a funeral or wake setup that looks like it is out of the 1930's or so. Garbled Satanic voices play from speakers all around, mumbling in a language that cannot be understood, all of which tends to get the hairs on one’s arms standing up. |
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Following the entryway, visitors wind up in a dark room where a live actor waits to jump out, as well as to guide them to the next room, which is by far the most unsettling in the entire place. The room features a black mass setup, with low lighting, flickering candles, chanting, and at least a dozen full size dark hooded figures. Visitors must navigate through the figures to find the door, which is not hidden, but it not obvious either. The low light and shadows make it very difficult to know if any of the figures are real or not, and the unsettling atmosphere makes you not want to find out. This room has such an unsettling vibe about it that visitors find themselves looking for the exit just to get the heck out of there!. It also really fits in well with the demonic theme running throughout the haunt.
Following this room is a maze of bloody rags. While navigating the maze, visitors are accosted from above by a long-haired female ghoul who rips the bloody sheets aside and stares down as visitors go by - most unsettling.. Following this, there is a smaller female ghoul in Victorian dress, who was able to contort her body into various odd positions. As visitors pass by, the female ghoul runs back and forth through various areas, always just a bit out of direct sight of anyone. However, the presence is still felt. A female actor dressed as a victim implores visitors to leave, as "she" will get them if they do not. After some twists and turns, there is an inflatable passageway, at the end of which is the female ghoul, , waiting, arched backwards, with her head upside down with her eyes were staring up from underneath us, holding her severed doll’s head. Creepy!
Evil Intentions ticks all of the Horror Tourers boxes for a quality haunt - it has very effective use of space, some creative scenes, lots of props, highly enthusiastic actors, and a high scare factor. All of these combine for a truly eerie experience. We see a lot of haunts, and not many are truly creepy throughout. Most have a mix of scary and funny, or simply startlng. Evil Intentions, on the other hand, is foreboding and gloomy from start to finish, and feels as though you have just mistakenly trespassed into somewhere you should not be. This was a haunt that tries to freak visitors out . It offered a few very unusual and creepy surprises, and gave us Tourers a lot to talk about on the way home!
Following this room is a maze of bloody rags. While navigating the maze, visitors are accosted from above by a long-haired female ghoul who rips the bloody sheets aside and stares down as visitors go by - most unsettling.. Following this, there is a smaller female ghoul in Victorian dress, who was able to contort her body into various odd positions. As visitors pass by, the female ghoul runs back and forth through various areas, always just a bit out of direct sight of anyone. However, the presence is still felt. A female actor dressed as a victim implores visitors to leave, as "she" will get them if they do not. After some twists and turns, there is an inflatable passageway, at the end of which is the female ghoul, , waiting, arched backwards, with her head upside down with her eyes were staring up from underneath us, holding her severed doll’s head. Creepy!
Evil Intentions ticks all of the Horror Tourers boxes for a quality haunt - it has very effective use of space, some creative scenes, lots of props, highly enthusiastic actors, and a high scare factor. All of these combine for a truly eerie experience. We see a lot of haunts, and not many are truly creepy throughout. Most have a mix of scary and funny, or simply startlng. Evil Intentions, on the other hand, is foreboding and gloomy from start to finish, and feels as though you have just mistakenly trespassed into somewhere you should not be. This was a haunt that tries to freak visitors out . It offered a few very unusual and creepy surprises, and gave us Tourers a lot to talk about on the way home!