900 Grace Street, Elgin, IL
year: 2015
As we have mentioned before, perhaps the only haunted house we’ve been to that really gives us the creeps is Evil Intentions in Elgin. Housed in an abandoned casket factory, the haunt goes more for intense creepiness than for humor or more tongue in cheek scares, and it does so quite well. The atmosphere of the building is quite eerie on its own, and the actors and scenes only add to that. Not only is the haunt held in an abandoned casket factory (which is creepy enough), it is also said to be haunted (naturally), with several sections of the haunt supposedly being known for their paranormal activity.
Of course, there are numerous haunts that claim to be actually haunted (as it’s a nice bit of lore to add to the allure of a location), but the Evil Intentions crew insists that their ghost tales are more than just PR. And to prove it, Evil Intentions offers ghost tours of the building combined with an actual ghost hunt so that visitors can actually (possibly) experience what they are talking about. Currently, Evil Intentions offers two ghost tours –a three hour one and a six hour one. We Horror Tourers were lucky enough to be invited to sample the three hour version this past weekend, and although we personally didn’t experience anything, we certainly had a great time exploring and learning about the haunt behind the haunt! In the past, we have been on ghost hunts where the organizers of the hunt really didn’t make us feel welcome at all – it was as if they were part of a private group and we were just observers. Thus, we approached the event with a bit of trepidation about how we’d be welcomed. We’re happy to say that our concerns were alleviated almost immediately upon stepping in the door. We were warmly greeted by the organizers of the ghost hunt and we treated as full participants throughout the entire evening. We found ourselves wanting to stay after it was all over, despite our long drive home. The waiting area for the ghost hunt was in a large living room like setting, with couches and a big screen TV. While waiting, we were entertained by watching some videos and by taking a look at some of the photos taken on previous ghost hunts. We were also told some stories about the building and given a rundown of how the night would go. First there would be a tour and then we’d break into groups and try to find some ghosts ourselves. The tour portion lasted almost an hour, and we were taken through the entire building and shown some of the spots where previous ghost hunts and some psychics have experiences paranormal activity, which ranged from feelings of dread, to being touched, scratched, having burning sensations, and also locations where odd things have shown up in photos. Our guides explained to us the stories associated with each location, which were a mix of historical reports, personal experiences, and psychic interpretations. These stories ranged from tales of bar fights that went to far to tales of murder and rape, to stories of Indian burial grounds and strange entities that inhabit certain locations of the building, all liberally sprinkled with bits of actual building history and a disclaimer that some of stories are hard to verify, given their age and the difficulties in sorting through poor or nonexistent records. Whether or not one believes in the supernatural, the stories were entertaining and honestly told by our guides, and it was clear to us that they indeed though something was present in the building and weren’t simply embellishing things for our benefit. Following the tour, the group retired to the living room area to warm up (it’s awfully cold in the actual building, and Friday night was a chilly 17 degrees) and then we broke into two groups, each armed with some ghost hunting equipment and tasked with investigating a specific area of the haunt building. |
MAP
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Our group started out in the “Left for Dead” area (we’ll leave it to your imagination as to why it’s called that), which is not a section of the building that is part of the regular Evil Intentions haunt. We spent about 30-40 minutes in this location attempting to contact spirits, and then we moved on to another location, the “Church Room”, which is an actual haunt setting. This is the same location that a number of members of the Horror Tourers experienced some of our creepiest feelings over the years that we’ve been going to Evil Intentions. This location is also supposedly an area of paranormal activity. While we did not experience anything while we were there, the other group there that night did, with one of their group experiencing a burning sensation on his leg after asking if there was a presence in the room. Additionally, security cameras that were running captured a light turning off by itself in this same area when no one was present.
Again, your mileage (and belief in such things) may vary, but regardless of any of that, the entire experience was a good time and definitely not something one does every day. The organizers were friendly, welcoming, and enthusiastic, and it was most enjoyable seeing some of the behind the scenes parts of Evil Intentions. If you’re interested in doing something different in a haunt and you need something to do during the long wait until Halloween season, Evil Intentions Ghost Tours may just be the thing for you. The only minor issue we had with the tour was its cost, which is $75 for the three hour version. This might be a bit high, given that one can go on ghost tours of similar length (albeit not ghost "hunts" as in this case) for about $35-$45. It is a bit pricey, but it's still worth going at least once, if only to say you did! If you don’t experience anything you’ll still have a good time, and if you do, you can add your personal story to the growing list of paranormal activity stories at the old Elgin Casket Company.
Again, your mileage (and belief in such things) may vary, but regardless of any of that, the entire experience was a good time and definitely not something one does every day. The organizers were friendly, welcoming, and enthusiastic, and it was most enjoyable seeing some of the behind the scenes parts of Evil Intentions. If you’re interested in doing something different in a haunt and you need something to do during the long wait until Halloween season, Evil Intentions Ghost Tours may just be the thing for you. The only minor issue we had with the tour was its cost, which is $75 for the three hour version. This might be a bit high, given that one can go on ghost tours of similar length (albeit not ghost "hunts" as in this case) for about $35-$45. It is a bit pricey, but it's still worth going at least once, if only to say you did! If you don’t experience anything you’ll still have a good time, and if you do, you can add your personal story to the growing list of paranormal activity stories at the old Elgin Casket Company.