900 Grace Street, Elgin, IL
years: 2012
Evil Intentions was a new haunt for the Tourers in 2012. We happened to be visiting another haunt in the area, and since we had some extra time, we decided to give it a shot.
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The haunt promised some good scares, and since it was set in a for casket factory building, we thought it might be worth the time. We are glad report that it certainly was. To begin with, the entrance to the haunt takes you between two buildings, one of them being the casket factory, and just seeing the dilapidated nature of the building while being effectively alone is creepy and sets the mood rather well. Additionally, once we got our tickets we walked down a corridor shaped like a coffin - creepy and something we've never seen before!
Once inside, visitors are taken into the haunt via an elevator, then left on their own. A lot of the natural structure of the building is on display, which gives the haunt a more realistic feel, as if visitors have been abandoned in an old casket factory and left to fend for themselves. When we were there there were few visitors and not too many live actors. As a result, we wound up walking through mostly empty rooms and corridors, but again, the atmosphere was such that that alone was pretty unnerving.
Our favorite portion of the haunt came after we thought it was over. We exited the building into a courtyard, and we thought that this was the actual exit, but it turned out that the exit led through the courtyard and into another building. This particular building had a churchlike façade, complete with large double doors. Upon entering, we found ourselves in a kind of atrium, complete with a couple of caskets and some candles. There were no live actors to be seen, but the scenery itself made up for that.
After a short while, a live actor dressed as some sort of devil-like creature (complete with hairy legs and hooves) came into the room and beckoned us through another doorway. We found ourselves in a church scene, with pews, flowers, and candles. However, this was no ordinary church. For all intents and purposes it appeared to be simulating a Satanic ritual, and several large, hooded figures stood in various places throughout the scene.
Now, we have seen displays such as this before, and usually there is at least one live figure amongst the hooded figures that jumps out as you pass by. However, here we could not figure out if any of the figures was real or not, and that uncertainly upped our “creeped out” factor a great deal. Added to the creepiness was the fact that we didn’t see an exit door, only the door through which we entered. As we stood there, waiting for something to happen, the devil-like creature who had led us into the room came and stood in the doorway by which we entered, effectively blocking our escape. He said nothing, but rather simply stood there, watching us.
It is little things such as this that really impress us when we go to haunts. Having been touring for many years now, we have seen lots of different haunts, and many variations on the same types of scenes. As mentioned, a church scene is pretty common, so when something different is done with something do familiar it really stands out. A lot of people expect lots of scares in a haunt, usually in the form of someone jumping out at you or following you, but scares come in many different forms, and we find some of the most effective ones are the ones your mind creates for you. Scenes where the setting is detailed and one cannot tell if figures in the scene are real or not, coupled with live actors who “scare” simply by standing in the room are our favorite type of scares, and Evil Intentions had one of the best we’ve ever seen.
Frankly, we don’t recall much else from the haunt, but we certainly remember that church scene. We were talking about it for days. No guys with chainsaws, no gangs of ghouls yelling “get out!” – just a quiet, eerily lit, detailed set, some ambiguous figures, and one silent live actor was all it took to make our trip to Evil Intentions worthwhile. For those looking for a high creepiness factor, we’d highly recommend this haunt!
Once inside, visitors are taken into the haunt via an elevator, then left on their own. A lot of the natural structure of the building is on display, which gives the haunt a more realistic feel, as if visitors have been abandoned in an old casket factory and left to fend for themselves. When we were there there were few visitors and not too many live actors. As a result, we wound up walking through mostly empty rooms and corridors, but again, the atmosphere was such that that alone was pretty unnerving.
Our favorite portion of the haunt came after we thought it was over. We exited the building into a courtyard, and we thought that this was the actual exit, but it turned out that the exit led through the courtyard and into another building. This particular building had a churchlike façade, complete with large double doors. Upon entering, we found ourselves in a kind of atrium, complete with a couple of caskets and some candles. There were no live actors to be seen, but the scenery itself made up for that.
After a short while, a live actor dressed as some sort of devil-like creature (complete with hairy legs and hooves) came into the room and beckoned us through another doorway. We found ourselves in a church scene, with pews, flowers, and candles. However, this was no ordinary church. For all intents and purposes it appeared to be simulating a Satanic ritual, and several large, hooded figures stood in various places throughout the scene.
Now, we have seen displays such as this before, and usually there is at least one live figure amongst the hooded figures that jumps out as you pass by. However, here we could not figure out if any of the figures was real or not, and that uncertainly upped our “creeped out” factor a great deal. Added to the creepiness was the fact that we didn’t see an exit door, only the door through which we entered. As we stood there, waiting for something to happen, the devil-like creature who had led us into the room came and stood in the doorway by which we entered, effectively blocking our escape. He said nothing, but rather simply stood there, watching us.
It is little things such as this that really impress us when we go to haunts. Having been touring for many years now, we have seen lots of different haunts, and many variations on the same types of scenes. As mentioned, a church scene is pretty common, so when something different is done with something do familiar it really stands out. A lot of people expect lots of scares in a haunt, usually in the form of someone jumping out at you or following you, but scares come in many different forms, and we find some of the most effective ones are the ones your mind creates for you. Scenes where the setting is detailed and one cannot tell if figures in the scene are real or not, coupled with live actors who “scare” simply by standing in the room are our favorite type of scares, and Evil Intentions had one of the best we’ve ever seen.
Frankly, we don’t recall much else from the haunt, but we certainly remember that church scene. We were talking about it for days. No guys with chainsaws, no gangs of ghouls yelling “get out!” – just a quiet, eerily lit, detailed set, some ambiguous figures, and one silent live actor was all it took to make our trip to Evil Intentions worthwhile. For those looking for a high creepiness factor, we’d highly recommend this haunt!