Route 129 and Kankakee road, Godley, IL 60407
years: 2012
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Commentary
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In our experience, the small town nature of some haunted houses really adds to their atmosphere, so we were looking forward to seeing how The Harvest of Horrors was put together. The visit started out very well, as we found ourselves experiencing some of the stereotypical horror movie tropes before we even found the haunt. The route that our GPS took us had us traveling down a long, empty stretch of road, with railroad tracks to our right. No one was out, either on our side of the road or the other, and there was a misty fog rolling across the road from beyond the railroad tracks. We found ourselves hearing the theme from Halloween in our heads as it was very reminiscent of the scene from the original move where Doctor Loomis approaches the mental asylum to pick up Michael Meyers.
It got even more horror movie like when our GPS announced that we had reached our destination, yet we found ourselves at a four-way stop, complete with blinking red light on an overhead wire. However, there was no barn to be found, only a small local bar to our right and that, too, appeared to be pretty sparsely inhabited. We thought about furthering the horror movie scenario by stopping in the bar and asking for directions (probably to get stared at by all of the locals), but we thought better of it. As we turned around, we noticed a flashing blue light in the distance. Since there was nothing else around we took a chance that that might be the place. It turned out that we were correct.
The haunted "barn" in the haunt title turned out to be the equipment shed for the Godley Public Works Department, and the flashing light turned out to be coming from a graveyard setup. So far, all looked pretty cool. We paid for our tickets at a small trailer literally in the middle of a cornfield, and then went on a short haunted hayride through the cornfield, where we were chased by several ghouls with chainsaws. Overall it wasn't that scary, but the actors were into it and it came with the price of admission, so it was decently good.
Once the hayride was over we were on the way into the haunt itself. On the way in we passed the graveyard setup, which had an actor dressed in a long white gown simply "floating" in and out of the tombstones. It was very effective display, and it distracted us from the live actor who emerged out of the haunt, made up as a zombie and dragging an axe on the ground. He shambled right up to us before we even knew it. He turned out to be our "guide" into the haunt, although he was more for a foreboding presence over our shoulder than anything else.
The first room of the haunt itself was a bar scene, with a series of tables, a crazy bartender, and a victim impaled in the middle of the table. the display featured walls halfway up, then chicken wire the rest of the way, which not only defined our route, but also allowed ghouls from the other side to taunt us. Thus, we knew what was coming when we had to round the corner and travel along the other side of the room.
We wound along the various corridors, encountering all sorts of ghouls, from demented patients, to a faceless shrouded figure to the axe-wielding zombie who led us in. All of the actors stayed in character and generated several good scares. All in all it was very effective, and excellent use was made of space. The final scene featured a medium-sized room with a crazy hillbilly type actor in front of the exit door. Not only was he in our face, but the door handle was camouflaged, so it was not easy to spot at first glance. All of this was done purposely so that another live actor, dressed in overalls and a pig mask and holding a chainsaw, could sneak up behind us - very well done and a nice end to the haunt.
We didn't know what to expect at the House of Horrors, but we were more than pleasantly surprised at what we found. The entire thing was superbly done, the small town atmosphere really added to the fun, all of the actors stayed in character throughout, the people running the haunt were friendly and genuinely interested in giving a good show, there were hot drinks and snacks for sale, and for the $5 price it couldn't be beat. We were very glad we made thr trip and we will definitely be back again!
It got even more horror movie like when our GPS announced that we had reached our destination, yet we found ourselves at a four-way stop, complete with blinking red light on an overhead wire. However, there was no barn to be found, only a small local bar to our right and that, too, appeared to be pretty sparsely inhabited. We thought about furthering the horror movie scenario by stopping in the bar and asking for directions (probably to get stared at by all of the locals), but we thought better of it. As we turned around, we noticed a flashing blue light in the distance. Since there was nothing else around we took a chance that that might be the place. It turned out that we were correct.
The haunted "barn" in the haunt title turned out to be the equipment shed for the Godley Public Works Department, and the flashing light turned out to be coming from a graveyard setup. So far, all looked pretty cool. We paid for our tickets at a small trailer literally in the middle of a cornfield, and then went on a short haunted hayride through the cornfield, where we were chased by several ghouls with chainsaws. Overall it wasn't that scary, but the actors were into it and it came with the price of admission, so it was decently good.
Once the hayride was over we were on the way into the haunt itself. On the way in we passed the graveyard setup, which had an actor dressed in a long white gown simply "floating" in and out of the tombstones. It was very effective display, and it distracted us from the live actor who emerged out of the haunt, made up as a zombie and dragging an axe on the ground. He shambled right up to us before we even knew it. He turned out to be our "guide" into the haunt, although he was more for a foreboding presence over our shoulder than anything else.
The first room of the haunt itself was a bar scene, with a series of tables, a crazy bartender, and a victim impaled in the middle of the table. the display featured walls halfway up, then chicken wire the rest of the way, which not only defined our route, but also allowed ghouls from the other side to taunt us. Thus, we knew what was coming when we had to round the corner and travel along the other side of the room.
We wound along the various corridors, encountering all sorts of ghouls, from demented patients, to a faceless shrouded figure to the axe-wielding zombie who led us in. All of the actors stayed in character and generated several good scares. All in all it was very effective, and excellent use was made of space. The final scene featured a medium-sized room with a crazy hillbilly type actor in front of the exit door. Not only was he in our face, but the door handle was camouflaged, so it was not easy to spot at first glance. All of this was done purposely so that another live actor, dressed in overalls and a pig mask and holding a chainsaw, could sneak up behind us - very well done and a nice end to the haunt.
We didn't know what to expect at the House of Horrors, but we were more than pleasantly surprised at what we found. The entire thing was superbly done, the small town atmosphere really added to the fun, all of the actors stayed in character throughout, the people running the haunt were friendly and genuinely interested in giving a good show, there were hot drinks and snacks for sale, and for the $5 price it couldn't be beat. We were very glad we made thr trip and we will definitely be back again!