400 S. Water Street, Batavia, IL
year: 2013
The list of brand new haunts for the Tourers seems to be endless. Here's another one that cropped up for us in 2013 - it's the Haunted Quarry in Batavia. As with many haunts, this was one that was on our list before but that we never got to. However, we made a point of going out there in 2013 and it was well worth it.
Unusually, this haunt featured both inside and outside spaces that visitors alternated between. It was held in some park district buildings that were not connected, so visitors went from building to building via a series of outdoor trails that also had haunted scenes interspersed among them. It was a very effective use of oddly configured space, and also made the haunt longer and gave it some additional variety. Each of the buidings contained numerous live actors and scenes, including the first scene which gave us the sight of a live actor with another, smaller live actor on their back, both in costume and jumping out at visitors - not something we see every day! There was a cool scene set in a small building that looked like an abandomed animal testing facility - as visitors looked at the various animal (and some human) remains, a live actor lunged at them from inside a cage concealed beneath a desk - the set details served as a great distraction to preserve the scare. There was also the final building, which kept us guessing for a bit. The last portion of the haunt required us to walk along a series of life size bodies in dark hoods. There were about 10 of them, and it was hard to tell if any of them were real or not. One thing that made us especially unsure was their shoes - some of the bodies had colorful gym shoes, just the type that real younger people (who made up most of the actors in this haunt) might wear in real life. It turns out none were real, but the entire thing kept us guessing until the very end!
As mentioned, in between the buidlings were various trails full of actors, as well as some scenes, such as a campground being terrorized by Mike Myers (complete with screaming, pleading victim that followed us), a coupld of actors dresses as death who skulked in the background but who got slowly closer as we proceeded from scene to scene, and even a strange pig-headed guy in a toxic waste dump. Odd., but interesting. And speaking of Mike Myers, this haunt had not one, but two of him, played by two different actors. One terrorized the campers and the other started terrorizing us in a later section. Always a plus to see Mike Myers, and to see him twice doubled the fun. The haunt was populated by mostly younger children, most of them probably under 15, so it was not as scary to use as it might otherwise have been, but it was still quite entertaining. The combination of inside and outside portions, the variety of scenes, the enthusiasm of the actors, and just the overall cleverness of each part really made for a fun experience, and that's part of what we Tourers look for. This is one that we'd definitely do again, and it's also good for families, too, as it's night high on gore at all. If you're more into fun scares rather than in your face ones, check this one out. |
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