8240 N. Austin Avenue, Morton Grove, IL
Year: 2015
A new haunt for the Tourers this Season in a location of a favorite former haunt. This one's called House of Torment and it's located in the former home of Fear City/Fables Studios in Morton Grove. House of Torment is a sister haunt to 13th Floor, which opened last year in Melrose Park. Thus, we approached this one with some excitement and trepidation, knowing that 13th Floor was a bit of a disappointment for us last year.
We're happy to say, though, that House of Torment did a very good job at both utilizing the space and sets of the old Fear City while at the same time creating their own new haunt sections within the setup, making for a good first year haunt that has the potential to grow. Although called House of Torment, much of the haunt really didn't deal with a house, but rather used many of the standing Fear City sets which depict outdoor areas and parts of a hospital/lab. We happen to be fans of the former Fear City setup, so the set reutilization didn't really bother us (as the sets are quite good), and we can see why House of Torment might want to reuse them to keep startup costs down. As a result, the haunt was a combination of older sets, such as the aformentioned street scenes, hospital, and a recreation of the CTA Red Line, complete with ticket booths and full size subway car, (which was a highlight of Fear City for us), along with new sets including various rooms in a house which were all highly detailed (such as a parlor decorated with hanging lights and umbrellas and birdcages suspended from the ceiling, a room filled with cheesy 60s, 70s, and 80s paintings and photos, and other areas filled with garbage and stacked household items). Also new were scenes set in an abandoned school, with detailed classrooms, bathrooms, locker rooms, and even a long hallways decorated with faded posters asking for votes for class president. The sets went a long way towards immersing visitors into the environment, with our favorite set being a library filled with bookshelves through which an actor stalked us as we navigated our way out. Aside form these areas, House of Torment also reused Fear City sets which formerly featured scenes depicting Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead (including skeletal Mariachis and glowing psychadelic paintings on the walls) and a former voodoo shack scene which remained largely intact. Clever items in these areas included a room decorated in black and white spirals which looked like solid walls, but through which actors could (and did) reach towards visitors, and a hallway with a live actor dressed as a statue who, contrary to what might be expected, did NOT come alive as visitors passed by, but rather who came through the wall into another section after visitors has passed into another room. In general the actors did tend to be a bit samey, though, with most acting as zombies throughout. There also didn't seem to be a lot of them, as several would jump out and scare only to wind their way into another scene and scare again. Costuming was mostly makeup, without any detailed prosthetics or elaborate clothing.
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CommentaryMAP
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The haunt was divided into two sections, with the first being primarily old Fear City sets and the second containing more new locations. Visitors exited the first haunt and were led to the second by a guide. The length of both combined was about 23 minutes, with 13 for the first and 10 for the second. Overall, we enjoyed House of Torment, probably because a lot of it utilized the sets we loved from Fear City. The actors were decent, if lacking in variation, and the length was very good and on the longer end for haunts of this nature.
A good first year effort, and one we hope manages to incorporate more actors and more new sets in future years, especially given the somewhat high entry prices. We got our tickets as a special $13 deal, but normal prices are $25 plus a $2 processing fee, plus about $2.50 in taxes, bringing the total for General Admission to almost $30, and it's between $2 and $4 more depending on the day of the week you visit. Add $10 for a fast lane pass and $20 to skip the lines entirely and we're talking some serious money for the haunt. Our advice is to go for the general admission and get there before they open, or look for deals on Living Social or Groupon. There's also a $5 off coupon that you get if you visit 13th Floor, House of Torment's sister haunt. We'll give House of Torment four out of five chainsaws for quality, but factoring in the price tag might bring that down a bit.
A good first year effort, and one we hope manages to incorporate more actors and more new sets in future years, especially given the somewhat high entry prices. We got our tickets as a special $13 deal, but normal prices are $25 plus a $2 processing fee, plus about $2.50 in taxes, bringing the total for General Admission to almost $30, and it's between $2 and $4 more depending on the day of the week you visit. Add $10 for a fast lane pass and $20 to skip the lines entirely and we're talking some serious money for the haunt. Our advice is to go for the general admission and get there before they open, or look for deals on Living Social or Groupon. There's also a $5 off coupon that you get if you visit 13th Floor, House of Torment's sister haunt. We'll give House of Torment four out of five chainsaws for quality, but factoring in the price tag might bring that down a bit.