5555 State Road, Burbank, IL
years: 2009-2011
The Scare on State is a small pay haunt located at a church hall in Burbank, IL. The Tourers have been here several years in a row, although it did not seem to be operating in 2012. It's possible we simply missed it. Hopefully it will be back in 2013.
This particular haunt features a guide that follows behind visitors and keeps them in line and moving. We have seen this type of thing at other haunts, and usually the guide may be in costume, but doesn't necessarily play a character. At Scare on State it's slightly different. For instance, our guide in 2011 carried a cool lantern, didn't speak, and wore a glowing doll's head face mask - this added immensely to the experience, as we could see him at the back of the room, just standing there watching us as we went through. Knowing someone is there behind you really ups the creep factor. The haunt is inside a church hall basement, which provides lots of space, most of which was put to good use. The first major room we got to was also our favorite - it featured a bedroom with a sleeping figure, along with a living room set with a young girl asleep in front of the TV, which was showing static. The rhyme from "Nightmare on Elm Street" - "One, two, Freddy's coming for you..." was playing in the background, so we knew what we might be in store for. However, it wasn't a live actor that jumped out at us. Instead, the music cut off suddenly, the lights turned red, and Freddy's hand appeared to come out of the wall and descend onto the sleeping figure on the bed - a nice twist on the traditional Freddy Krueger setup. Also very cool was a long corridor lit by antique lamps, each glowing a deep amber color and illuminating various creepy portraits on the wall. Other rooms featured an electric chair, a ghoul with a spark generator scraping against metal, a large dark room where ghouls came out of each corner at you, and a polka dot room populated with ghouls who blended in very well with the surroundings. Overall, the haunt took about 15-20 minutes, and for being populated with younger teens it was very well done. As mentioned, the guide also added a lot to the proceedings. We liked it so much we decided to go a second time when our fellow tourer James was present. Unfortunately the second time was not as good - the Freddy arm prop was broken, so the effect didn't work, the guide was different, and there were very few actors present. However, since this is obviously a volunteer haunt, things like this are sometimes to be expected. |
This haunt would be good for those with older children (over 10 or so), or those looking for an entertaining haunt that isn't too scary and not gory at all. It's not the best we've seen, but it's decent for what it is (good length, decent actor enthusiasm, decent use of space), and for $6 (if you mention Haunted Illinois) it's worth a look, especially if you combine it with the other great haunts in the Burbank area, like Frightmare or The Nephilim.