11173 Dundee ROAD, HUNTLEY, IL
Year: 2015
A brand new haunt for the Tourers, which is always exciting as you never know what to expect. This time around we were a bit disappointed, despite enjoying the haunt. Sounds odd, right? Well read on to find out why.
Located in Huntley, the Keep is a brand new haunt that encompasses a number of different, random scenes, and relies on old fashioned scares instead of elaborate sets and props. Much of the haunt is very simplistic, with few props in each scene and walls made out of garbage bag covered panels, and with scares consisting mostly of the "pop out and startle" variety. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with simplicity, though, and we managed to enjoy some of the scenes for what they were. Although rather spartan in terms of sets, the Keep did actually have a decent amount of animated props, including some odd ones, like a yeti in a cage, a giant pig head, and what looked like a giant lobster coming out of a cave. We can honestly say that we've never seen anything quite like those in other haunts. Actors, too, were few and far between, and included a pig-face guy that greeted us, a cowboy like figure with a hangman's noose, and a guy who had Jason's mask and Freddy's glove on in sort of a combo 80's horror movie character thing. Our favorite actor was inside a large prop with glowing eyes and huge hands that came out of a wall. It had a female voice and was pretty cool looking. All of the actors were somewhat tongue in cheek in their scares, as if they knew they weren't all that scary. For example, the Freddy/Jason guy told us he killed them both to get their costumes, and in one room there was a guy dressed like a rock monster or a big tree that "talked" to us by using his hand to move the mouth. The funny thing was that he was using a flashlight to light his movements and mad no secret of the fact that we could see his hand moving the mouth. It was blatantly obvious, and hilarious in its own way, like this guy was told to put the costume on and "act" even though he didn't really want to. This, kind of thing, coupled with some of the odd props inside, made for an entertaining haunt in an odd sort of way. It had a very casual vibe, as if a bunch of friends were sitting around one day and and someone said "hey, let's build a haunted house!" and it happened. The part where the Keep fell down for us was in the length. Although some scenes were unusual and the actors gave us some laughs, the haunt was very short, clocking in at only five minutes. As they were charging $18 to get in (and $25 for VIP), that was way too short for the money. At most, for the five minute length, $8 or $10 would be appropriate. Again, while we did enjoy some of the things that were in the Keep, it's really not scary, nor is there a lot of visual interest. It's fun as something different, or if you like your haunts tinged with some comedy, but it's simply not a good value for the amount of money that they are charging. |
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