At Eleventh Hour, 1940 George Street, Melrose Park, IL
year: 2014
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Commentary |
While there were a few of these, they consisted mainly of
literal "boo!" type popouts from the darkness with little variation.
Thus, it got old very quickly. In some areas, it was so dark that even
the popouts were not effective, as people couldn't even see a silhouette
of an actor, so only the sounds they made were of any use in terms of
being scary.
To add one more thing to the mix, the lack of light made us more concerned with accidentally tripping and falling over something than with actually looking around. While we understand that this comes with the blackout experience, it really does detract from any haunt fun in our view. However, even leaving that aside, there was little to see, and as a result after about five minutes were were anxious to get to the exit and leave.
However, even this small goal was difficult to achieve, as we wound up getting lost a couple of times and navigating the same section of the haunt more than once. Additionally, the last section of the haunt consists of nothing but dark walls and bars that visitors must navigate through. While this portion normally has some light, this time it had none (other than the ambient light of the area itself - it was easy enough to see ahead of you for the most part, but not enough to see the "big picture"). This resulted in endless retreading of the same area over and over, only to run into numerous dead ends. We ran into the same groups of people several times as well, all of whom were also lost and simply looking for the exit. It was dull, boring, frustrating, and probably a few more adjectives we could mention, but one thing it specifically was NOT was fun. Nor was it scary or entertaining. To be blunt, it was $22 and about 45 minutes that we'll never get back.
Perhaps if there were more them specific scares, or if the pathways were easy to navigate so visitors could concentrate solely on the scares then it might have been better (for example, it would have been interesting to walk along a lit path through a dark room while actors jumped out and lit up their faces with flashlights or something). As it was, though, it was simply a walk through the Eleventh Hour with no light.
To be fair, we can't lay blame for this event at the feet of the Eleventh Hour. This event is a "canned" event that haunts can put on easily in order to make some extra dollars during the off season. The Eleventh Hour owners didn't come up with this theme, no do we assume were they associated with the specific elements (the blackout, the glow sticks, etc). Also, we wouldn't expect the owners to rearrange their existing sets for a one off event, either, so we can't complain about any of those things. Overall, though, we feel this entire event was a bit of a misfire and had us wishing for it to be over, which very rarely happens on our haunt visits. We would definitely not go to this again, which makes it even better that it was only a one time thing.
I (Bryan) also give a half a chainsaw for the Valentine Bear, who was a cool character, and a creepy clown who, since we was all in white was more visible than others, and half a star for one corridor set which appeared normal under flickering lights and then glowed in the dark when the lights went out.)
To add one more thing to the mix, the lack of light made us more concerned with accidentally tripping and falling over something than with actually looking around. While we understand that this comes with the blackout experience, it really does detract from any haunt fun in our view. However, even leaving that aside, there was little to see, and as a result after about five minutes were were anxious to get to the exit and leave.
However, even this small goal was difficult to achieve, as we wound up getting lost a couple of times and navigating the same section of the haunt more than once. Additionally, the last section of the haunt consists of nothing but dark walls and bars that visitors must navigate through. While this portion normally has some light, this time it had none (other than the ambient light of the area itself - it was easy enough to see ahead of you for the most part, but not enough to see the "big picture"). This resulted in endless retreading of the same area over and over, only to run into numerous dead ends. We ran into the same groups of people several times as well, all of whom were also lost and simply looking for the exit. It was dull, boring, frustrating, and probably a few more adjectives we could mention, but one thing it specifically was NOT was fun. Nor was it scary or entertaining. To be blunt, it was $22 and about 45 minutes that we'll never get back.
Perhaps if there were more them specific scares, or if the pathways were easy to navigate so visitors could concentrate solely on the scares then it might have been better (for example, it would have been interesting to walk along a lit path through a dark room while actors jumped out and lit up their faces with flashlights or something). As it was, though, it was simply a walk through the Eleventh Hour with no light.
To be fair, we can't lay blame for this event at the feet of the Eleventh Hour. This event is a "canned" event that haunts can put on easily in order to make some extra dollars during the off season. The Eleventh Hour owners didn't come up with this theme, no do we assume were they associated with the specific elements (the blackout, the glow sticks, etc). Also, we wouldn't expect the owners to rearrange their existing sets for a one off event, either, so we can't complain about any of those things. Overall, though, we feel this entire event was a bit of a misfire and had us wishing for it to be over, which very rarely happens on our haunt visits. We would definitely not go to this again, which makes it even better that it was only a one time thing.
I (Bryan) also give a half a chainsaw for the Valentine Bear, who was a cool character, and a creepy clown who, since we was all in white was more visible than others, and half a star for one corridor set which appeared normal under flickering lights and then glowed in the dark when the lights went out.)