At Eleventh Hour, 1940 George Street, Melrose Park, IL

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year: 2014
tourers: bryan, Laura
costs:  $22
Chainsaws: 1/5

Valentine X was a special Valentine's Day weekend haunted experience held at Eleventh Hour Haunted House in Melrose Park. Basically, the theme concerned a boyfriend who killed is cheating girlfriend and her lover, who then became a serial killer. This unofficial "mascot" of Valentine X was represented by an actor in a tuxedo and a creepy teddy bear mask, holding a knife, who apparently would appear throughout the haunt.

Additionally, the haunt was to be a "blackout" type haunt, which generally means no ambient lighting and only a small point of light to illuminate the path. The premise seemed intriguing, and it is always fun for us to visit a haunt outside of the regular haunt season, so we were excited to see what Valentine X had in store for us.

If we had to sum this experience up in one word, it would be "terrible" - it was one of the least interesting haunt experiences we have been to, and one we'd certainly never go back to, at least not in this format. Given the fact that this was a one time event, and given that there really is so little to talk about we could easily end the written review here and just tell you watch the commentary, but we won't Here at Horror Tourers we strive to provide reasons why we like or dislike something so that people can get an idea of our thinking, so read on for more!

As mentioned, this haunt was held inside the Eleventh Hour Haunted House. Eleventh Hour. Basically, Valentine X was simply a themed "overlay" that rested on top of the existing Eleventh Hour setup. In other words, it did not have its own sets, but rather used the existing Eleventh Hour sets with a running Valentine's Day theme throughout. Also, as we mentioned, this was a blackout haunt, so we only had a small point of light to guide our way. Specifically, our group of four was given one small orange glow stick to guide our way.

To be honest, when we heard this was a blackout we did have some reservations. Blackouts, by their very nature, rely on the darkness to add another level of uncertainty and fear to the proceedings. However, the success of a blackout depends a lot on how it is executed. If it's simply a matter of stumbling around in the dark and being more concerned about falling over something than about making your way through a dark but easily navigable path and wondering what will pop out next then it winds up being a rather trying experience. Unfortunately, Valentine X was a case of the former rather than the latter. The irony of this was that, when we visited Eleventh Hour in October, they were having problems with their lighting, resulting in sections of the haunt being in total darkness. This resulted in many of the elaborate set designed being hidden by the lack of light. While this experience was accidental, our Valentine X experience was, unfortunately, intentional.

While there was a introduction that featured the Valentine X bear, and while the bear did appear throughout the haunt, overall, (aside form one room where an actor was holding a large Valentine heart), the Valentine theme was really nonexistent. Thus, the haunt wound being a walkthrough of Eleventh Hours' existing sets, with fewer actors and no lights. As there were no real "special" features that were specific to Valentine X, then all that visitors were left with were the ability to look at the Eleventh Hour sets and the possibility that they might be scared by some actor popping out of the darkness.

In our experience, we were unable to make out any of the elaborate sets (which are very good), so the benefits of being able to admire the set design were lost. Also, as the light was so low, any details of actor makeup and costumes were lost, so all we were left with was a "scare" factor of unexpected popouts.

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.)

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