14400 Coil Plus Drive, Plainfield, IL
years: 2013
Village of Screamfield is one of several haunts that surprised us this year with its quality. To be brutally honest, we first visited Village of Screamfield when it was known as Scream High and we were not impressed. Basically, it seemed that the entire haunt was nothing but teenagers following us and screaming at us to "get out." The set design, from what we remember, was more along the lines of plastic bags taped to the walls than anything else.
While we, of course, take into consideration the fact that the haunt was run by volunteers and populated by younger actors, the lack of things to look at and the lack of variety in the acting didn't add up to an enjoyable experience for us. In fact, Scream High was often a butt of our jokes about where we would least like to go in future haunt seasons. However, this year we were out in the Plainfield area and thought we'd give the Village of Screamfield (the current iteration) a try, as we are always willing to see if a haunt has improved. We are happy to say that we thoroughly enjoyed our visit and were glad we took the change. Village of Screamfield it light years beyond anything at Scream High, and ranks as one of our most pleasant surprises of the season. From the very beginning, we could tell this would be a different experience. Visitors are put into an "elevator" that takes them down to the village. While we have seen many of these elevators in haunts, this one had a digital readout and voice that talked to us as we were "descending" which gave the entire experience a different feel. Once we exited the elevator we were greeted by the Mayor of Screamfield, Mayor Scream. He was both hilarious and creepy at the same time, welcoming us in that sort of unnervingly pleasant undertaker voice while at the same time leading us to our doom. He was a terrific character, and has us laughing even before we got into the haunt itself. |
Commentary
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The haunt itself also had some interesting surprises. First, the set detail was much better, and featured some elaborate sets, including a cannibal house, a hospital, a clown room, a doll room, and my personal favorite, a stable-like area with various humans in animal masks kept behind chicken wire. While we've seen some haunts that feature individual actors in animal masks, we've never seen a collection of them in one place, in a scene right out of George Orwell's Animal Farm - it was bizarre and interesting at the same time.
The actors, too, were top notch this time around, with varied performances ranging from nuanced movements with no speech to clever sarcastic commentary, to simply off the wall mannerisms that kept visitors off guard. We particularly liked the clown who asked us if we liked pretzels ( a very odd thing to ask, in our opinion), and a horse or donkey masked girl who was clearly not expecting us to walk into the room when we did, but recovered quickly and simply walked backwards in front of us, turning her head from side to side as if wondering who or what we were. The haunt took us through many twists and turns and clever sets, too many to even remember. It even had a 3D laser room and a complete 3D section near the end. While the haunt lasted about 10 minutes overall, it certainly seemed longer, which is the mark of some excellent design work.
Overall, Village of Screamfield has a lot to recommend it - good sets, clever scenes, excellent actor performances (and keep in mind this is populated mostly by teenage actors), and some surprises that had us smiling and applauding. We loved our visit, as we will be sure to visit again in the future.
In short, we're happy we visited the Village of Screamfield, and we'd recommend everyone to stop by. The Mayor and the citizens are all very welcoming, and who knows, you might decide to stay (and maybe even of your own free will)!
The actors, too, were top notch this time around, with varied performances ranging from nuanced movements with no speech to clever sarcastic commentary, to simply off the wall mannerisms that kept visitors off guard. We particularly liked the clown who asked us if we liked pretzels ( a very odd thing to ask, in our opinion), and a horse or donkey masked girl who was clearly not expecting us to walk into the room when we did, but recovered quickly and simply walked backwards in front of us, turning her head from side to side as if wondering who or what we were. The haunt took us through many twists and turns and clever sets, too many to even remember. It even had a 3D laser room and a complete 3D section near the end. While the haunt lasted about 10 minutes overall, it certainly seemed longer, which is the mark of some excellent design work.
Overall, Village of Screamfield has a lot to recommend it - good sets, clever scenes, excellent actor performances (and keep in mind this is populated mostly by teenage actors), and some surprises that had us smiling and applauding. We loved our visit, as we will be sure to visit again in the future.
In short, we're happy we visited the Village of Screamfield, and we'd recommend everyone to stop by. The Mayor and the citizens are all very welcoming, and who knows, you might decide to stay (and maybe even of your own free will)!