16512 Winding Creek Rd , Plainfield, IL
years: 2012
Winding Creek Haunted Woods is an elaborate home haunt located in Plainfield. The Tourers first visited this haunt in 2012 and it was one of our favorite experiences. Put simply, Winding Creek is one of the most elaborate home haunts we have seen, and also one with a lot of variety.
The haunt itself takes up the entire backyard of the property and, as the name implies, it does involve some creekside hauntings. The major portion of the haunt is a trail that winds around the back of the property and alongside the aforementioned creek. In addition, at the end of the haunt there is a small building that visitors wander through. Visitors are led through the trail by a costumed live actor who serves as a guide to make sure people don't wander into the wrong place. The entire trail is eerily lit, both with electricity and with flaming torches, which certainly add some authenticity (and some creepiness) to the entire setup, as well as some excellent fog effects. Along the way there are many things to see, including giant spider webs, skulls, animatronic snakes, and numerous props that pop out and scare visitors |
Commentary
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.The trail also features many live actors, most of them adults, who are well concealed within the various twists and turns of the haunt. A couple of our favorites were a life size Jason figure inside a shed lit by a strobe light, and a Wolf Man figure who runs out from the left side of the woods, distracting visitors from the axe wielding ghoul who comes out from the right side and scares the heck out of them!
A large creek runs along the back side of the trail, and forms a very nice, authentic bit of scenery that one usually does not see at any kind of haunt. Although the creek is nice in and of itself, it also forms a part of a fantastic live actor/prop setup. Shortly after entering the trail portion of the haunt, visitors who look to the right can see a figure lying on the shore of the creek, half in an half out of the water. This figure is clutching a partial skeleton and lying prone, as if dead. From a distance it looks like a nicely detailed prop. However, when visitors pass by, the "prop" comes to life, rising up and walking backwards into the water, swinging the skeleton it is clutching back and forth. Not only did this particular live actor fools us (and many others) into thinking he was just a prop, it was very cool to see some alien creature half submerged in a creek rise up and taunt us by waving a partial skeleton around! The rest of the trail was good, too, with a number of other live actors posing as props that fooled a lot of people, and a chainsaw-wielding maniac to finished off our walk through the trail portion.
Despite the trail being over, the haunt want not finished. The final portion saw visitors led into a small house - the "haunted house" portion of the home haunt. This house was also very well put together, with several large, detailed rooms, including a small girl's bedroom as the first room (complete with animated Regan-like figure from the Exorcist popping up and down on the bed. Other rooms included a catacomb portion with various dead bodies, a spider web infested living room with creepy little child (live actor) in a chair, and a sarcastic cannibalistic ghoulish butcher, who cracked one liners and bad jokes as well as the bones of various unfortunate victims. The sets dressings were top notch, from loads of cobwebs to boarded up windows and doors. There was enough in the little haunt to make it worthwhile if that was the only thing to the entire home haunt, but as it is it's just a small portion of a bigger, better setting.
We must make mention of the smallest live actor in the haunt. While we were waiting in line, he kept coming out of the house portion to talk to people (presumably his parents), se we saw a lot of him outside of his ghoulish character function. However, our familiarity with him didn't lessen the creepiness factor when we saw him rocking back and forth in a chair in the final room of the haunted house. Normally, tiny actors have to do a lot to scare us, but this little guy's size was a big plus since he was playing a creepy child. Not only that, but after we commented on how creepy he was (and he heard us), he snuck out of the one room and placed himself behind the exit door, donning a mask and some kind of dunce hat. He then jumped out at us as we were leaving, cackling like some kind of crazy little troll. Again, his small size added to the effect, and cemented him in our minds as the creepiest live actor in the entire haunt.
Overall, Winding Creek Haunted Woods is easily one oft he best home haunts we have ever seen. The attention to detail is very high, and the natural woodsy setting adds realism to the entire thing. Additionally, all of the actors were well into their roles, never breaking character, and even managed to fool us several times into thinking they were just props - that takes some skill!
We'd highly recommend this haunt to anyone. In fact, we'd go so far as to say that if you are deciding between a pay haunt and this one, check this one out first, as it's free and the level of professionalism is right up there.
One last thing to note - the lines to get in can get long, so if you plan on going try to get there right at opening time. It's well worth the wait, but if you have other places to go you probably would need to adjust so that you don't miss out on any other haunts.
A large creek runs along the back side of the trail, and forms a very nice, authentic bit of scenery that one usually does not see at any kind of haunt. Although the creek is nice in and of itself, it also forms a part of a fantastic live actor/prop setup. Shortly after entering the trail portion of the haunt, visitors who look to the right can see a figure lying on the shore of the creek, half in an half out of the water. This figure is clutching a partial skeleton and lying prone, as if dead. From a distance it looks like a nicely detailed prop. However, when visitors pass by, the "prop" comes to life, rising up and walking backwards into the water, swinging the skeleton it is clutching back and forth. Not only did this particular live actor fools us (and many others) into thinking he was just a prop, it was very cool to see some alien creature half submerged in a creek rise up and taunt us by waving a partial skeleton around! The rest of the trail was good, too, with a number of other live actors posing as props that fooled a lot of people, and a chainsaw-wielding maniac to finished off our walk through the trail portion.
Despite the trail being over, the haunt want not finished. The final portion saw visitors led into a small house - the "haunted house" portion of the home haunt. This house was also very well put together, with several large, detailed rooms, including a small girl's bedroom as the first room (complete with animated Regan-like figure from the Exorcist popping up and down on the bed. Other rooms included a catacomb portion with various dead bodies, a spider web infested living room with creepy little child (live actor) in a chair, and a sarcastic cannibalistic ghoulish butcher, who cracked one liners and bad jokes as well as the bones of various unfortunate victims. The sets dressings were top notch, from loads of cobwebs to boarded up windows and doors. There was enough in the little haunt to make it worthwhile if that was the only thing to the entire home haunt, but as it is it's just a small portion of a bigger, better setting.
We must make mention of the smallest live actor in the haunt. While we were waiting in line, he kept coming out of the house portion to talk to people (presumably his parents), se we saw a lot of him outside of his ghoulish character function. However, our familiarity with him didn't lessen the creepiness factor when we saw him rocking back and forth in a chair in the final room of the haunted house. Normally, tiny actors have to do a lot to scare us, but this little guy's size was a big plus since he was playing a creepy child. Not only that, but after we commented on how creepy he was (and he heard us), he snuck out of the one room and placed himself behind the exit door, donning a mask and some kind of dunce hat. He then jumped out at us as we were leaving, cackling like some kind of crazy little troll. Again, his small size added to the effect, and cemented him in our minds as the creepiest live actor in the entire haunt.
Overall, Winding Creek Haunted Woods is easily one oft he best home haunts we have ever seen. The attention to detail is very high, and the natural woodsy setting adds realism to the entire thing. Additionally, all of the actors were well into their roles, never breaking character, and even managed to fool us several times into thinking they were just props - that takes some skill!
We'd highly recommend this haunt to anyone. In fact, we'd go so far as to say that if you are deciding between a pay haunt and this one, check this one out first, as it's free and the level of professionalism is right up there.
One last thing to note - the lines to get in can get long, so if you plan on going try to get there right at opening time. It's well worth the wait, but if you have other places to go you probably would need to adjust so that you don't miss out on any other haunts.