Massacre Haunted House 2018
Montgomery, IL
Reviewed on: Sunday, October 7, 2018
Another year of fear comes to Montgomery, Illinois, as Massacre Haunted House opens its doors for another season. Bringing years of experience and knowledge of the industry from its veteran owner and management team, this attraction has developed over the years, and continues to grow, getting bigger and better.
While some may call this building a store-front, we might call it a “scarehouse,” due to it resembling more of a warehouse than storefront. When it comes to room and available space, I’m not sure many in the Chicagoland area have quite the indoor space Massacre does! (And they added an additional 10,000 square feet for this season!)
But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Although it was raining, there were a cast of characters lurking around the entrance and terrifying potential victims. Once we arrived in the waiting area, we had a great DRY, fun atmosphere filled with horror-themed décor, a DJ, a larger-than life Pennywise statue, and a lot of hungry haunt-goers thirsty for scares! The scene was certainly set.
Our first adventure once entering the attraction was traversing through Massacre’s own “swamp.” While some may have seen this scene/effect attempted in other attractions, I’m not sure we have encountered anything as well-done as this. As we have mentioned, this is an easy effect to attempt, and extremely difficult to master. From the very get-go, Massacre impressed us and had us tripping over ourselves in their very thick swamp. BUT, the icing on the cake for this scene was the actor in the room. Attacking with precision, this actor we coined, “the creature from the green swamp,” acted sharply and swiftly, completely erasing any sense of prediction. Bravo!
Traversing through the rest of their trademark namesake attraction, we weaved our way in, out, around, and through each beautifully-adorned scene. For those that close their eyes and bury their heads while on these tours, we beg you not to! This is a gorgeous attraction with more detail than you will ever be able to recognize on (3) tours! The sets are larger than-life and extended for at least 20-feet in the air! From floor to ceiling, there isn’t a corner untouched. We easily came to the conclusion that the team behind Massacre are from another race, because sleep is not a factor for them to consider.
There are so many highlights here, we don’t want to spoil them for you. But, certainly some of our favorites were the hospital scene with sliding doctor, the church and satan scene, and the entire rainforest/jungle with waterfall. WOW! Detail on detail on detail.
As we continued on our journey, we came upon the 2nd attraction, Freak Show 3D. Bringing all your nightmares to life, with numerous clowns everywhere you turned, the 3D artistic detail put into this attraction is mesmerizing. Now, when we say that there is paint everywhere, we mean EVERYWHERE! From the floor to the ceilings, the freaks are out to play and torture the souls of those passing through.
Just as we thought our journey was over, Massacre throws you for a loop and throws you back into their main attraction. As you make your way through Terror Town, you encounter many residents along the way, all waiting to make you part of their town forever. With multiple attacks on your senses from all angles, actors here are relentless and move so quickly that they attack in multiple rooms. It definitely gives them a large area to work with and they do it well!
In addition, patrons who visit the haunted house have the opportunity to try out their escape rooms for another short adventure. Just another facet of fear, try your luck: will you be able to escape?
Monsters of Note: Hangman, “the creature of the green swamp”, and of course, the iconic, Pedo the Clown.
The Bottom Line: This attraction has forced us to come up with a different way to describe the work they do. It’s beyond just some of the best haunted attraction detail, it is art. This is an incredibly skilled team that has the ability to create the visions that live in your nightmares. A fixture on our Top 13 list each year, this attraction should absolutely be among your “must-see” list this season!
~ Official Haunted House Chicago Review Team Review
