Abandoned Haunted House Complex Review (2020)

Throughout the grounds of AHHC, there were plenty of actors roaming around and mingling with guests in many ways they could. We ran into an actor or two who recognized us, even with having only visited once before (for fun) and having masks on our entire visit. Many provided the opportunity for groups to photo up with them as everyone would want to show off where they are!

Stalker:
The queue line actors at Stalker were great fun, the bigger guy actually had us laughing noting the fast pass line was different than the ‘Wait your damn turn’ line (general admission). Inside the haunt, the actors were plentiful and working each of their rooms, respectively. The dialogue was great and dropped hints as to what we were about to walk into if listened to. After leaving a chicken coop, one actor noted, ‘Chickens are scary, but I would be more afraid of the bees’ ‘ and of course, GIANT BEES AHEAD!

Considering a majority of the Stalker attraction takes place in a cornfield, all actors seemed comfortable acting despite the cold, my only guess is the excitement of the scares really kept them warm!

Ambush:
The queue line actors for Ambush really love what they do, it showed throughout the few minutes we were able to spend with them. Granted, we did get a heavy paddlin’ as they were obviously some disturbed, old-school nuns! Thankfully, she allowed me to move my phone first, but at the cost of an extra hard spank from the paddleboard. I suppose I find myself pretty grateful there were no rulers on the hands involved!

Throughout Ambush, all actors remained a solid unit with one goal: to scare the hell out of you! They all worked really well with their scenes and owned each room. Somehow, this attraction has a whole ‘El’ line train cart to walk through. I feel like the actor in there probably spent some time on the red line south of 35th-Sox park stop where the CTA trains can get sketchy. Also, a shout out to the guy on the stripper pole’ out of all the strip clubs I have been to, no one moves like you! Considering all things, the actors at AHHC were obviously trained well which makes the visit worthwhile!

With all things considered regarding COVID, AHHC had to cut down on some staffing to help practice social distancing. The normal 140 actors in place turned into 100-120 but it does not affect much as only two of the three attractions are available per weekend, currently.

Overall, AHHC has some impressive costumes! I would like to add they also did a great job at incorporating mandated masks into their costumes and kept them on properly throughout our visit. The roaming actors on the Complex grounds remained a mystery. They had freakish materials on them, and some had some great personal touches. Most had a sort of burlap sack with painted faces, and a gent had a rough-looking, Raggedy Ann doll that would seamlessly slide around his back at will.

Stalker:
Overall, Stalker had some impressive costumes to help immerse us into a farm-like setting. Granted, there were just a few actors with name brand hoodies on that can take away from the overall feel but it does come with having an outdoor attraction and having haunters stand outdoors in a cornfield for hours at a time. I feel these small details mostly go unnoticed by a regular casual guest, as they mostly are cowering in fear at what’s to pop out on their every turn!

The most noted was the wicked detail of the queue line actor. She had this whole dress that looked amazing. Dirty and gritty but also very antique-like and it worked well with the fa������������������ade of Stalker being kind of like a backroad south swampy feel. It felt well thought out and extremely exciting for the scene. I would personally say that the actor sold the character to us and what really helped the illusion is the ensemble.

Ambush:
Reflecting back on Ambush and our time there, costuming worked very appropriately to help achieve a suspension of disbelief in scenes throughout the attraction. The Nuns working the queue were of a demonish nature (not just because of the spankings) but it showed through the outfits. Clearly, there was nun attire but there was much more than that in the scene and use of the makeup working together to know we were going to get punished ‘old testament’ style.

In many of the medical rooms, we were able to differentiate between doctor outfits and patient outfits easily, even considering all the blood tattered attire. With all of the common concerns in the world at the moment and the usage of PPE masks and such, anything dealing with medical is a clear easy win in terms of practicing safety measures for themselves and guests and also maintaining/working in these measures into the costume itself. ‘Wear a PPE mask during a medical scene, boom, crazy surgeon doctor or patient’. I personally am really appreciative of actors and costume designers taking advantage of what an easy win this is in terms of looking good and staying safe!

Overall, Ambush provided an obscene amount of details throughout the actors costuming to help us get lost in our own worried minds.

AHHC seems to stay updated on social media with ticket giveaways, times, hours, and such. The website I feel has all the information one would need about AHHC and all of the attractions they normally have available. One of the more updated features on the website is their ‘COVID Response Plan’ section which provides a well-detailed list of all safety measures AHHC is taking regarding social distancing, masks, sanitization, and both employee and guest safety.

One of the measures AHHC is taking for such safety and to be accommodating for more space between guests is actually running with two of the three attractions open. This is to help create more queue line space for the two remaining as well as more spaces for guests to roam around without feeling overly crowded on the complex. As sad as we were to miss the attraction Hysteria on our visit, the plan makes sense. Also, just because we missed it doesn’t mean anyone else wondering about it has to. AHHC is brilliantly rotating the second haunt every other week. This means from our visit at Ambush the AHHC will have Hysteria open the following week to give guests a chance to come back and enjoy the attraction closed the week before.

All of the staff at AHHC were professional and plentiful as well. We would be able to pick them out of a crowd if any issues arose. They have security at the front gate to do a temp check on guests and I personally saw them hold a guest from entering because they did not have a PPE mask.

I do feel a big concern regarding customer service for this season is really what measurements a haunt is taking to comply with COVID safety. I am not a medical professional and wouldn’t be able to say, ‘This is 100% safe and this is not 100% safe’ but I can vouch for what I saw during my visit and AHHC did indeed practice all they said they would on their website.

Being able to spot this haunt from the highway says a lot! What is really fun about AHHC in my opinion is the number of facades they have. At the ticket booth, there is a long stretched out ‘classic’ haunted house look to it with huge red glowing letters spelling out Abandoned. From here, we made our way onto the complex itself that looks like huge grounds to walk around.

There are a few great areas around to take pictures, including the food ‘DInEr’ truck (typed that way for a good reason).

Each attraction does have their own facades, respectfully adding to the ambiance of the separate attractions as individuals yet worked together to make the complex whole. It really is a special place that should be seen to understand in full.

Stalker:
When talking about special effects, there were plenty of great moments throughout our walkthrough. Stalker is an outdoor trail through a cornfield with roughly 10-12 different trailers/indoor spots with different themes. The first notable room we walked into looked like a dirty house that clearly belonged to a crazy cat lady. Other trailers and areas provided different variety and themes, and all had great use of props and sounds throughout. A great example of this is the constant chickens cooing through the chicken coop, or the sound of bees in the beehive room. Other trailers were dark enough to keep things ominous and left us with a sense of urgency to move out of there before something terrible happened, like being invited to dinner as the main course.

As far as the trail portion of Stalker goes, it has good lighting and fog throughout. The amazing part of being outdoors is easily the cemetery they build out there! It is an endless maze of crypts and mausoleums with plenty of hiding spots for actors. Just from the quality of detail, we could tell a lot of work went into all of this and it is a special spot with the natural cold of an October night, full moon, and the fog effects going. It’s safe to say it was the most impressive part of Stalker, in our opinion.

Ambush:
Ambush has some very impressive effects and is the more high-end/tech of the two attractions we were able to attend. In the first scene, it’s pretty much disturbing in the sense of its play on religious figures and church and such. It is rather bone-chilling to hear a constant sermon playing in the background when walking through and seeing pictures of Christ Jesus bloodied up which left us with an uneasy feeling.

Throughout the haunt, we found ourselves in some amazingly detailed scenes with amazing props. There was a hyper-realistic torso I had found myself focused too much on to the point of not even realizing an actor was ahead until the last moment. As we mentioned the train cart before, it had to have been an actual retired el cart from Chicago’s CTA considering it was the right size and just too accurate.

The scenes felt very immersive and provided an amazing suspension of disbelief. It was enough to almost become overwhelmed in the details and not want to miss anything. Knowing we had missed out on the third attraction does give us the motive to make our way back to possibly check out Hysteria as I’m sure it is as equally impressive as Ambush.

Stalker:
Stalker provided plenty of good scare scenes throughout the attraction as a whole, mostly stemming from the indoor portions. I believe what does it here is the small, detailed themes throughout the indoor portions that give actors great opportunities for jump scares.

The finale of Stalker itself is very frightening! It is amazing to think about how the actors manage to find their way to time scares at the right moment considering visible conditions. I won’t say exactly what takes place, but it does make the whole experience wild!

Ambush:
Ambush has plenty going for it in terms of Scare Factor. With a combination of actors who want blood, high-end scenes, and realistic props, there is bound to be something for the dwellers of Ambush to frighten with. It’s safe to say everyone in our group was targeted multiple times throughout Ambush.

As previously mentioned, the church scene is enough to make the hair on your neck stand up. There is honestly something in particular about Ambush’s church scene that is very unsettling, I’m sure it partly has to do with the paddlin’ we received and mentioned probably five times already. Overall, Ambush continued to give throughout our walkthrough.

Our biggest regret will have to be not being able to add Hysteria to this list, but hopefully this time next year will provide something different in terms of the real horrors going on in our everyday lives.

General admission for two of the attractions is 30 dollars. This includes Stalker all season round and either Ambush or Hysteria (depending on the weekend you visit). Considering its two attractions one would get under one admission price, it really makes it a steal at 15 dollars an attraction!

It is totally worth the 10 dollar add-on for VIP tickets on busy nights so you’re not stuck in the ‘Wait your damn turn’ line. Our walk-through time for Stalker was just over 21 minutes and our walk-through time for Ambush was just over 18 minutes. This makes the MPD (minutes per dollar value) a 0.71. This is well worth the experience as the 9 years AHHC has been around, their shows’ quality reveals that this is not their first season.

For more added fun, there is also a five-dollar ax throwing add on! If you hit a bulls-eye you also win a free shirt! We purchased our shirts and hit zero bulls-eyes (we kind of suck).

If anyone attends on a night Hysteria is running, please reach out to us and let us know how great it was!