Final Scores – By Category:

Cast (20% of Final Score): 8.46

Costuming (10% of Final Score): 9.02

Customer Service (10% of Final Score): 9.48

Immersion (10% of Final Score): 7.18

Special Effects (15% of Final Score): 8.05

Scare Factor (20% of Final Score): 8.34

Entertainment & Value (15% of Final Score): 8.05

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Final Scores – By Attraction:

Attraction 1: 8.34

One of the new Illinois attractions, for 2024, found a merger between two other attractions coming together, equating to one behemoth of a playground! Monster Purge (formally in St Charles) is a zombie paintball experience on a monster truck school bus. We visit each season, as it’s such a fun experience, and our families enjoy themselves. Monster Purge joined forces with one of Chicago’s hard-hitting attractions, Evil Intentions (formally in Elgin). EI has made our top list several times since we have been involved with The Scare Factor, and each season was well-earned. EI has left the Elgin Casket Company building to help create the Horror Destination, Forsaken Hollow.

Forsaken Hollow found its home in Maple Park, Illinois. The concept, in short, will have both Monster Purge and Evil Intentions as main attractions, but also house a music venue, several bars throughout, escape rooms, horror mini-golf, a Main St with local artists’ work and shops, and an arcade. For this review, we are reviewing Evil Intentions, while Monster Purge is not being reviewed but is highly recommended.

Eventually, the plan seems to be for a year-round attraction. For a year-one event, The haunted house Evil Intentions did a good job putting on a show in time for the 2024 season.

Considering a brand-new build, after several years in the Casket Factory, we were not sure what to expect when visiting. One constant we should have expected, was the very actor-driven experience. We found ourselves surrounded by a battle-ready cast of actors hanging around in the queue. The actors had a menacing look to them, and it worked with how they acted toward us. Celeste gave us small babies, which were later chopped up and laughed at when we recovered limbs from the ground.

When walking through the first portion of the attraction, we found a few actors playing many roles. The first portion was a walk through the corn stalk. The night of our visit, there was a good amount of wind blowing, which allowed actors to jump out of the corn stalks, without notice.

Throughout the trail, were small shacks that helped disguise actors jumping out, or mannequins standing there; and of course, it’s difficult to tell which was which, until the last second. There was some dialogue telling us about repenting and becoming one with the cult.

Once inside the main attraction, the actors were high energy and gave great performances. There was an actor, early in the haunt, on stilts that followed us through a narrow tunnel. It was a great commitment that gave us the same anxious feeling as being followed by Mr. X in Resident Evil 2. Some areas felt like the former EI, such as the caged areas with actors sliding around from area to area, and gave a heavy metal music video feeling. Overall, the actors remained a huge highlight of the walkthrough.

EI feels like a specific style of haunt. It thrives on an occult feel rather than having a clown area, or something one would see more of in haunts. It’s very dark and macabre, and that was presented within the sets and costumes.

In the queue, we met a new character, Celeste. Their costume gave the impression of an abandoned doll. They were super polite to us and helped guide us through the trail by appearing ahead from time to time. The costume felt as though it belonged to EI for its creepy value.

There were plenty of classic EI characters roaming around. For example, the white queen character looked like a skull witch. There was also a high priest with a ram skull, who sat on an altar. Most of the costumes were coordinated with a black-robed, dark church theme. The idea behind the haunt was still cult, and therefore gave religious vibes, in a negative tone.

The costumes at this haunt reminded us that there is nothing like EI around. There may have been one or two characters, or scenes, in other haunts that have a religious theme, and demonic nuns, but EI is built around the majority of the attraction.

Parking is free onsite, but just outside of the actual entry. There are some big freight shipping containers, that act as an entryway to the actual haunt grounds. One direction leads to a monster purge, and the other leads to EI. There are plenty of employees around to help wearing EI gear, making it easy to find them. Currently, the attraction is only running both Monster Purge and EI, so the other attractions mentioned to complete Forsaken Hollow are not currently available. There isn’t anything life-threatening going on, just make sure to wear some good shoes for the corn stalk walkthrough as it’s on a dirty road.

Other than that, we can expect much more in the upcoming seasons, as Forsaken Hollow and Evil Intentions separately have a good online presence, so make sure to follow them on the socials for further information on when other attractions will open!

As mentioned, once parked, guests walk between freight trailers with a huge Forsaken Hollow banner. From here there is a large field with a gated area filled with pumpkins that will lead to a building. At the foot of the building is the check-in for Monster Purge and then to the right is the queue for EI.

We mentioned the queue earlier; the area is covered in red lights just the way it was at the previous Casket Company. There is a DJ booth here to help provide entertainment for guests. This is different than the ominous music the Casket Company used to have but of course, this is an all-new attraction. As mentioned before, this is a now first-year attraction and they had a limited amount of time to open due to getting the building into proper shape. So, there is a bit of a bare feel currently in the queue. However, knowing the team behind EI, this will quickly come together in the upcoming seasons.

EI has always prided itself on hand-built sets, and the new attraction was still a good example of that. Huge props or panels are unlike any other at EI. One major example was the facade of the building itself. After walking the trail to the actual house, there was a 60-foot-plus facade in the middle of the night. I imagine it’s sort of like experiencing the Alamo. It still needed something added to it, something crawling out of one of the high windows, perhaps? Lights from windows, maybe? I’m sure it will be developed over the next few years.

There were some great effects that are new to the EI theme, such as a sort of hypnosis room where the cult brainwashed others to worship another being. The room seemed very impressive for what it was and I appreciate the efforts into new ideas.

As far as the Scare Factor goes, EI did an excellent job of keeping customers scared. The haunt was very dark-themed overall and revolved around the cult. The Cult seemed to have built a church inside and practiced dark arts, which some may consider Satanic. Most of the haunt proceeded that way, and could be enough to make some uncomfortably scared. EI has taken some ideas from the past attraction, and amped it up!

The catacombs room with many hooded figures had basically been turned into three times the amount of the old location. The figures appear in four-five scenes, and made the time feel much longer than before. With more space, came more clever ideas! The coffin maze felt like it was extended for long time too.

Actors held most of the scares, as they have before. Given a whole new attraction, it was difficult to gauge where actors may have popped out from. There were moments with incredibly open scenes, and actors were free roaming, which was rather freaky. It was great trying to pass them, while they created chants and spoke in Tongues, which added to the creepiness within. Overall, this was a great restart, and we cannot stress enough how excited we are for when the haunt is fully renovated!

Our walkthrough time for Evil Intentions was at the 37-minute mark, this includes both the trail as well as the house. With tickets priced at $35, the Minute Per Dollar Value comes to 1.06. It is exciting to see what EI was able to pull off in such a short amount of time! With the ideas they have coming to turn the new Forsaken Hollow grounds into a hot spot for events and year-round entertainment, there is no doubt that Forsaken Hollow will become an amazing attraction in the upcoming seasons.

The Evil Intentions team has done amazing things in past seasons, so we are excited to see this play out!