There is a haunt out in Rantoul, Illinois that we have visited for a few seasons now. Necrosis Haunted House has been a powerhouse in the area, and continues to impress each season. Located in an old army base must give them a ton of room to play, as scenes seemed large and loaded with tons of detail. It has been a while since I’ve felt serious panic in a haunt, and Necrosis provided that in many ways.
The number of actors was able to fill the house without it feeling like it was too crowded. A lot of the actors were wearing demonic masks, and were very convincing in dialogue, frightening grunts, and noises. Their body movements, and ability to tower and squeeze into the tight spaces, make guests feel very small. This was a great touch!
The actors were able to interact with all guests, with body movement, and by using the room to jump on surfaces and appear more menacing, and taller. They also used this to their advantage to incorporate demonic dialogue. Throughout the house, the use of dialogue throughout made sense to the rooms actors were in.
A lot of the actors incorporated creepy contortions, as they were able to maneuver in unusual ways. There were moments when we had actors directly above our heads, which is not common. There are a lot of good characters, and a variety of them, to keep pushing the groups to the next
nightmarish scene.
How complete, unique, detailed were the costumes, accessories? – (35% of score)
Were the masks, makeup creative, detailed, realistic? – (30% of score)
How appropriate were the costumes for the respective scenes, themes? – (20% of score)
How believable-, detailed-looking were the queue actors? (See Note if N/A) – (15% of score)
Makeup was visibly applied using the airbrush technique. Full-face masks were also worn with the neckpiece tucked under shirts. Costumes matched their respective rooms, creating fully immersive scenes.
In the swamp scene, a scarecrow blended in with the corn stalks against the wall. The way I can describe this costume, not scary, per the standards of a haunted house; which effectively frightened us because we thought it was a prop! The possum, with a full furry face mask, came up to greet us with a hiss, which is what we would expect it to do.
Other good examples of great costumes would be in the hellish scenes. We saw actors dressed in bloodied nun garments, and some had demon masks, which added great panic during our visit. Overall, we saw some great masks and applications, which added to the experience of the attraction.
How easy was it to locate, park at, navigate the premises? – (25% of score)
Safety (Only dock points for TRULY DANGEROUS hazards!) – (30% of score)
How professional, helpful, friendly were the staff members? – (25% of score)
How easy was it to find pertinent information before arrival? – (20% of score)
The signage, parking attendants, and security make it impossible to miss. There are plenty of staff around to guide you to where you need to be. The house has a large presence of staff and security to make sure that things are safe for both actors and guests.
The gift shop even has watchful eyes to make sure people do not get out of line before entering the house. One flaw in safety, is the lack of visible emergency exits. This creates an issue for both actors and guests.
The staff are extremely helpful. They are ready to assist with any questions and are very accommodating. Necrosis has a large online presence as well as a huge word-of-mouth following. It is a well-known name in the haunted house community.
How well did the pre-haunt areas ("vibe") prepare you for the attraction/s? – (25% of score)
How obvious, creative, believable was the storyline? (See Note if N/A) – (20% of score)
Were you completely, consistently immersed inside the attraction/s? – (40% of score)
How well did the "vibe" flow after, between the attraction/s? – (15% of score)
When pulling up to the haunt, the exit is what faces the street so guests can come running out and it will be noticed easily. Parking happens to be available just in front of the exit, as well, and to the right is the merch area.
Just around the corner is the ticket booth, where most of the queue actors and photo ops are located. The queue itself is located on a covered porch, that runs the length of the building, with the entrance in the middle. Lines can get long, and keep the queue actors busy as they prepare guests for the main attraction.
Inside the attraction, it is easy to get lost in great scenes and props. Actors seem to come from nowhere, above our heads at times, and they also work well with effects such as the fence that can come outward towards guests.
One of the more immersive scenes is this multi-area that feels like hell. I believe our group had some terrible panic feelings here, too much to note. Normally, one of us is pretty grounded, but something about this scene and area threw us off our game, kudos!
How effective were the sound effects? – (20% of score)
How realistic were the scene designs, details? – (30% of score)
How effective, realistic were the props, animatronics? – (30% of score)
How well did they use creative, special, sensory effects? – (20% of score)
Do not let the outside facade fool you since it does not match the inside. We witnessed a skillful use of fog, heavy sounds, animatronics, and highly detailed rooms. Air cannons were placed throughout the haunt and were in unsuspecting areas. They were also quite strong, we ended up misplacing a phone charger, that thankfully we were able to find right away.
Green fog coming from an open pipeline in the ceiling was used in a biohazard area that seemed to have poisoned us. The swamp was also a notable example of excellent use. The dense fog hid a furry creature hiding underneath, which helped them execute multiple scares effectively. It must be noted that the swamp was highly detailed by the plethora of foliage, which helped a few characters blend very well, a little too well.
Sound effects were at an all-time high here. Rooms had intense loud noises, which helped effectively cause alarm to guests. There was a portion of this attraction that felt bio-war, and we heard sudden noises. With the great scenes, it was easy to tell the team had worked hard on the builds.
There were other examples of simple, yet effective props. An actor was placed behind a plain chain link fence, which thankfully separated us from them. In the last minute of sticking around, they shifted their weight onto the fence, which then came lowering down at an angle above us, hitting a safety bar that stopped the fence from completely collapsing on us.
How scary was it? – (35% of score)
How well did they provide scares to everyone in the group? – (15% of score)
How predictable were the scares? – (25% of score)
How well did they provide a wide variety (types) of scares? – (10% of score)
How strong was the ending / finale? – (15% of score)
The attraction had some very scary parts that were enhanced with proper fog levels and low lighting. In some scenes, actors utilized startle scares and were very effective. The detailed scenes’ work also enhanced the experience, because it made us truly believe we were in some of the scenes.
The actors had great timing and were able to effectively get good scares through the whole group. A lot of this came from them utilizing the tight spaces between rooms. They were able to feed off one another, if there were multiple actors in a room. Knowing their rooms and how to implement body movement made the scares fun and startling. The jump scares were rampant throughout the house, but were still able to work effectively. The use of unsettling dialogue and odd noises added to the variety of scares.
A lot of the scares were predictable, however because of the teamwork of the actors, were effective. The actors had a strong grasp of how to make a predictable scare work well. The setups for distraction and startle scares were very jarring. The way that they did pop-outs and worked the tight corners was very frightening.
The actors at the end of the house ramp things up by doing scare after scare. The build-up of nonstop terror allows the ending to be brilliant. The tension and the rush we felt as we ran down the ramp, carried with us as we ended up in front of the merchandise area.
How satisfied with the entertainment provided by the MAIN attraction/s? – (50% of score)
How satisfied with OTHER entertainment INCLUDED with the ticket price? – (25% of score)
How appropriate is/are the ticket price/s? – (25% of score)
Our walk-through time was 25 minutes for one attraction. General admission tickets priced at $30 give our Minute Per Dollar value at .83. Given how entertaining this haunt attraction is, and the many scares it provides, I would say this is a more than fair ticket price.
It is great to see how well this team functions, and we need to give them all a shout-out for allowing us to visit. The distance between the central Illinois area and Rantoul was nearly two hours, and the staff here was kind enough to allow us to rush over before they closed for the evening. With a great set of actors still giving it their all at the end of the night, it shows their level of commitment as they gave us a hell of a scary visit.
1315 Enterprise Drive, Rantoul, Illinois 61866