While venturing through the gross weather, we were able to follow one of two beacons of light through the rain. Both lights led to one of two sister haunts, the newest kid on the block. Vibe Haunted House is a brand-new attraction in the Peoria, Illinois, area. Sister haunt to Aura, Vibe provides a whole different “vibe” and can be a stand-alone haunt with its own separate scenes and scares. The team behind Aura was able to acquire the former Baldwin Asylum from Rantoul and produce its own creation in an old Catholic school building.
Although there weren’t a lot of actors in the house, they still provided good fun scares as they were able to travel through the rooms seamlessly. The jump scares were great because the actors could navigate through different pop-out spots and knew the ins and outs well enough to hit us more than once with scares. Each actor utilized their rooms to the max. The actors really used the low lighting and strobes to their advantage. Pop-outs and jump scares dominated the show. A lot of times, there was a menacing feeling lingering. The clowns especially wanted to interact with us. Since there was a lot of room for the actors to roam through, they got to interact in a bunch of ways.
Throughout the house, a lot of the actors made a lot of growls, snarls, and yells. One of the ghouls in the hallway told us her name was Melvina, and she was looking for her husband. The best part is that she was carrying his head. She was very sweet, and her concern was beyond creepy. The radioactive clown and the black and white clown made amazing use of the maze and whispered creepy things to us. This set up for a great startle scare because while you were listening to one, the other one would jump out and get you. The house had a little bit of everything. Between the clowns, ghouls, monsters, and undead citizens, there are plenty of characters to get you.
Detailed airbrush makeup is used to create distressed looks and convincing costumes to fit the scenes effectively.
Handmade costumes can be seen to have been done with distressing done with either blood, tears, or dirtying up to create a lived-in look. An actor we interacted with was wearing a dirty hospital gown that had seen better days. Though it was quite dark in the haunt, it was difficult to fully see what the costumes looked like, but there was no denying that these actors belonged in there.
Inside the maze, the clowns were appropriately dressed in colorful or light-colored clothing. They blended in well with the background of the dreadful maze. To best describe the main character, Psycho Scrum is a radioactive clown, wearing a multicolored costume that also has UV makeup. He was extremely high energy and actually quite nice, which paired perfectly well with his role in the maze.
While there is room for improvement, we did enjoy what the actors and their costuming staff pulled off!
Vibe has a large sign advertising the attraction on the side of the road. There is a large free parking lot with attendants to guide you to a spot. Attendants in reflective vests are both inside and outside of the attraction to help navigate. The outdoor queue has covered waiting as well. There are staff members at the very front of the attraction to guide you in. There are also security guards and outside actors able to access any potential issues. Staff and security are readily available to point you in the right direction or answer any questions. They are easy to identify due to their radios, reflective vests, and Vibe gear. There is a lot of low lighting, strobes, and disorienting mazes, so caution is advised for those who are uncomfortable in these kinds of rooms. There are visible emergency exits throughout the attraction, along with visible doors to go through if need be.
The staff is extremely helpful and professional. Staff outside are quick to point to the box office for tickets and to the concessions and gift shop. The actors are great inside the attraction, and with guidance in some of the more confusing areas. This is Vibes’ first year and is the sister show to Aura. Like Aura, it has the same $20 coupon for visiting participating haunts. There are advertisements and sponsored ads, and it also has a social media following.
We approached the building on a stormy night, which thankfully had indoor waiting. Festive backdrops covered the walls, and each side had either St Patrick’s Day, Valentine’s Day, and Christmas dressed up mannequins. Hopefully, this is a foreshadowing of off-season events in the future.
The haunt is filled with repurposed items that were used as props. Depending on the scenes, sounds were used to cause anxiety due to the build-up in intensity or go off on cue with the actors popping out to execute scares. In between different scenes, black flaps were used to effectively reset and prepare the patrons. The Mirrors were placed on the walls with different framing, quite disturbing!
Psycho Scrum controlled the maze inside, which was a nice homage to Baldwin Asylum. The path is a bit confusing for the regular patrons, but they did an excellent job of confusing us who are seasoned by splitting it in half. It was quite a surprise for us, even though we are seasoned haunted house goers.
After exiting, there is a gift shop with branded shirts to buy and spooky accessories. Refreshments are also available to purchase if needed. There are also spooky dolls to choose from!
While this is their first year opening and less than one year of preparation for this season, we see a lot of potential throughout the years. We look forward to coming back next year and possibly more than once a year!
As mentioned before, Vibe has redesigned another haunted attraction into its own thing. Vibes holds its own and really lives up to its name as it feels so different than its sister attraction. Scenes here are much gorier in scenes and props. The first several scenes are more hospital-themed. The doctors here must have been butchers before getting their doctrine because these walls are covered in blood.
Lighting is dim throughout each scene, providing a great environment while progressing through the attraction. Another item spread throughout the haunt was mirrors. This made for some interesting scares, as with a quick glimpse in the mirror, a well-timed actor was able to reveal themselves in an interesting way. It feels like something out of a horror movie. In the clown areas, we found a very interesting maze we had to walk through. All the walls and the flaps are striped the same color, and every area is tight and in unison; this can make for a bit of anxiety as it feels very repetitive and long. It is quite interesting due to its simplicity and effectiveness. Sounds were pretty effective as well. One of the dark areas of the attraction had someone singing “pop goes the weasel” in an interesting melody with improved lyrics. It felt eerie to say the least.
Some of the timed props required calibration, as our whole group would walk by, and just before exiting, the triggered prop would activate late, causing us to miss it. This is something acknowledged by the creative team before we mentioned it to them, as they are fine-tuning these particulars. Overall, Vibe created a fun environment plagued with many scares throughout.
21. How scary was it? (35% of score): 8
22. How well did they provide scares to everyone in the group? (15% of score): 8.3
23. How predictable were the scares? (25% of score): 8.25
24. How well did they provide a wide variety (types) of scares? (10% of score): 8.2
25. How strong was the ending / finale? (15% of score): 8.25
The attraction itself is very unsettling because of all the low lighting and disorienting settings. Since you are occupied with looking around to find your way through the darkness, the actors can work to their advantage to startle guests and get them multiple times. The low lighting and flashes of strobes and fog joined together set the stage for some good scares to hit everyone in the group.
The utilization of lighting and disorienting situations allowed the actors to create perfect startle scares and be efficient with pop-outs. The scares were predictable but still fun. The scares provided worked well in a sensory way because of lighting, color, strobes, and cleverly timed pop-outs and roaming through scenes. The finale of the house is very fun because we walked out by the same clowns that were terrorizing us through the maze. We were immediately brought back to the concessions and gift shop area, and some characters were able to scare us here as well.
Our walkthrough time for Vibe came in at 19 minutes. General admission tickets online start at $30.5 for Vibe. This brings our Minute Per Dollar value to 0.57. This attraction provided many fun and scary scenes and moments, which is what this is all about! Being a first-year attraction, there are some kinks to be worked out; however, as a first-year haunt, it is clear the team behind Vibe used all their years of pro haunt building to have a great jumping off point.
We are excited to see this attraction grow in the upcoming seasons. We were told this will also be a premier attraction for off-season haunts such as Christmas and Valentine’s. This will be awesome for the Central Illinois area, as I imagine many of the attractions that will be closed will have their actors come and play for a melting pot of scares and fun!
601 Veterans Lane, Creve Coeur, Illinois 61610
