Every year during October, there’s always a huge wave of Halloween assortment and celebrations. From pumpkin patches to festivals and haunted houses, October serves as one of the most entertaining months of the year.

On the mention of haunted houses, there’s been the annual reopening of Scream Scene. At the abandoned Skokie water playground on 4701 Oakton Street, the haunted house is open on Fridays to Sundays from 7-10 pm. With a relatively cheap price compared to other houses, Scream Scene costs only $12 with some special offers to get admission into 2 other haunted houses. From the first day it opened, I went with a couple of friends. Arriving at around opening time at 7 pm, the lines were already pretty full, so we had to wait in line for a good five to ten minutes. The house lasted around 12 minutes total and by the time we got out, the lines were full. 

The haunted house itself was amazing. From the detailed visual effects, to the nice props, the haunted house is most definitely a fun Halloween activity to go to with friends or family. Although the actors never broke their character, their impressions weren’t as frightening as they could’ve been or expected to be.

Some actors put in a lot of effort, while others were just jump-scaring customers with no effort. There were a few characters that would follow my friends and me around the haunted house to scare us, but a lot of the other characters gave up pretty easily and went to find other kids. The visual effects of the entire house were gory and realistic, but in a good creepy way, to the point where you couldn’t tell if a certain prop was real or not. The overall scenery of the entire house was very well done, but the actors could’ve done much better and given more effort to truly get you spooked.

I went to the House of Torment Haunted House 2 years ago in Chicago, and it was a completely different experience. Located on 8240 Austin Ave in Morton Grove, this haunted house is open 24 hours a day, but it hasn’t been open for 2019. I went with my family and the entrance fee cost around $30 per person. For a relatively expensive price, it was worth the money.

The costumes were amazing and the actors were even greater. With every room, there was always an actor who scared us with cool costumes and terrifying impressions. The house kept me terrified yet happy, as I was laughing for an entire 30 minutes. Although this house is much more expensive, it’s experience and entertainment completely overshadows Scream Scene without a doubt. Scream Scene’s visual effects were about on par with the House of Torment, but it’s actors and their acting was very poor. 

Overall, Scream Scene’s display and the scenery were amazing. Their props and effects were really terrifying compared to a lot of other haunted houses I’ve been to. On the other hand, their actors were either really good or really bad, there was no in-between. They could have done a better job of finding actors who actually want to scare viewers and not lose their effort or character. Because of this, I would rate this haunted house a four out of five.