Special Event: Nightmares Before X-Mas

The day before Halloween, something very tragic happened. After a month of hard work and undying efforts, Dream Reapers Haunted House in Melrose Park, IL, was robbed. The felonious thieves managed to crawl away with the safe that held approximately $150,000 of revenue. The money would have been used for the lease on the building and to help pay their acting staff.

To help recover some of the funds lost, the owners of Dream Reapers have decided to revamp their attraction with a Christmas theme and open their doors for two weekends in December.

Not only has major media television and newspapers been great in publicizing the event, but others in the haunt industry have surrounded Dream Reapers with love and support. Other haunted attraction actors and staff members have been quick to jump to Facebook and spread the word like wildfire.

The Staff of Haunted House Chicago along with at least 20 other haunted attractions from the Chicagoland area showed their support this weekend. Some donated their time and staffed the attraction while others brought as many as they could and paid admission to experience the nightmares.

If you missed this past weekend, or just want another chance to enjoy some of the spirit, Dream Reapers will be open this upcoming weekend, Friday, December 16th, and Saturday, December 17th. Admission is $20 and not only will you receive an outstanding fun and entertaining
show, but you will be supporting a great cause!

For more information, please go to: http://www.dreamreapers.com/

Nightmares Before Christmas - Help Out Dream Reapers!

From the Facebook Event Page (click the link for more info):

"The haunt you all know and love needs your help!! On October 30th, Dream Reapers was broken into and in the process, we were also robbed. This tragic event will force us to close our doors indefinitely. But monsters don't give up without a fight!

This December, we are doing a "fundraiser" and opening our doors to the public for a once in a lifetime event you have never experienced before! On December 9th and 10th we are turning our frightening haunt into a horrible Christmas-themed Nightmare! Come visit the dark and dank halls, but filled with some of the most visually disturbing Christmas themed scenes that you will never forget. Come spread Christmas cheer by invoking your worst fears!

Dream Reapers needs your help! Invite any and everybody. This will be an event that you'll never forget! Christmas never looked this scary! Admission is $20, and times are 7:00PM to 11:00PM. The zombie elves have arisen from their frozen graves to give you the most frightening experience of your life! Come see for yourself!

Also remember, if you cannot come, please make a donation to our cause to keep the dead alive...We are a family full of a passion that cannot die and will not.... Please support us...This was a tragedy, but support us so we can stay haunting you!!"

Many Chicagoland Haunted Houses OPEN THIS WEEKEND!

Halloween 2011 may have come and gone, but some haunted houses are just too evil to close their wretched gates without taking one last opportunity to scare you to death! Check the schedules for the haunted houses you may have missed this season, or for that one that was so cool you just have to go back - they might be open! Statesville Haunted Prison, The HHC Review Team's Top Pick for 2011, is open Friday November 4th & Saturday November 5th - head over to http://www.statesvillehauntedprison.com for details and a coupon!

The Official 2011 Top 13

The witching hour is close at hand. And before we say farewell to another Halloween season, it is time to unveil Haunted House Chicago's Official 2011 Top 13, as chosen by our Review Team.

After visiting and experiencing 36 attractions and traversing 2,704 miles this season, here is our list of the best around:

1. Statesville Haunted Prison & City of the Dead in Crest Hill, IL
2. Wisconsin Feargrounds in Waukesha, WI
3. Realm of Terror Horror Experience in Round Lake Beach, IL
4. Basement of the Dead in Aurora, IL
5. Amhurst Asylum Haunted Attraction in Valparaiso, IN
6. Asylum Xperiment in Villa Park, IL
7. Niles Haunted House Scream Park in Niles, MI
8. Lake Hills Haunted House in St. John, IN
9. Fear Itself at Legend Park in Mishawaka, IN
10. Spook Hollow & MC Manor in Marquette Heights, IL
11. The Haunted Infirmary at Bartonville Insane Asylum in Bartonville, IL
12. Dream Reapers Haunted House in Melrose Park, IL
13. Fear City in Morton Grove, IL

Please join us in congratulating these outstanding haunted attractions!

The 2011 New Haunted Attraction of the Year

Congratulations to The Haunted Infirmary at Bartonville Insane Asylum in Bartonville, IL, for being chosen as Haunted House Chicago's 2011 New Haunted Attraction of the Year!

Halloween 2011

Hello Halloween! We have been waiting for you! Whether this night & season was about trick-or-treating, haunted housing, dressing in costume, carving pumpkins, or parties, we hope that it was everything that you hoped for and more!

Thank you for joining us this and every season! We hope you enjoyed our website as much as we enjoyed making it!

From all of us at Haunted House Chicago to all of you and yours, we wish you a very safe, haunted, and Happy Halloween!

The 2011 Jim Warfield Acting Award Recipients have already been announced. But, stay tuned for the 2011 Top 13 Haunted Attractions!

The 2011 Jim Warfield Acting Award Winners

The HauntedHouseChicago.com Review Team has named their 2011 Jim Warfield Acting Award winners! They are David Raue as "Vladimir" and "Mad Dog" from Statesville Haunted Prison in Crest Hill, IL and Emma Leigh Smith as "Nancy" from Niles Haunted House Scream Park in Niles, MI, and Wisconsin Feargrounds in Waukesha, WI.

Congratulations to you both, and thank you for making all our lives a little bit scarier! The 2011 Top 13 Haunted Houses will be announced later tonight!

Watch Days of the Living Dead Season 3 Episode 7 NOW!

As Statesville Haunted Prison® enters the second week of the Halloween season, the Zombie Army team & crew pull together as the inherent stress of the job pulls at their sanity!

Get 41% Off Your Ticket at the Abyss on Saturday

The Abyss is running a 41% Off special Saturday night (the 29th) - details HERE.

People's Choice Vote Terminated Due to Cheating

Due to the fact that certain haunted houses simply can't resist the urge to try to cheat and stuff the ballot box in their own favor (yes, we know who you are), HauntedHouseChicago.com is doing away with the People's Choice Vote. The idea was to let the public vote for their favorites; what we're seeing are haunted houses paying people to do a technical end-run around our system. HauntedHouseChicago.com would rather kill this feature than see it abused to mislead our users.

You can still use the Skull Rating feature and write reviews for the haunted houses listed on this site, but from now on, only the HHC Official Review Team will be rating the top haunted houses each year.

Nightmares: Basement of the Dead Video

Do you have a 2011 video for your haunted house? Send the link to spirits@hauntedhousechicago.com!

Massacre Haunted House Video

Do you have a 2011 video for your haunted house? Send the link to spirits@hauntedhousechicago.com!

Dark Summit Haunted House Video

Do you have a 2011 video for your haunted house? Send the link to spirits@hauntedhousechicago.com!

RISE of the STRIPPING DEAD

CLICK FOR DETAILS

HauntedHouseChicago.com MOBILE!

Take HauntedHouseChicago.com with you this October with the new mobile version of the site! Find attractions near you and instantly get directions with your smart phone! Visit http://www.hhcmobile.com/ in your phone's browser, or just scan this with your phone:

Other Scary Fun in Chicago This Halloween & Beyond!

While HauntedHouseChicago.com is devoted to All Things Halloween & Haunted House in Chicagoland, it's only one of several websites that are devoted to bringing you spooky Chicago fun & events all year long!

• Like us on FACEBOOK & follow us on TWITTER to stay up to date on the latest contests, giveaways, horror movie sneak peaks and more!
• http://ChicagoHorror.com | Horror movie premieres & ticket giveaways, scary stage performances, dark book signings, spooky art exhibits - if it's dark-themed and it's in Chicago, it's here, complete with a calendar of events!
• http://ChicagoZombie.com | All Things Zombie in Chicago!
• http://ChicagoVampire.com | All Things Vampire in Chicago!

And head over to http://DarkChicago.com for a quick overview of what's going on with all of the sites above, plus many other Chicago-based dark businesses, stores, websites & companies!

Watch Days of the Living Dead Season 3 Episode 4 NOW!

In this week's episode, it's getting down to the wire, with only a week before Statesville^® Haunted Prison and City of the Dead open. See how the Zombie Army crew has bonded... which mostly means, see how they creatively torture each other! WATCH NOW!

Meet the Haunted House Chicago Review Team

At long last, you can meet the team that spends every October visiting dozens of Chicago-area haunted houses so that they can report back here with what they find. MEET THE TEAM!

When to Contact HauntedHouseChicago.com (and when NOT to)

If you have a question about HauntedHouseChicago.com specifically, haunted houses/Halloween in Chicago in general, want to interview somebody knowledgeable on Halloween, haunted houses and/or horror, or want to advertise on this website, absolutely contact HauntedHouseChicago.com.

If you're a haunted attraction or Halloween event owner/operator and need help getting your site correctly listed or updated, or are interested in one of our Featured or banner spots, please review the information on this page and, if you still have questions or want to secure your spot, contact HHC.

If you have a haunted house and you'd like it reviewed, or have a question about the review process, speak to our Chief Reviewer Kris.

If you notice something on the site appears to be broken or not working correctly, DEFINITELY contact HHC.

If you are a performer, actor, vendor or otherwise have a product or service you'd like to offer to or through haunted houses in Chicago, emailing us here at HauntedHouseChicago.com is not the way to go about that. HHC does not contact haunted houses on your behalf. What we have done for you, however, is provide a current list of active haunted houses within 180 miles of Chicago, complete with their contact information. Please contact them directly.

If you have a question about a specific haunted house that's not answered on this website, HauntedHouseChicago.com staff members don't have the answer - the individual haunted houses that list themselves on this site do. Please contact them directly.

PLEASE NOTE: ALL submissions to this site - haunted house listings, edits to those listings, reviews, etc., are first reviewed by HHC staff before they go live on the site. In other words, once you submit something, you WILL NOT see it immediately - one of our team will check it for accuracy, appropriate content and other factors and then, if it's good to go, will approve it into the live site.

Days of the Living Dead Season 3 Premieres

Days of the Living Dead Season 3 kicked off this week - here's Episode One:

See Episode 2 soon, or catch up on Seasons 1 and 2, at http://www.daysofthelivingdead.com

Statesville Haunted Prison Promo 2011

Do you have a video promo for your Chicagoland haunted house? Send a link to spirits@hauntedhousechicago.com! (Must be embeddable)

Haunted House Submission Link

It was just brought to our attention that the Haunted House Submission link didn't get updated with the rest of the site - this has been corrected and that link is HERE. You must be logged in to submit an attraction.

Getting Ready for Halloween 2011

We here at HauntedHouseChicago.com have spent the last few months working on the website, streamlining it and making it even easier to use. Part of that process required database upgrades which were unable to carry forward account passwords, so if you want to login to your old account, YOU MUST RESET YOUR PASSWORD.

Luckily, that's easy to do (as long as you still have access to the email address you used when you signed up for your account).

1. Just click "LOG IN" at the top of this page, then in the white box that appears, 
2. Click "Forgot your password?" You'll be asked for your HHC username and the email address you used when you created your account
3. Fill'em in, hit "Get New Password" and one will be sent to you, pronto!

FX Classes Taught by J. Anthony Kosar

First course will be the Art of Mask Making June, 2011.

In the Art of Mask Making course taught by artist J. Anthony Kosar, students will learn the professional process on how to design, create, and finish their own latex half-mask, beginning with character/creature concept design fundamentals. Next students will learn sculpting techniques used by FX masters in the industry, how to properly mold their sculpture in stone, and how to cast their mask in rubber latex.  Finally, students will learn various professional approaches to painting and finishing their mask for display, portfolio, and for wear.  This course will consist of lectures, demonstrations, and hands-on learning.  Be prepared to take notes. 

Course Fee: $375.00. Tools and Materials Included.

LIMITED SEATING AVAILABLE, ENROLL TODAY!

For Dates, Details, Directions, and Enrollment please visit website here:

http://www.kosarteffects.blogspot.com/p/classes.html

Second course will be The Art of Make-Up FX also in June 2011. See website for details!

Featured Banners SOLD OUT; Rotating Banners STILL AVAILABLE

All 10 Premium Listings sold as of earlier today (March 16). There are still spots available in the 2 horizontal rotating banners at the top of every page, however - details HERE!