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VIDEO - Patch Fall Fun Guides: You Could Just Scream!

Area haunted houses offer extremely scary adventures.

Thrill-seekers looking for a frightening adventure don’t need to travel too far this Halloween season. Haunted houses draw thrill seekers from far and wide. Here are some nearby haunted houses:

  • Fear City in Morton Grove is Chicagoland’s newest and largest haunted house, at 40,000 square feet, and it has been getting rave reviews. Fear City provides plenty of haunting environments, with over 40 actors every night ready to jump out from any dark corner, or provide you with a good one-liner. Fear City takes visitors on a tour of the dark underbelly of the Windy City, and a grotesque meat-packing slaughterhouse. At one point guests pass through the mouth of a giant head and are swallowed alive. Fear City will be open throughout the month of October. Tickets are $25 and $35 for VIP passes.
  • Dungeon of Doom in Zion is considered one of the scariest haunted houses in the suburbs. Located in a turn-of-the-century house, it has 27,000 square feet of terror on two floors and staffs more than 80 actors nightly. Tickets are $16. A second attraction Buried Dead or Alive, in which visitors can experience being buried alive, is available as well for an extra charge.
  • The Realm of Terror in Round Lake Beach is also critically acclaimed as one of Chicagoland’s best haunted houses. Considered an extreme experience, visitors may have to duck or crawl, use stairs, possibly become wet, encounter extremely loud noises and music, strobe lighting, fog, live actors, and other theatrical and special effects. It is touted as a collaboration of the most horrifying things in existence, all in one affordable haunted house. Tickets are $15, RIP admission is $22 and gets visitors to the front of the line.
  • Fright Fest at Six Flags in Gurnee has three scary haunted houses, the Massacre Medical Center, Mausoleum of Terror and Studio 13, and there are scary adventures throughout the park. Tickets are $59.99 and the haunted houses cost extra.
  • St. Matthew’s Haunted House at 24500 N. Old McHenry Road, Hawthorn Woods. Features 15 rooms and more than 30 actors. Tickets are $12. There is also a kiddie haunted house for kids under 12 that costs $6.
  • McHenry Area Jaycees Haunted House is held at Knox Park Barn on Rte. 31, north of Bull Valley Rd., in McHenry. Admission is $9 and an express pass is $15. Take $1 off admission by bringing a canned food donation.

Interested in real haunted places?

  • Volo Auto Museum offers Haunted Trolley Tours through the 1848 farm that was featured on Discovery Channel and said  to truly be haunted. The one hour tour has two stops, the haunted barn and the vault. Tours run every Saturday and Sunday and cost $4.95 for adults and $2.95 for children.

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