This March, the staff of HauntedIllinois.com attended Transworld's 17th Annual Halloween and Attractions Show (featuring the Haunt Show). The convention seemed to have a different feel, for some reason, compared to previous years. Perhaps Transworld's registration fee was a contributing factor.  For the first time in the history of the show, Transworld Exhibits Inc. added a mandatory $60 entry fee to the existing registration requirements ($50 if you paid in advance, online). I'm not 100% sure why they did it, but one could surmise that this was done in order to increase the ratio of serious buyers on the show floor and to reduce the number of attractions that brought their entire crews.  If that was indeed the reason, I can understand Transworld’s rationale; however, this could also work against them, in the long run.  I'm not sure if overall show attendance was affected by this policy change, but I do know of at least three lower-budget Illinois haunted attractions that decided not to attend the Haunt Show, as a result.    

Because the convention was no longer free to attend, they beefed up security, to ensure that only qualified individuals made it onto the show floor. Not only were attendees required to wear their badges, but they also had to wear non-removable plastic security wristbands the entire weekend. I was told that this added security measure was necessary, in order to prevent people from passing their badges to other individuals who hadn’t paid the entry fee. 

As for dynamic of the show floor itself, the ratio of Haunt Vendors vs. Wholesale Vendors was quite different from last year. While there was a significant increase in the size of the haunt section of the show, there seemed to be a drastic reduction in the number of wholesale vendors that were present. This really wasn't an issue for me personally, since the haunt vendors were the ones I was really interested in seeing, anyway.

This year, the show didn't have nearly as many revolutionary products, as it did clever adaptations of existing concepts. Even so, there were a lot of great products to see on the show floor. The following vendor booths really caught my eye: Creepy Collection, Dead House Designs, Gore Galore, Midnight Studios FX, Poison Props, Scarefactory and Zombie Safari Paintball. All of these vendors, and many more, are featured in the picture gallery and video sections of this review.    

Throughout the next several pages you will find more than 400 pictures taken at the Insane Shane Party, on the show floor, at the Renaissance Grand bar and more!  The pictures taken on the show floor are labeled with company names, with hyperlinks to their websites, so you can find out more information about the products & services that they have to offer.  There are also 30 video clips of some great animatronics and visual effects that were seen at Transworld.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy the write-up! 

Happy Haunting,

Adam Drendel
Webmaster of HauntedIllinois.com