Summary:

This year, the Lombard Jaycees adopted a hotel theme.  Upon entering "Hotel Tartarus", you made your way through several rooms that fit in with the hotel theme.  Separating the scenes were several lengths of long, winding hallways.  Some of which where completely dark and intimidating, while others were more brightly lit, due to the visible reflection off the ceiling of the building (which was a little distracting).   There were times when you had to walk up and down ramps to get to various areas, which made your tour more interesting.  The rooms inside the house included the boiler room, janitor's closet, hotel bar, mail room and more.   

There were some really interesting scenes.  The janitor's closet featured ladders, a sink, mop & bucket and a flickering light. A girl was tied up, screaming for patrons to help her, while a murderous janitor just laughed and said "She'll be alright.  Now leave!".  The boiler room was nice.  It was illuminated by a red floodlight, with pipes & air ducts running along the walls and it had a few actors lurking in the corners to scare you.  I liked the scare in the mail room.  This scene was set-up like a regular mail room, with mail bags stacked up in the corner and cubby-holes for the mail to go into.  On the surface of the counter was a bell, which of course someone in the group had to ring.  As soon as that happened, an actor jumped out to scare the group.  

I did notice that there were some missed opportunities in a couple of areas.  The in-ground pool scene was nice, but nothing happened.  There was no scare, and there were no actors in the vicinity.  Another example is their casino.  The room itself was very large, but it wasn't very detailed and the lack of props gave it an "empty" feel.  There was a crap table on one side of the room and a poker table on the other side, which had been attached to the wall to give the illusion that it was floating in mid air.  There weren't any actors in this scene either.  Another area housed a bar scene, with a nice hardwood bar, pool table and various beer signs on the walls.  The only actor in the room was a man in a mask and a White Sox jersey who stared people down as they walked by.  Having a bartender standing behind the bar would have been a nice touch.    

The actors were somewhat of a mixed bag. Some were eager to jump out and scare you, while most of them seemed a little less energetic.  Some areas had an ample amount of actors; however, there were others that didn't have any.  A few extra actors placed here and there would have made for a more scary trip through.  The medium scare factor makes this event appropriate for most patrons.   

I liked how the Lombard Jaycees picked a theme and stuck with it through the entire haunted house.  Not a lot of attractions do that.  It is one of the larger haunted houses in the Chicagoland area, taking nearly twenty minutes to get through.  This event was great, but with a few extra actors in key places and maybe some darker hallways, it would have been even better.  If you get the chance, be sure to visit this attraction.  For the money spent, it's a good deal.

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