Summary:

The Lombard Jaycees Haunted House was a collection of simple scenes, each separated by lengths of dark hallways.  The devil room had church pews, tall concrete columns and fire painted on the walls.  Upon entering the scene, a devil character approached, asking if I wanted to stay.  The graveyard was one of the more visually appealing scenes in the haunted house.  It was bathed in blue light and had real trees, tombstones and lengths of white picket fencing that lined both sides of the path.  I also liked the dungeon scene, which had two girls chained to the wall, shackled by the wrist.  The gray cinder block walls appeared to be oozing something green between the blocks.  As patrons walked by, the girls screamed, begging to be set free.  Other scenes in the haunted house featured an open casket ceremony, clowns and an insane asylum with padded walls.    

A few of the actors were energetic, with well-timed scares; however, it seemed that quite a few who were a lot more passive and seemed unsure of their roles.  In one scene I caught an actor peaking around the corner, to see if anyone was coming.  Also, in the alley scene, I walked in on one of the staff members conversing with two of the actors.  It was a little disappointing to see a staff meeting being conducted in full view of patrons and not backstage.  In all fairness, I did visit on their opening weekend.  Perhaps everybody wasn't quite "in the groove" yet.

This year the Lombard Jaycees Haunted House was fun to go through.  There were some nice scenes, but overall the attraction was considerably shorter than it was last year.  Unfortunately the Lombard Jaycees had some tough challenges this year that had apparently put them behind schedule.  I also visited on their opening weekend, which didn't help matters any, either.  With all of that taken into consideration, I think they did a decent job with the limited time they had to set up.   

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