Located in Melrose Park (about 40 minutes away from Lemont) is supposedly one of the scariest haunted houses in the Chicagoland area: 13 floors. I’ve been to Statesville Haunted Prison and all of the haunted houses at Six Flags Fright Fest, so I was very curious as to how scary this house was actually going to be.

13 Floors, which is open all year round, always has many advertisements on TV and social media. In the ads, there is a little girl saying, “13th Floor, 13th Floor” in a creepy voice, making the haunted house sound intense and intriguing.

Recently, Rebecca Bertram and I decided to go. 13th Floor did not look like what I expected; it is located within a big warehouse which is next to other warehouses. There is parking across the street in a reserved area for guests.

The ticket stand is located within the warehouse where you also wait in line to go into the actual haunted house. The price of the tickets was quite pricey; one ticket came out to be $32, compared to the $30 cost for the Six Flags Fright Fest haunted house wristband that includes six haunted houses, not just one.

While in line, there are characters who try to spook the guests, similarly to Statesville. Having the characters interact with the guests made the 35 minute wait not feel as long.

Finally, we made it up to the front of the line. Before anyone enters, there is a creepy looking character who explains all the rules and then a small amount of people are let in the house at a time.

The first room was dimly lit and I already got a creepy vibe, expecting a person to jump out and scare me. As I walked through, I became less and less scared. My friend and I were even making jokes about it after just walking through it for a few minutes.

The decorations were very elaborate and detailed for each room. But the house was lacking on actual actors. About half of the rooms were empty of actors; the ones that did have them didn’t have that many. When they would pop up, it started to get old and was not as scary as the first  pop-ups. The makeup on the characters wasn’t even done that well compared to Statesville Haunted Prison. The best room within the haunted house is one in which the whole room is turned sideways which made it tricky and a mind game to walk through, but still fun.

“When I first saw the previews, I didn’t really want to go,. But, when I did go, I had a lot of fun getting scared. It wasn’t as scary as I heard it was supposed to be,” said Bertram.

The house was about a 30 minute walk through. Overall, I wasn’t very impressed; I didn’t feel that scared afterwards or that I was glad it was over. It is not worth the $32 and I think that 13 Floors is definitely not “the scariest haunted house in the Chicagoland area,” as it is claimed to be.