Dungeon of Doom Haunted House

Tonight is the opening night of Dungeon of Doom, the leading haunted attraction in the Midwest! Located in Zion, IL less than an hour from Chicago and Milwaukee, Dungeon of Doom delivers a bone chilling experience that you will not find at any other haunted attraction in the Midwest! Last night I had the misfortune of sacrificing it all to endure this haunting experience, barely making it out alive!!!

All Images Courtesy of Dungeon of Doom

I do not think that there could have been a better location for Dungeon of Doom, co-owner Peter Koklamnis states, "We're not about the location, we're about the destination!"  The haunted attraction lives up to that statement, driving through the rural roads just to get there sets the tone for a spooky evening. It did not help that I was driving up there alone and was listening to 24/7 horror station SCRM Radio. The whole time driving up there thinking to myself, "Man, this would really be a great beginning to a gruesome horror movie."

One of the biggest haunted attractions you will find in the Midwest with over 42,000 square feet of pure chaos. It takes willing souls about an hour to go through the experience, nearly three times longer than other haunted attractions similar in price. With several twist and turns it is easy to get lost inside, trust me, I got lost and had to relive two nightmares. Plus I walked through alone and the killer team held nothing back in the pursuit to scare me, leaving me slightly terrified.

Dungeon of Doom has amped-up their technology, theatrics, special effects and killer team for this haunt season. One room had a lighting effect that gave the illusion that all the walls were moving with me as I was walking through, leaving me disoriented. The Hades Boiler Room made me feel like I was boiling to death. Another key feature included the claustrophobic scare sensation of being buried alive! Lasting only a minute but feeling like an eternity, Buried Dead or Alive can only be experienced at Dungeon of Doom. Plus many more spook-tastic theatrics and special effects throughout!

The haunted attraction is constantly adding and improving season after season. This year they have added a new attraction The Sacrifice-Tomb of Doom, an exclusive attraction of pure chaos that will immerse attendees into an evil temple. The deep underground damp and cold surroundings of huge rock formations (which feels great walking into after experiencing the Hades Boiler Room) is watched by elusive guarded Warriors.

Prior to my experience of the terrors at Dungeon of Doom Haunted House, I got to speak with co-owner Peter Koklamanis to better brace myself for the unleashing of my fears.

Halfstack: How long have you been in the haunt industry?
Dungeon of Doom: We are approaching our 21st season haunting the Chicago/Milwaukee Area.

H: Have any true events inspired Dungeons of Doom?
DoD: No, we do not wish to use the true events to scare thrill-seekers.

There is a science to scaring people, we hoped to have found the key to scare. We put a lot of emphasis into the science when training our performers to analytically scare through out the walk through.

H: Biggest liabilities, how scary is too scary?  
DoD: The level of scare can vary from person to person. Some have experienced panic attacks while walking through, which is a result of the senses being unprepared for what they will experience next.  

H: What is the most innovative scare tacit seen at Dungeons of Doom?
DoD: Darkness-It doesn't appeal to the normal senses. As beautifully decorated as our decor is, we still immerse the audience in an environment of darkness to evolve the senses. "It's got to be dark, but beautiful." Dungeon of Doom is not completely pitch black dark but dark enough to where you cannot find anything around the corner. We want to trigger the "Fight-or-Flight" response in every single one of our thrill-seekers.

H: Biggest challenges that you and your team have face this year?
DoD: This year has been pretty great, we have a killer team and we are very optimistic for this upcoming season.

The main challenge that we are constantly faced with is keeping up with the perception of real life vs people watching a movie in the theater. Since we are face to face with our audience, they get a glimpse of the raw detail our special effects team uses to create a scary face without digital effects to make our monsters look like monsters in the movies. While in a movie, it's all digital so the special effect artists and multimedia designers can put the finest of details to make a face look really cool and scary.

H: You have a new attraction The Sacrifice-Tomb of Death, how soon do you start researching for a new attraction?
DoD: Immediately, while its still fresh in out heads. We start brainstorming new ideas during the haunting season while we are walking through. We take customer feed back from their experience and ask what they would like to see in a haunted attraction into consideration as well.  While this year we are launching the 4,000 square foot new, never before seen The Sacrifice-Tomb of Death, we have also made additions to our 7 in-theme zones within Dungeon of Doom.

H: How long does it take you and your killer team to set up for the season?
DoD: This year we opened our new Edge of Escape Rooms, planning and set up for that took place between November to March. We set up Dungeon of Doom between March and September.

Dungeon of Doom is now open until November 4. General admission tickets start at $25 and for those looking for the ultimate adventure, VIP and season passes are also available online. I highly recommend that you sacrifice it all to check out this gruesome, bone chilling experience.