There are haunted houses, and then there are the places that make you question why you willingly walked through the front door.
Midnight Terror Haunted House in Oak Lawn falls firmly into the second category.
The industrial building at 5520 W. 111th St. is once again being transformed into a maze of monsters, fog, screams and things that are better left unseen as the attraction returns for another Halloween season.
Behind it all is Oak Lawn native Justin Cerniuk, a Marine veteran whose fascination with haunted houses started long before Midnight Terror became one of the area’s best-known Halloween attractions.
Cerniuk began creating haunted houses in his driveway when he was 10 years old. What started as a childhood hobby eventually grew into a large-scale production involving actors, designers and performers who spend months preparing for Halloween.
This year, Cerniuk said the focus is on making the experience more than a collection of scary rooms.
“We are focusing this year on enhancing the storytelling of the show,” he said.
That means putting the actors at the center of the experience.
Cerniuk said actor-based training remains important to him because Midnight Terror is meant to feel like a traditional haunted house, where the performers themselves are a major part of what makes each scene work.
The attraction employs about 120 actors, with roughly 90 performing on a typical night.
“It’s almost like theater but more creative in a different route,” Cerniuk said.
The performers come from a variety of backgrounds, including athletes and theater students, but they share a willingness to spend their fall nights hiding in the shadows, dressing as monsters and trying to make complete strangers scream.
And somewhere along the way, they become a family.
“We are a big group of friends that comes together every year for this,” Cerniuk said. “It’s a different kind of connection than the traditional 9 to 5 job.”
That sense of camaraderie is part of what keeps people coming back, both behind the scenes and through the doors.
Inside, visitors encounter Shadowtek, an abandoned industrial laboratory where Dr. Shroud’s experiments have gone terribly wrong. The haunt then moves into Black Oak Grove, a fog-covered village filled with vampires, werewolves, witches and mummies.
Then come the clowns.
Chainsaws are involved.
Enough said.
This season also brings a vintage feel to Midnight Terror, with classic Halloween monsters joining the newer horrors.
The scares begin before guests even enter the main attraction. The Rotten Hollow queue includes costumed characters, street performers, jugglers, stilt walkers, dancers and photo opportunities, giving visitors plenty to see while they wait.
“We’re so much more than just your average haunted house,” Cerniuk said. “We’re an entire event.”
Special events throughout the season offer visitors different ways to experience the haunt, including trick-or-treat hours with the lights on for younger children and special nights that turn the fear factor up another notch.
Midnight Terror also has earned national attention over the years, with recognition from Time Out, USA Today, ScareFactor.com and ScaryOverload.com.
But Cerniuk’s connection to the attraction goes back to something much simpler than awards or national recognition.
It started with a 10-year-old kid, a driveway and an interest in making people jump.
Now, more than 100 actors help bring his nightmares to life each fall.
And when the lights go down in Oak Lawn, the screams begin.
