Get Your Halloween Frights Early at Fear City

Find clowns creepy? Have a touch of claustrophobia? Don’t like hospitals? Whatever you’re afraid of, chances are you’ll encounter it at Morton Grove’s Fear City.

The massive, 40,000-square-foot haunted house opened Saturday at a warehouse at 8240 N. Austin Ave. The inside is set up with a huge wraparound line, like one you might find at an amusement park, allowing everyone to wait for their scares indoors.

Earlier:

The entertainment starts before you actually enter Fear City. Television screens play disturbing clips previewing what you’ll see inside. Performers tease and chat with guests about what they’re about to see. While you wait, you can buy a drink and snacks from a concession stand stocked by  and Vienna Beef.

But the real frights start once you enter and board a model “L” car. Fear City keeps groups small, limiting them to about four to six people, making it easy for you to get separated into the haunted attractions.

“You get a lot more personal attention,” said co-owner Chuck Grendys.

Fear City takes guests on a tour of Chicago and horror tropes. There’s a fun house maze that you enter through former-Governor Rod Blagojevich’s gaping mouth, a rundown Cicero hotel and a gore-filled Fulton Market slaughter house. Wrigley Field becomes the decidedly less friendly confines with the addition of demonic, flesh eating goats.

“The sets were awesome and I liked that it was a lot of Chicago stuff,” said Chicago resident Jackie Cordts.

Grendys is the owner of Chicago’s Big City Sets and his partner, Jim Lichon, worked as art director for The Oprah Winfrey Show. They got the idea to do a haunted house together in June 2010 and spent that Halloween season researching, visiting 22 haunted houses to decide what elements they liked and what they didn’t. They designed the sets for Fear City, with nearly everything being handmade.

The pair chose Morton Grove as the location because it gave them access to a large space close to Chicago.

“The town was aggressively looking to attract new businesses, even if it was outside the box,” Grendys said.

One of the ways Fear City distinguishes itself from other haunted houses is using a huge cast of actors rather than mechanical scares. Through casting calls in Chicago and Morton Grove, Fear City hired 75 people to perform in the haunted house and work the box office. About 20 more people were hired as security and parking attendants.

On Sunday there was a crowd lined up outside even before the doors opened at 7 p.m. Grendys said the reception has been positive so far, but they’re working on training the actors to make things scarier.

“It’s a new haunt,” Grendys said. “We’re just trying to get the word out of who we are and what’s going on.”

Fear City tickets are $25 or $35 for VIP entry which allows you to skip the line. For more information, check the web site for dates and times.

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