Highly Recommended Haunts: DISTURBIA: SCREAMS IN THE PARK at Rosemont

Halloween Haunts On Our Radar:

“DISTURBIA: SCREAMS IN THE PARK” RETURNS TO TORMENT MB FINANCIAL PARK VISITORS THIS OCTOBER

Back in the day, I spent 3 years working a haunted house during the Halloween season as Carrie and a bloody bride, and it was great fun. I'll admit to making grownups pee themselves in terror, cry, and one women even ran screaming through the emergency exit. I'm retired from the gig now, but I'll always have a soft spot for those days, and I'm happy to send my readers to excellent haunts that may just have the same effect.

MB Financial Park’s acclaimed interactive horror experience “Disturbia: Screams in the Park” will return to the basement level of the MB Financial Park parking garage (5501 Park Place) Friday, Sept. 30. The sinister attraction, featuring 20,000 square feet of terror with more than 35 rooms, will remain open through Monday, Nov. 5. Tickets are now available.

Guests of “Disturbia: Screams in the Park” determine their own fate based on the choices they make while traversing the inescapable halls of the haunt. New experiences for 2016 include a multi-level underground sewer where dark and ominous waters await; and a petrifying swamp filled with unnerving creatures waiting to torment unsuspecting trespassers. The haunt’s newly remodeled exit is sure to haunt the dreams of its victims – as long as they are able to escape unscathed.

“Disturbia: Screams in the Park” is a product of Joseph and Mike Pantano. The attraction’s highly interactive nature and high quality settings help distinguish it from other haunts in the Chicago area. In its debut year, “Disturbia: Screams in the Park” was ranked third by the Chicago Tribune and Haunted Illinois in their lists of top Chicago-area haunted houses.

Tickets and More Information

“Disturbia: Screams in the Park” is an indoor environment that operates rain or shine. General admission tickets are $25 per person Sundays through Thursdays and $30 per person Fridays and Saturdays. VIP tickets, which allow ticketholders quicker access and less wait time for the haunt, are also available for $40 per person. Discounted tickets are available for groups of 10 or more at www.grouptix.net. Visitors are encouraged to purchase tickets in advance at www.disturbiascreams.com. Tickets can also be purchased on-site.

A minimum age of 13 is recommended for the haunt and parental discretion is advised. The haunt is open from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Tuesdays through Thursdays and Sundays and from 7 p.m. to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.

Below are the days of operation:

• September 30 - October 2

• October 7 - 9

• October 14 - 16

• October 20- 23

• October 26 - 31

• November 4 - 5 (pitch black experience; all lights in the haunt will be turned off)

Parking is free with validation from the haunted house ticket booth. After parking in the MB Financial Park parking garage, guests can follow signage directing them to the main elevators located in the middle of the parking garage and take the elevators to “LL” to descend into the underground world of “Disturbia: Screams in the Park.”

About The Village of Rosemont, Illinois: Rosemont, Illinois, Chicagoland’s business and entertainment suburb, is conveniently located five minutes from O’Hare Airport and twenty minutes from Chicago’s downtown. Rosemont is home to the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, a wide variety of hotel and dining options, Allstate Arena, Rosemont Theatre and a host of entertainment and retail venues. Rosemont continues to grow and evolve based on the new vision of Mayor Bradley A. Stephens. For more information, visit www.Rosemont.com.

About The MB Financial Park at Rosemont: MB Financial Park at Rosemont is a 200,000 square-foot entertainment and dining complex whose 13 venues offer upscale international cuisine, live music and comedy, state-of-the-art film, bowling and more. Conveniently located near O’Hare International Airport, MB Financial Park at Rosemont is easily accessible from Chicago as well as the suburbs. The address is 5501 Park Place, a looping street situated west of River Road between Bryn Mawr and Balmoral Avenues.  A 20-minute drive from Chicago’s Loop, MB Financial Park at Rosemont is walking distance from the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, the CTA Blue Line Rosemont station, Fashion Outlets of Chicago and the Rosemont Theatre. Convenient parking is available and is free with validation from any of the park’s venues. For more information, visit www.mbparkatrosemont.com.

Disturbia Haunted House Review

Guest post by Jane Zawadowski exclusive to ChiILMama.com

Disturbia: Screams in the Park is shriek out loud, laugh out loud, heart pounding fun. It's located at Rosemont in the basement level of the parking garage at MB Financial Park at Rosemont (5501 Park Place) and open through November 1. 

Located in the basement of a parking garage, “Disturbia” gets instant points for its site. Haunted prisons and insane asylums abound, but the lower level of a parking ramp scares me any day of the year. As soon as we parked the car, we were wondering whether the experience had started yet.

Of course, it doesn’t start until you pass the ticket booth, and once at the entrance we were thoughtfully startled, then menaced by dutiful clowns and blood spattered, intimidating thugs while we waited our turn in line to descend into the unknown.

The experience itself will not leave you sleepless or traumatized. You probably won’t have nightmares unless you are indulging a standard phobia. On this score, “Disturbia” does not disappoint. I am claustrophobic, saw it coming, and still struggled to get through the “smothered in a small space” encounter without losing it and flipping out, but for $25, I expect to get my heart rate up. 

It is possible to be separated from your friends if you aren’t paying attention, which clearly caused stress to the women in front of us who kept yelling for their lost comrade. It is possible to be startled, startled, and startled again, the bread and butter of any haunted house. 

Interiors are often visually interesting and attention has been paid to creating texture in the environment. Sand on the floor, doors you must push past, sets you must walk around, and lighting tricks keep things interesting enough that everything feels unexpected.

In the end, “Disturbia” is a typical walk through haunted house, with a familiar format and some novel touches mixed in with old, tried and true standbys. “Prisoners” behind cages will bang and yell, clowns will stomp up to you and scream, there will be at least one dismembered “body” on a bloody table, but there will be enough surprises here that it won’t feel like the same old thing unless you are a Halloween Scrooge that refuses to be scared by anything.

“Disturbia” is a decently executed take on the quintessential haunted house experience that we have all come to know, love, and ask ourselves why we thought this was a good idea in the first place once we get to the front of the line.

DISTURBIA: SCREAMS IN THE PARK IN ROSEMONT COMBINES THE THRILLS OF TWO HAUNTED HOUSES INTO ONE TERRIFYING AND INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCE THIS OCTOBER

Haunt Features 20,000 Square Feet of Terror With More Than 35 Rooms Where Guests’ Determine Their Fate

Only the bravest should dare to enter Disturbia: Screams in the Park at Rosemont in the basement level of the parking garage at MB Financial Park at Rosemont (5501 Park Place). There are terrors every step of the way in this immersive haunted house experience, where guests become part of an interactive world of horror, complete with an industry-unique entry that sucks guests into the haunt—whether they are ready or not.  Disturbia: Screams in the Park will remain open through Saturday, Nov. 1. 

Disturbia: Screams in the Park is a product of Joseph and Mike Pantano, who previously ran Disturbia Torment of Fears in Addison, Ill., which was voted number one in Haunted House Chicago’s 2009 and 2010 Patron’s Choice Awards. The brothers brought the highly interactive nature and high quality sets of Disturbia to Rosemont’s Screams in the Park to create the ultimate horror experience—Disturbia: Screams in the Park. The haunts at Disturbia: Screams in the Park progressively grow to be deeper and darker, leaving its guests in the Pits of Hell by the time they exit the haunt.   

Even past visitors of Screams in the Park will find their fortitude tested as they traverse the possessed and unpredictable halls of pure evil at Disturbia: Screams in the Park. The 2014 haunted house features new sets and a remodeled floor plan, in addition to brand new characters and scares that are sure to place guests in an unescapable real life nightmare.

Tickets and More Information

Disturbia: Screams in the Park is an indoor environment that operates rain or shine. General admission tickets are $25.  VIP tickets, which allow ticket holders to skip the line and gain immediate entrance to the haunted house, are also available for $35. A minimum age of 13 is recommended and parental discretion is advised.  Visitors are encouraged to buy their tickets in advance at www.disturbiascreams.com. Walk-up tickets will be available on site.  The haunted house is open from 7 p.m. to 12 a.m. on the following upcoming days:

• October 16 – 19
• October 22 – 26
• October 28 – 31
• November 1

Parking is free with validation from the haunted house ticket booth.  From inside the parking garage, follow the signs to The MB Financial Park main elevators located in the middle of the parking garage and push “LL” to descend down into the underground world of Disturbia: Screams in the Park.

About The Village of Rosemont, Illinois: Rosemont, Illinois, Chicagoland’s business and entertainment suburb, is conveniently located five minutes from O’Hare Airport and twenty minutes from Chicago’s downtown. Rosemont is home to the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, a wide variety of hotel and dining options, Allstate Arena, Rosemont Theatre and a host of entertainment and retail venues. Rosemont continues to grow and evolve based on the new vision of Mayor Bradley A. Stephens. MB Financial Park at Rosemont features an array of great dining and entertainment options. For more information, visit www.Rosemont.com.

About The MB Financial Park at Rosemont: MB Financial Park at Rosemont is a 200,000 square-foot entertainment and dining complex whose 13 venues offer upscale international cuisine, live music and comedy, state-of-the-art film, indoor skydiving, bowling and more. Conveniently located near O’Hare International Airport, MB Financial Park at Rosemont is easily accessible from Chicago as well as the suburbs. The address is 5501 Park Place, a looping street situated west of River Road between Bryn Mawr and Balmoral Avenues.  A 20-minute drive from Chicago’s Loop, MB Financial Park at Rosemont is walking distance from the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, the CTA Blue Line Rosemont station, Fashion Outlets of Chicago and Rosemont Theatre. Convenient parking is available. For more information, visit www.mbparkatrosemont.com.