haunt

The Raven’s Grin Inn: A Review and More

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NOTE: Call this paranormal activity or whatever you want, but out of the hundred or so photos I took in Illinois, the few that I took of  Raven’s Grin Inn either came out far too blurry or as just a black screen.  All pictures posted here are from other sources.

In the rural town of Mount Carroll, Illinois, lays a voluminous Victorian home whose decor sets it apart immediately from the others .  In addition to the usual painted sills and shudders of Victorians, this home, located at 411 North Carroll Street, boasts skulls, monster cars and even a skeletal pterodactyl.

It is the Raven’s Grin Inn, a year round haunted attraction that has been featured on Wild Chicago,  Extreme Homes and in the Chicago Tribune.

This haunt is unlike any other that you can experience.  Unlike most professional haunts, patrons of Raven’s Grin are led on tour through the attraction.  And their tour-guide is the eccentric, hilarious and sometimes horrifying Mr. Jim Warfield.

Warfield, owner, creator and resident of the Raven’s Grin Inn, was nice enough to not only allow me to experience his creepy creation, but to share with me the haunts history, as well as his own.

The Man with the Vision

Mr. Warfield, who says he was influenced by horror movies that his parents would take him to see as a boy and trace-books with battle tanks in them, wasn’t always the owner of a year-round-haunt.

Like many of us, Warfield spent years working with his hands on other people’s properties to earn a living, something that  helped to hone his abilities in construction.  His love of all-things-spooky and his unrivaled creativity drove him to buy the now-famous home, and make it into the attraction it is today.

Warfield had a dream.  He dreamed of building a haunted attraction (perhaps a haunted bed and breakfast) that was open everyday.  He worked hard to make this dream a reality, often receiving criticism from his fellow townspeople.  However, the day Raven’s Grin opened its doors for business it was already a success.

In Warfield’s own words, “The village idiot became the town hero.”

The House

Built in 1870, the house at 411 North Carroll has been a brothel, a school house and a car dealership.  Its walls have seen many things (some of them quite horrible) and they themselves have changed constantly over the years.

Purchased by Jim Warfield in 1987 (pictured above), the house has been under constant construction since.  It has transformed from a white sided beauty, to a house of horrors and hilarity.

Its halls have been morphed into mazes. Its rooms have been made into fear-inducing, laughter-causing scenes.  It has become more than a home; it has become an extremely entertaining haunt.

While the house has changed in appearance over the years, its haunted history has always been observed.

Paranormal Activity

Many people experience the presence of spirits at Raven’s Grin, including Warfield himself.

People claim to see a lady in white roaming the wine cellar and escaping into the ceiling (not an effect of Warfield’s). There are strange noises and sensations within the house and Warfield once saw a pair of jeans walk into the living room, unaccompanied by a body.

While there are an incredible amount of  stories of the paranormal taking place in Raven’s Grin, ghost stories are a large (and important) part of the experience at this attraction and I have to insist that you visit it yourself to hear more.

The Attraction

More than a house of horrors, Raven’s Grin Inn is a masterpiece of art, all created by Jim Warfield.  The attraction offers a mixture of hand-made robotics, animatronics, conventional art and performance art.

Just making your way inside the haunt is a fun and nerve racking ordeal.  The front door will surprise you and your first meeting with your host will make you question if you can stomach this adventure. Once you’re inside, things only get better.

You begin your adventure with an introduction from Warfield in which you hear the history of the house and some of its ghost stories. You then become completely convinced that its owner (your host for the next two hours) is insane.  Trust me, even the beginning of your tour will make you laugh, shiver and jump uncontrollably.

After this introduction, you are led through the house (and the mind of a madman) by Warfield. His creations and contraptions alone are amazing enough to be worth the price, but you also get to experience a ton of insane jokes and awkward moments (also led by Warfield).

You’ll discover that art can be terrifying and monsters hilarious.  You’ll laugh at a crude monster or mechanism, then you’ll pee from the panic of having something horrible lunge at you.  You’ll enter shaking in fear, and leave laughing uncontrollably

I won’t spoil the surprises for you, but I assure you the Raven’s Grin Inn has something for every personality type, and in several incidences, you are often given the option to forgo certain “surprises” if you aren’t comfortable with them (I recommend volunteering to go first for everything…it’s wonderful).

Go Already!

Seriously, if you haven’t already started planning your trip to Mount Carroll you are no longer allowed to read this blog.

Not kidding, go away.

This experience was, by far, the most memorable one that I have had in my fifteen-year-long career as a haunt fan.  If you have only been to the traditional haunts that spring up around October, you have no idea what you’re missing.

Raven’s Grin Inn is not only unique in its use of humor AND horror as entertainment, but its very walls bleed with the passion of its creator, and that is something that big-dollar-haunts often lack.

I’ll leave you with this link for Raven’s Grin Inn’s website and my favorite portion of my conversation with Mr. Jim Warfield:

Me: “Sir, you have the best job in the world…”

Warfield: “I know.”

Edited by a literary goddess.

How to Make Your Very Own Haunt with Limited Space and Finances

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The worst thing about being a Halloween fanatic is the tragic fact that the holiday of all holidays only comes once a year.  However, with October being less than half a year away (146 days until Halloween!), now is the best time for fanatics like myself to start planning.

If you’re anything like me, you love the various haunted house attractions that start opening up around the witching season and you feel so drawn to them that you want to create your own place of horrific magic and wonder for your friends and neighbors to “enjoy.”

You might, however, be worried about the cost of such a monstrous creation.  You may even worry that you simply don’t have the space to make your nightmare come true.

Well, you’re in luck.

Step 1: Plan your “Hauntspace”

Now I’ll tell you, I’ve made a lot of VERY amateur haunts when I was a young boy, but I’ve only made one in my adult life that I feel was successful.  However, the things I’ve learned from that experience have taught me that the most important thing when it comes to haunting your neighborhood is the planning.

First, decide on your “hauntspace,” that is, the area that you will be turning into your haunted house, or maze, or whatever.  I chose to use the backyard of the duplex I was living in at the time.  The space was very limited, but with a little planning and creativity it worked out fantastically.

Next, take measurements of your “hauntspace.”  This way you will know roughly how much material you will need.  The yard I used was about 40′ x 40′, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but trust me, it can work with far less space than that.

After you know how much space you have, start making rough blueprints of where you want your walls to be. This doesn’t have to be 100% perfect, but the better you do it, the easier it will be later on.

Now that you have your spooky schematics planned out, and you know exactly how your haunt should look, you can begin buying building supplies.

Step 2: Building Materials and Tools

As I stated above, my haunt was outdoors, in a rather small backyard.  Therefore, I am more of an expert on outdoor building than indoor, but the concept is about the same.  If you are building outside, you will need the following:

Black plastic sheeting (at least 4 mil thick)

Metal or wooden posts (at least 84 inches)

             Sledge hammer or mallet (preferably not rubber)

             Black zip ties, ropes, or twist ties (must be sturdy!)

 I was lucky enough to have a friend who is a construction worker, who loaned me a bunch of 7 ft. T-posts.  They worked fantastically and I highly recommend using them.

The black plastic sheeting will be used for your walls (and ceilings if you want to keep it dark), and the posts will be used to hold them up, which is, of course, where the zip ties come in.

It is probably a good idea to buy black duct tape in order to make repairs. I ended up having to use a Sharpie to color my duct tape (which turns purple somehow) because I didn’t think ahead.

If you’re building your haunt indoors, you won’t need the posts, because you can simply attach the plastic to the existing ceilings and floors of whatever building you are constructing your haunt in.

Use your blueprints to estimate how much plastic and how many posts you will need, and remember to always buy extra just in case!

Step 3: Construction

To begin construction, use sticks, spray paint, chalk, or something along those lines to mark where your walls will be.  Then, place a post on each end of every wall and at  five or six feet intervals in between in order to keep your walls standing firm.

Once you know where your walls and posts will be, begin pounding the posts into the ground using your sledge hammer.  The posts need to be able to withstand the wind, which the plastic will be trying to use like a sail boat, so make sure they are sturdy!

Now, roll out your plastic sheet to the distance you need for each wall and cut it.  Fasten one end of the plastic, using your zip ties (or rope), and then pull the plastic tight at the opposite end of your wall and fasten it there.

Once all of the ends of each wall are fastened, go around and fasten your plastic to the middle posts (which should be at 5-6 ft. intervals).

If you use the 10 ft. wide plastic sheets, you will have enough extra to let it lay on the ground a couple of feet or so once the walls are up.  I used regular tent stakes to pin theses extra flaps of plastic down, which gave my walls more stability.

This step is definitely the most strenuous, but I did the entire thing (along with the next step) on the morning of Halloween, with help from only one other person.  I HIGHLY recommend starting your construction at least a day before you plan to let the world step inside of your nightmare, it will save you a lot of muscle aches and nervous breakdowns.

Step 4: Decorate!

This is what it’s all about!  It’s all up to you how you decorate your haunt.  You can use themes, use only homemade decorations, or go all out and buy expensive animatronics!

I chose to do a mixture of old hand me down decorations and blowing of all my paychecks on the best animatronics Spirit had to offer (including that handsome son-of-a-bitch pictured above).

As I said, this part is entirely up to you, but I would recommend using a fog machine, strobe lights and as many gallons of fake blood as you can afford.

If you are going to have actors in your haunt, make sure their costumes fit with any themes you might have, or that they just look terrifying enough to be seen within the newly built walls of your haunt.

Final Step: Remember the Reason of the Witching Season.

Building your own haunt and reading this blog means that you are like me, you love the frightening feel of Halloween.  So, it should be enough for you that your haunt might bring a few more people into our way of thinking, right?

Use this experience as a way to share the amazingness (I’m aware that that’s not a word) of Halloween with your neighborhood.  Ask local kids to help you with building or decorating, allow neighbors to dress up and act in your haunt, offer candy to those who are brave enough to step foot in your creation, and most importantly, never, ever, EVER charge for entrance into your haunted attraction.

Seriously, if you want to charge people so that they may experience one of the best parts of the holiday, you are building for the wrong reasons, are a complete douche bag, and are no longer invited to Halloween.

Thanks for reading!