2024 was my second time to this haunted prison. It's a fun experience to do with friends! Was I genuinely scared at any point? No. But I love the decor, creepiness of it & the fact that your ticket includes the haunted prison, zombie shooting, then a third attraction at the end, more of a maze with strobe lights. There's a bar in the the main area where you can drink, as well as food truck(s) and a T-shirt shop. You can always add on the hidden bar feature that allows you to take 2 shots at different points in the haunted house & zombie shooting. (Shots are generally liquor with a mixer). You can purchase thru Costco for cheaper ticket deals! read more

See all

Excellent attractions with dedicated actors and staff. I recommend getting the fast pass since the lines can get very long.

I've been meaning to check out this haunted prison. I love the fact that it's actually in an old prison, which definitely adds to the scare factor. It is three attractions included with your ticket. The main prison haunt, zombie laser tag, and a maze. You can also purchase mini games (5 minute escape rooms). I enjoyed myself lots of Jumpscares but granted I get scared at basically everything. Overall, it was a fun experience. If you can find a non peak time to go that would be better. They try to have groups go through so you can experience it and get the scares to yourself but we ended up catching up to a group so they got the scares. It's a haunted house so I'm not going to get very detailed, that would ruin the fun. read more

See all

I visited the Old Joliet Haunted Prison for the first time in 2022 - I visited again for a second time in 2023, and I have to say - MASSIVE improvement from last year. The haunted house has been extended from a 20 minute house to a 45 minute experience - the 1st part of the house is inside the actual cell blocks of the prison, the new 2nd part of the house is a zombie laser tag (they give you laser guns to shoot zombies, and the 3rd part of the house is a maze like outdoor walkthrough. They greatly improved from last year and I'd definitely recommend a visit this Halloween season. read more

See all

This haunted prison is done so well. The people working there were really polite and seem to enjoy their job.

Scary! My wife was freaked out to the core. We went for a fast pass option, which was definitely nice. Skip the line would be even more fun than regular had a lot of people in them which was probably an hour wait since we had about 20 people ahead of us and it took us over 20 minutes. Each group had a Headstart of a minute and a half so that there was a gap in both the groups. We can say bigger the group, faster the line moved There were 3 fun areas, fun area #1 was awesome very scary watch out for scary ghosts everywhere. Area#2 killing zombies was all right! Was more like easy killings Area #3 too much flashy, got me dizzy. Overall a fun experience took an hour and 15 mins, highly recommend. read more

See all

As a person who loves scare this has to be one of the best Haunted Houses I have visited! There were a total of 4 attractions for $39!!! Well worth it! read more

Talk about a wasted opportunity. A once in a lifetime venue to make an amazing haunted house, but it's let down by lazy design, lack of actors and being....boring. Haunt 1, the actual prison: Most cells were closed or had nothing going on in them. Lots of walking around and nothing happening. The zombie shootout, haunt 2, was clearly an afterthought and was laughable. Lots of walking around large empty spaces with barely any set decoration and every once in a while you'd have to shoot a mannequin. Haunt 3 was some sort of maze that literally had nothing in it. Just a flashing strobe light. Nothing to look at. Literally bare, wooden plank walls. One actor towards the end. Awful. Not recommended for the price. There are way better options. read more

Where to begin. The spookiest thing about Joliet Haunted Prison is the location itself, which left me feeling a little leery about the whole experience once I left. Actually being there is a stark reminder of how much suffering happened there, and it makes attending a haunted house set in a place where people lived and died in tiny bleak rooms feel gross, especially in retrospect. Ah well. But on to the quality of the haunt itself, which I will frankly say is scammy at the price. Overall, the experience feels understaffed. There were just two scare actors wandering around when we got there, and they were barely engaging with people. Inside the attractions, live actors were far and few between, and mostly just walked around looking menacing rather than actively scaring us. Roughly 70% of the 'scares' are just mannequins and animatronics with lighting effects. The scariest thing in the whole place was walking down one corridor of empty cells expecting something to jump out - which never did. 1. DO NOT PAY FOR THE SECRET BARS. The 'Secret Bars' are, in reality, two small rooms off the main haunt areas with a few decorations where you are offered a thimble-sized shot of orange juice and vodka at one, and cranberry and vodka at the other. We were expecting somewhere we could hang out for a minute and order a drink - nope! You pay $15 for a pair of tiny shots and no experience. I felt like I might as well have lit fifteen singles with a match. 2. The first haunt area was the best executed. It's inside the cell block, and there were some genuinely good scares and scare actors, but also broad swathes of nothing. For example, the walk up to enter the cell block had 0 scares and no ambience. Compare this to Hellsgate, my previous 5/5 experience, where they had everything from scare actors to fire dancers. 3. The worst part of the experience was the 'laser tag' section. By 'laser tag,' they mean you get a laser gun with infinite ammo that you can fire at mannequins and animatronics wearing collars that light up. That is it. There were two scare actors in this entire section. I've seen this billed as 25 minutes - it took us a whole 10 minutes to walk through. Unbelievably bad. 4. The final labyrinth at least had some claustrophobia going for it and a few good scares. It also had three (count them THREE) guys with chainsaws because they had clearly run out of ideas, no real theming, and a section in the middle where they had dropped stinkbombs that smelled so vile my friend threw up. For the money, this just isn't worth it. Almost 70 dollars for a mediocre haunt experience and two thimbles of alcohol, when Hellsgate is around the corner? Save your money and don't waste your time. read more

This was really bad. Went tonight and there were very few scares. So much just walking with out any actors. Theres so many places for the actors. But there were very few there. That and they pushed the groups in to close together so that we were on top of each other. Whatever jump scares were gonna happen we saw coming. Huge waste of money. read more

The staff was friendly. The wait for general admission was not too bad at 7pm on a Sunday. Longest wait was for the 1st of the 3 attractions. Attractions are both outside and inside. They do have food you can purchase if you want to stay and play some o the lawn games outside. read more

The Old Joliet Haunted Prison - Haunted Houses Near Me - Joliet, Illinois

Don't buy the jm hidden bar tickets it's just a beer yiu can pay less at the drink counter while waiting. Went to see it. I do love haunted houses. So I did the whole package with all the extras. Was a little pricey but not to bad. We a started with getting our wristbands for our fun cocktail we were supposed to have in the second event. We were there early so we waited till they let us into the first house. I will say it was pretty cool. There's some amazing things they do. I don't want to give away anything but a lot of jump scares and really good actors, so it was enjoyable. then we made our way to the second event, which was a laser tag kill a zombies and that event is where we were supposed to get our cocktail this I do have a problem with so I paid 10 extra dollars per person to get a fun cocktail. I don't remember the name of it, but it was advertised as a shot so you're supposed to do one shot and then continue on our way, well we get there no shot we were offered a beer that we had just paid only six dollars at the bar out front while waiting. But I paid $10 for the shot they advertised and got the same beer but it cost so much more what a joke. It was not something I drink or wanted. This was also something I had to drink so fast it was awful. Instead of taking a quick shot and walking on we has we didn't want to sit there all evening so that was not fun. Imagine if yiu had a kid waiting on you that would really suck. But the girl behind the bar was so nice and apologetic. I did explain. It was not her fault so we weren't mad at her. We're mad at the company. Then we did go through and finish the laser tag and went to the third event, and that again had some good scare tactics. It's amazing the builds they have on this project. They did really good construction and work for the set up of this haunted house, I definitely do recommend it. I would not get the cocktail pass because that was false advertisement. we did do the little escape rooms. I have never done one of those before so that was an interesting experience. Definitely worth a few extra bucks for that something need to do for somebody who's never done it all in all were the check out just check into whether or not you want extras and don't recommend getting the shot cause I don't have it for cheaper off just getting a beer. They need to nit false advertise the events. That was my big issue with the bar in lazer tag. Don't do it now worth it just grab the cheaper beer at the bar. read more

See all

What fun! There are three parts to this attraction. The first part is a walk through of the old part of the smaller prison building. It isn't small , though. It is two levels of anxiety and suspense! My wife tapped out 1/3 of the way through the first attraction. The second part is zombie laser tag. That's pretty cool. The maze is also scary and suspenseful. Lots of screams! I don't want to describe everything in detail because you need to experience this yourself. Get down here and subject yourself to fear! read more

See all

We went to this haunted prison via a fast pass entry! Damn, the whole idea of walking into a real prison converted into a haunted house was extremely nerve racking! The setup was almost like walking in to a movie especially the entry, the lighting and the effects from the smoky air was totally making the whole setup very spooky! It had 3 different zones- 1) prison with zombies 2) shooting the zombies 3) chainsaw Honestly I freaked out in the first zone but the other two didnt do much to me! I was more freaked out by the lady who was playing the Nun- man she was spot on and freaked the hell out of people waiting in the line Overall totally worth the experience read more

The Old Joliet Haunted Prison - Haunted Houses Near Me - Joliet, Illinois

Very bad experience,I went with a few of my friends. The place was empty and the entire time the employees were rushing us threw lines and yelling at us. Overall it was not a great experience. read more

This was not worth the money at all. There wasn't anything scary about it. All the actors were just standing in the rooms so you saw them all beforehand. Everything was in bright light, no surprises, no mazes, no element of suspense. One attraction only had 2 actors in it. Don't waste your money. read more

Definitely worth a visit! Not only do you get scared out of your mind, but you also get to see the inside of the old women's prison. The cells are small, but walk by quickly because you never know what will jump out at you!!! The food truck outside has some really tasty sandwiches. They also have a drink bar. Parking was easy. The line moved fast. I would opt for the fast tickets because the closer we get to Halloween, the more crowded it will get. All in all, a great experience!! read more

The Old Joliet Haunted Prison - Haunted Houses Near Me - Joliet, Illinois

I... was not impressed to say the least. I booked here with my husband as I love haunted houses and have yet to come here. Haunted house at the old Joliet prison? Heck yes!!!! I got the general admission tix as well as the neon cowboy tix as well. Getting here was easy enough, and was able to find parking easily, ebmven with a crowded parking lot. There's 3 events: inside with the cell blocks, zombie tag, and an outdoor maze. The line for the 1st even was long, but moved quickly. Super cool to be inside the actual prison! Actors costumes were great, and the set was super cool. After that, the rest of the night stunk. The line for the 2nd and 3rd events were OVER an hour long!!!! People were leaving the line, and we even wondered if we should've just leave too. Did not help the line was outdoors and it was drizzling, but that's no fault to this place. After we finally got to the maze, it appeared they began to rush people through as the place was now officially closed for the night. The tag and maze were great concepts, but for me to wait over an hour for two events that took less than 20 minutes to go through with very few actors was not worth it. And since I spent all that time in line, the bar was long closed so I wasted $20 on the bar tickets. Also, it looked like we could just buy drinks at the bar so what was the point of the tickets anyways? Awesome concept of a haunted house at the prison, but they need to really work out the kinks when it comes to the lines. read more

This was our first "real" haunted house. My boyfriend and I decided to take two of our teenagers and one was super scared (enjoyable amount) and our boy was scared but claimed not to be (typical teenage boy). I myself don't scare easily and have a tendency to be hyper vigilant and ruin my own scares, although I don't ruin it for the rest. The rest of my party was scared and screaming the whole way through. Once we were out of the main attraction we were pointed our way to the rest of the attractions which I didn't know was included in our tickets, a nice surprise. We went into a zombie laser tag, it was small and quick but got a few scares. Next was a mini haunted house which was also a maze, this was fun and got even more screams. Overall it was a great time and enjoyable. I would recommend but next year we will try to go to another which is scarier since we completed this one and I figure they will do the same every year and it can get boring. read more

What a cool location If you are looking to do an paranomal investigation make sure that when you buy your tickets that they are for the Paranormal Investigation, or the Ghost Hunting 101. The haunted history tour doesn't cover the paranormal or ghost stories. read more

See all

What a spooktacular time! The wait was a little long but worth it. Great lighting, great makeup artist and the staff did a good job trying to get you to jump or scream. About a 30 minute haunted tour time. Definitely worth it for the price but come earlier it seemed to be getting very busy when we left as we came at the 7:00 p.m. slot. read more

Great and spooky time getting scared here this Halloween season. The prison adds a little more reality to the haunted experience, I felt a little rushed but mostly due to the people behind me. The haunted house has plenty of ups and downs to have you shaking and trembling. I recommend getting there 30 minutes early to park and settle in. There is food trucks and alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks available for purchase. They also have 3 bonus attractions on site for purchase as well. read more

The Old Joliet Haunted Prison - Haunted Houses Near Me - Joliet, Illinois

Super spooky and very fun! My wife's first haunted house and she loved it! We can't wait to come back again next year t year.

This ended up being a pretty good starter haunted house for my 9yr old, as it was her first year going to one. Don't come here if you're looking to be scared as an adult...or anyone over the age of 12. However, the chick who managed the lines and took photos obviously had a major stick up her ass. She, easily, let 80 people go from the vip and fast pass lanes before letting my group of 4 in. No other group in my line waited that long. Not sure what her issue was, but it was clearly targeted as she was avoiding eye contact to an incredible degree. I will be taking my money elsewhere permanently. read more

I had a great time here and enjoyed all the jump scares, even though my fiancé had to warn me each time there was one coming up (hahaha). I don't see any point in the laser tag though, feel like they could put a better a better attraction in. But anyway love this place. read more

last year's haunt was a 10/10 compared to all the other locations in the area! it was by far my favorite - and they kept the historical aspects to the annex building, which is truly what i was most impressed by. read more

I had lots of fun but me and my family think you should please get rid of the laser tag. Thank you

This was very fun and I enjoyed it, but they need to remove the laser tag. It was not enjoyable at all.

They need to get rid of the laser tag. It did not work and it was a joke. My experience would have been so much better without it.

Had a decent time here, Actors are scary and fun. I went the day before Halloween, I was the by 7 when they opened and it was a wait of probably 30min. I'm definitely recommending buying a no wait pass because the line on general admission got super long, long! read more

Well like every other walkthrough haunt this one was good but not the best. On top of my coming from Chicago to Joliet I had a flat tire so thank goodness I had a chance to make it here on a spare. The special effects and all the things were pretty decent in regards to using the actual Joliet prison. Since Halloween is coming I also had a free admission unfortunately I wish my close friend would have came but he had just recovered from the pandemic. And he had to go to Florida. Other than that I'm solo so I'm just expecting all these thrills by myself. It wasn't bad but it wasn't the best so I don't know if spending almost $30 for one admission was worth it but for free I guess I shouldn't really complain. Anyways do give this a try if you have nothing better to do around the Halloween weekend. This is going to be up to November 6th which is interesting that they're still having it after Halloween. read more

The Old Joliet Haunted Prison - End of 1st part - Haunted Houses Near Me - Joliet, Illinois

See all

Not good Poor imagination , not scary at all The price is to high for waitng in line 1 hour read more

Going here is a waste of money and time i feel like i got robbed without a gun! Fall in line for 3hrs.. and not a single things in attraction thats scares me! Actors are there just for a check not even trying to scare people. Boring as hell! Dont even go there! If you dont feel like throwing your money in the garbage! 1 -10 Il give them 0 thats how bad this place is! Doesnt deserve a 1 read more

Very nice and friendly. Welcoming personality and the prison is also great! Love coming here read more

The Old Joliet Haunted Prison - Kayla is amazing and super friendly at the bar! - Haunted Houses Near Me - Joliet, Illinois

Overall, this is a great haunted house. It's creepy just pulling into the parking lot but once at the gate all the staff were friendly. Once closer to the front door the ghosts start appearing. I found the costumes and makeup to be top notch. Some actors were better than others, but where that's lacking it's made up for in scenery and atmosphere. Nothing like walking through an actual prison with spooky beings all around. My niece who is 13 attended with me and we had a blast screaming and running arm and arm through this haunted house. The reasons I'm going with 4 stars instead of 5 is that it felt a tad short and there were some slow spots where i thought they could add some more actors or more stimulating visuals. Overall though, this is one you should check out simply for the fact that it's in a real shuttered prison. Ooh eee! Oh and the second attraction where you get to shoot ghosts is fun too! read more

It's eerie knowing John Wayne gacey was executed there, but the experience itself was very blah. Underwhelming for sure

It's cool because it's in a prison, but the scares were pretty weak. They should have more prisoners hitting their cell doors really hard when they're closed though I'm not sure the doors could take a good hit! I ripped a piece right off by accident! Also they should sneak out and scare people from their cells and could do alot more with the cells. There's a zombie lazer tag thing also that isn't bad but no rankings or ratings The Old Joliet Prison tour is across the street and a seperate company. Cool stuff. read more

This haunted house had great ideas, but not good execution. The haunted house had many props and not actors, so it wasn't really scary. The laser tag part was a cool idea, but also not scary. We waited an hour in line for both, and they only took about 5 minutes each and this was around 8pm. The best part for me was the escape rooms they have. Overall, it was okay, but not worth all the money. It's probably a fun place for kids. read more

The Old Joliet Haunted Prison - Haunted Houses Near Me - Joliet, Illinois

Scared the crap out of me. Good luck. There are three attractions. My third was the favorite. read more

The prison is creepy all on its own. Going through looking at real cell blocks was the best part. But they were understaffed. It has a lot of potential. read more