Oak Lawn Terror Haunted House. Justin Cerniuk has yearned to create the ultimate spook-house. Now, with the Oct. 2 opening of Midnight Terror Haunted House, Oak Lawn’s first ever commercial haunted attraction, Cerniuk is about to realize that dream — and give nightmares of the frightfully fun kind to the thousands of visitors expected to attend.
Cerniuk partnered with village officials toHost the Haunted House at Beatty Lumber yard property at 9531 S. 52nd Ave., Cerniuk and a devoted Team have been working around the clock since August to scare the “pants off you !” They have converted the 4,000-square-foot Beatty warehouse into a creepy fear factory that will feature dozens of unique props, over 30 costumed actors, and 15 different rooms — including a crypt of the damned, haunted forest, and blackout barracks — that wind throughout the facility in unexpectedly frightening fashion. This Haunted House last for 15 minutes, plus when you finally get outside ,there’s more scaries waiting for you!
The ticket price is 10.00, and half price (5.00) opening night. They even offer a ticket for 17.00,that will get you right in with no waiting.
Cerniuk actually started Midnight Terror as a modest free front yard display, outside his Oak Lawn home in 2000, when he was only 10 years old. A year later, with the help of his uncle, Robert Page, he constructed a temporary haunted house in front of his garage. By the time he was a teenager, Cerniuk had become a master monster architect capable of making sophisticated one-of-a-kind props and animated characters, built from windshield wiper motors, air rams, motion detectors, micro-computer controllers and other parts he assembled together.
Midnight Terror took a vacation when, in 2007, Cerniuk enlisted in the Marines and, over four years, served in Iraq and Afghanistan during combat operations there. Cerniuk returned older, wiser and more determined to make his home haunt better than ever.
Midnight Terror Haunted House is located at 9531 S. 52nd Ave., Oak Lawn, Ill., 60453, near the intersection of 95th Street and 52nd Avenue.