Midnight Terror Takes Over Abandoned Lumber Yard in Oak Lawn

Photos and video courtesy of Justin Cerniuk.
10/1 10:40 a.m.: This article has been updated with information from Tim Desmond, an Oak Lawn trustee.

When 6,000 people showed up to Justin Cerniuk’s house in Oak Lawn for his haunted Halloween display, he knew it was time to move on to bigger and more terrifying things.

Since mid-October 2013, even while he was still working on last year’s attraction, Cerniuk has been planning, building and collecting for this year’s Halloween. He’s molded ideas, actors and props into Oak Lawn’s first commercial haunted attraction.

Midnight Terror Haunted House opens Oct. 2, and Cerniuk has designed it to scare the daylights out of you.

Cerniuk is the majority owner of Midnight Terror, but his uncle, Robert Page, and two of his friends, Mark Krupa and Maciej Kulawiak, also claim stake in the chilling production.

“We do it for the love of it, not for the money,” Cerniuk said. “It always comes out better that way.”

The love, for Cerniuk, seems to have spawned from the Halloween yard displays Page brought him to see as a young boy. In 2000, a 10-year-old Cerniuk made his first front yard display, and a year later Page helped him create his own haunted house in front of his garage.

Cerniuk left the project from 2007-11 while he did two combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan with the Marine Corps. But when he returned home to Oak Lawn, he picked up right where he left off, upgrading props and attracting thousands to the annual Halloween events.

But Cerniuk was growing even bigger ideas.

“I want to make this into a profession, and you can’t do that from the side of your house,” he said

The ideas matured enough to spur village involvement. Cerniuk said they brought the paperwork to Tim Desmond, an Oak Lawn trustee. The project was brought to the special events committee, and meetings with trustees and village management landed Midnight Terror in the abandoned Beatty Lumber yard on 52nd Avenue.

“My reason for helping get the haunted house off the ground was to give these young entrepreneurs and Marine veteran a helping hand,” Desmond said. “...When Justin and his partners came to me for assistance, I felt this was a great opportunity to not only help them, but also bring a top class haunted house attraction to Oak Lawn, without having to spend tax payer money to do so.”

Black walls went up in the lumber yard, built into a flow of sharp turns, eerie halls and doorways draped with gauzy curtain strips. Cerniuk said they redesigned the layout about 35 times to get the perfect fit.

It should take about 10 to 15 minutes to get through the haunted house, and more than 30 actors, who are Oak Lawn residents, will fill the maze. Two makeup artists/costume designers have helped customize the characters, from factory workers to walking corpses.

“With the level of detailing and the acting that we have, it’s not about shoving people through for money,” Cerniuk said. “It started as a hobby.”

He said they’re working on finding a permanent location in Oak Lawn for next year, and he has high hopes for the future of Midnight Terror.

“All the surrounding areas, the villages and towns, have haunted houses, and everybody had to travel out of Oak Lawn,” Cerniuk said. “This is a safe place here for people and families to celebrate Halloween.”

Regular admission for Midnight Terror is $10, but admission on opening day is half off. A V.I.P. pass to skip the line is $17. A $2-off coupon is available on the Midnight Terror website.

The haunted house is open through the month of October. Check the website for dates, times and more information.