Harvest Moon Drive In

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Harvest Moon Drive In

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It’s almost here!

The date is approaching fast and we’re making preparations. Don’t miss out on the 10th Annual Frightfest Celebration this October!

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Book Tickets Now!

It's Here!!!!

Weekend 1: 10.1 & 10.2

Weekend 2: 10.8 & 10.9

Weekend 3: 10.15 & 10.16

Wicked Weekend: 10.22 & 10.23 (Final Weekend of the Season)

Book Tickets Now!

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Welcome to the harvest moon's 10th annual frightfest

Something wicked this way comes...

Come on out and experience central Illinois' top Halloween themed movie event over the course of 3 weekends in October.

Frightfest has everything you expect: spooky decorations, haunting ghost stories, fabulous themed food specials, Halloween themed movie features of both family friendly and horror, costume contests, trunk or treat for the kids, roaming monsters and a scary haunted trail to enjoy for all those to enjoy. 


Weekend 2: October 8th & 9th

Screen 1: The Addams Family 2(2021) & Hotel Transylvania (2012) double feature

Screen 2: Venom: Let there be Carnage & Halloween (1978) Double Feature

Activities:

Before the show & intermission- Trunk or Treat, Light fright walk through of Harvest Hollow haunted trail followed by scary version once the sun sets, Photo Areas & Food Specials

Showtime- Family friendly and scary classic horror theme movies

Intermission- Cursed Harvest Hollow haunted trail walk through, Costume Contest, Food Stands with specials

Rest of the night- regular features until movies are over


Weekend 3: October 15th & 16th

Screen 1: Halloween Kills(2021) & The Shining (1980) double feature

Screen 2: The Exorcist (1973) & The Conjuring (2013) Double Feature

Activities:

Before the show & intermission- Trunk or Treat, Light fright walk through of Harvest Hollow haunted trail followed by scary version once the sun sets, Photo Areas & Food Specials

Showtime- Newer scary & classic horror movies

Intermission- Cursed Harvest Hollow haunted trail walk through, Costume Contest, Food Stands with specials

Rest of the night- regular features until movies are over


Wicked Weekend 2021: Final Weekend of the 2021 season

October 22nd & 23rd

Screen 1: Casper

Screen 2: Halloween Kills

Activities: Food Specials, Trunk or Treat, People & Pet Costume Contest, Discounted Food Items


New for 2021. We are celebrating our 10th year of hosting this event with some real life scary extras with the history of the area around the theater. Introducing: The Curse of Harvest Hollow & the Harvest Lane Murder.

Frightfest Extras & Schedule

Here is our rough Schedule for Frightfest each night.

Gates will open around 5:30 pm each night allowing folks to come and enjoy the fun extras of our 10th annual Frightfest event!
Before the movies start:

  • Trunk or Treat- set up a cool car display, hand out candy to the kids walking around Trick or Treating, or bring your kids out to Trick or Treat with the folks setting up. Trunk or Treat takes place each night and on both screen 1 & 2, so arrive early to enjoy it!
  • Photo Ops! Get your photo taken with the escaped freaks & ghouls of Baldwin Asylum or our Harvest Hollow Spooky creatures. We have several areas around the Snack Bar and theater for photo fun!
  • Food Specials: Get our regular menu goodies, or an assortment of amazing themed food treats including Caramel Apples, Curtis Orchard Apple Crisp Donuts, Apple Cider Slushies & Floats, Witch's Brew or Monster Punch drinks, Zombie Brains Funnel Cakes, Monster Mix Loaded Cheese Fries & more!

What is Frightfest?

The Drive-in gets a spooky makeover with fun Halloween decorations all around the place.

We encourage folks to decorate cars for everyone to walk around and enjoy and those wanting to participate in the Trunk or Treat before the movies start.

We'll be hosting our Costume contest during our intermission with great prizes donated by some local businesses(haunted house passes, Halloween goodies) and drive-in prizes.

As usual, we'll have fun Halloween music before the movies, themed food specials, special intermission content and more.

The Walk of the Dead haunted trail is back and completely outdoors this year to keep in compliance with Covid 19 requirements. There is over 3000 square feet of terror waiting for you in the Harvest Hollow trail this year and it's free to explore before the movies or during intermission.

Learn the disturbing history of the Harvest Lane Murders and the Harvest Hollow Curse below.

We'll have our photo booth area available for those wanting to take pictures.

We will have roaming monsters and creatures for pictures and scares before the movie and during the movie.

We look forward to seeing you all here as we wrap up our 2021 season with our 10th annual Frightfest Celebration.

Three big weekends of fright!

Weekend 3 October 15th & 16th- Scary Turned all the Way up!

Weekend 4 October 22nd & 23rd- Halloween Single Features to wrap up our 2021 season.

Weekend 4 October 22nd & 23rd- Halloween Single Features to wrap up our 2021 season.

Ready for some terror? Join us on weekend 3 when it's all about the scares! Enjoy some movies with us, then visit our friends at the Baldwin Asylum in Rantoul for a scary good time!

Weekend 4 October 22nd & 23rd- Halloween Single Features to wrap up our 2021 season.

Weekend 4 October 22nd & 23rd- Halloween Single Features to wrap up our 2021 season.

Weekend 4 October 22nd & 23rd- Halloween Single Features to wrap up our 2021 season.

Make Plans to join us for our final movie weekend of the 2021 season. We'll have Halloween Kills on screen 2 and a family friendly Halloween movie on screen 1 for the kids.

Hello, let's take a quick moment to learn the tragic tale of

The Curse of Harvest Hollow & Harvest Lane Murder

 A real life murder in the country 86 years ago has left an odd track record of unexplained phenomena for a parcel of land just south of the historic drive-in. 

The Curse of Harvest Hollow & the Harvest Lane Murder

The Origin

What happened and how does it relate to the Frightfest event?
Short Summary: In the fall of 1935, a local town mechanic was brutally murdered with a shotgun by local man as his lover lead him to his untimely demise that fateful night. August 24th, on a hot, late summer night, Mrs. Young(our seductress) borrowed a car from her in-laws to pick up her lover, Mr. Rick. They drove out to the local lover's lane(Harvest Lane, just south of the drive-in), where they were planning an extra-marital tryst. Unfortunately for Mr. Rick, Mrs. Young's husband, upset beyond reason at the shame of an unfaithful wife, had asked his wife to lure Mr. Rick to the isolated dead end road to confront him about their affair. Once the couple pulled in, much to the surprise of Mr. Rick, a swift shotgun blast escorted him from the world of the living, at the hands of Mr. Young. After a short search, the married couple was caught and brought to justice. Mrs. Young served a short sentence in a minimum security prison and went on with her life as normal once she was released. It appeared as if she had truly escaped punishment for her part in the murder until she passed away in the 1980's and that's where it starts to get weird. 

The Legend

Fast forward years later. A large industrial barn was erected near the site of the murder and used frequently up until the mid 1980s. The area and time seemed to have forgotten what transpired on the hot August night in 1935. The only piece of the puzzle remaining was the fact that no one was willing to stay  in the barn after dark. You see, many slow moving freight trains went right by the barn and less than pleasant folks were known to depart the trains near the barn to head to makeshift encampments near the tracks hidden in the fields.  For a time, you could see the small fires burning into the night and the shadows cast by the flames from the theater. After awhile, the camps and building both became abandoned with no real reasoning outside of speculation of industrial progress. Although rumors swirled that some of those unpleasant folks riding the trains got off at the edge of town were never heard from again, No one really noticed strangers going missing and no one dared go by the barn at night.
As the years went on, the barn fell more and more into disrepair. On hot summer nights and some crisp fall evenings, strange noises would echo off the drive-in screens and an eerie fog would roll into the area. A local house, built after the murder, just up the lane where it took place housed a couple of families over the years. Several children and teenagers throughout the 90's would walk down the lane to explore the strange sounds by the barn, but quickly end up back home with fearful expressions.
The rural legend offers that not only the forsaken spirit of Mr. Rick, the murder victim, haunt the area near his demise, but also the wailing ghost of Mrs. Young. It seems she didn't escape punishment after all, and her spirit remains earthbound for luring Mr. Rick to his death. 

Strange things have happened over the past 2 decades that remain a mystery. The home at the end of the lane burned to the ground from 'unknown circumstances' and the family that had lived there moved away. The old rotting barn was finally torn down, and with it the weeds overtook the field to cover all the traces of what once was. 

Frightfest and our Haunted Trail

The first Harvest Moon Haunted Walk was set up and operated in September of 2014. While building the small haunted walk, a number of strange things kept happening to the staff. Volunteers working to scare the visitors reported feeling odd sensations when near the field, spiders seemed to overrun the entire set up, and electrical gremlins were wreaking havoc on perfectly functional equipment each night. After a short run in that location, we found it best to relocate the trail near Screen 1 at the opposite end of the area.


Each year, even after moving the haunted trail to it's new location, the odd sensations, movements and shadows persisted. Because of this, we decided to do a little digging to see what could be a potential cause for these strange occurrences. This is how we learned the illustrious history of Harvest Lane just south of the theater and how the rumors of spirits that take shape in the autumn haunted structure may be more than just our silly Halloween decorations.

Maybe you'll get a bit of authentic spiritual interaction with our haunted house scares when you enter the Harvest Hollow haunted trail for the 2021 Frightfest Season. 

Event Activities

Each weekend during Frightfest we open our Haunted Trail for your scary enjoyment. During the kids weekend October 1st & 2nd, there will be no live characters but the trail will be open. For the other 2 weekends, the trail will be open with extra scares. This is free this year and outdoors only to keep with covid protocols. 

Decorate your vehicle and hand out candy for the Trunk or Treat before the movies start and at intermission. There is no Food Permit charge for candy to hand out, only food/drinks you are consuming at the theater.

Each night at intermission we host our Costume Contest for Adults and Kids! Trophies for the top 3 costumes in each category and 1 best of show winner each night. 

One of the staples from our 2nd Frightfest in 2013 is the roving monsters. Each night before the movies start, you can find the monsters emerge to take photos with you and scary interactions. During the Intermission, the monsters inhabit our Harvest Hollow haunted trail to scare you near to death.

The drive-in gets a complete spooky makeover for Frightfest, and we have several fun photo areas for folks to interact with, take group photos and selfies!

Event Food Specials

Previous Event Photos

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