Medieval Torture Museum — Attraction in Chicago

Visually engaging but overpriced for the experience, I would like to rate it like 3,7 of 5.

We recently visited the Medieval Torture Museum in Chicago, and while it certainly offers an immersive and atmospheric setup, I feel the overall experience doesn't quite justify the ticket price of around $35.

The effort behind the space is clear - from the detailed decorations, eerie lighting, and ambient sound to the use of candles, an audio guide, and even an interactive ghost-hunting app. Each exhibit is labeled, and some displays are hands-on, allowing you to touch or pose with them for photos, which adds to the fun.

That said, the museum feels more like a themed walk-through attraction than a deep historical experience. It reminded me of wax figure exhibitions you'd find in tourist towns - entertaining, a bit theatrical, but not necessarily rich in historical content.

The visit is fairly short, about 30 minutes, and while it’s fun and unique, the pricing is comparable to major museums in the city like the Art Institute or MSI, where you can spend hours exploring world-class collections.

In short: it’s a cool concept, well-executed in terms of mood and visuals, and worth checking out if you’re looking for something light and different. Just go in knowing it’s a quick, novelty-style experience, and might feel more appropriately priced at half the...

If you're after a slice of macabre history and interactive torture instruments, then this might be for you! It's not a haunted house attraction with jump scares but rather multiple rooms filled with different torture devices and figures of victims (not real, similar to waxworks), the main "tools" you can touch and use have an instruction on them too!

I love waxworks and a bit of dark history so I enjoyed it however it is expensive for what it is. For online tickets after all the charges and taxes, it came to $36 for one adult which is the sort of price point at which you're expecting something a bit more. I would say to look around and read and touch everything you can, it would be a 45-60 minute visit to give an idea.

Just to preempt- it does include an audio tour which you can download on their app and is about 60-120 seconds per stop. It did have extra information (there are written info boards by the implements too) and a more personal slant. There's also a little ghost hunting app you can use too as you walk around and detect spirits.

It is also accessible with a lift to upper floors (please ask staff) and the toilets were very clean and clearly signposted. There's a small gift shop downstairs- I love a gift shop but was a little disappointed with...

TIL that anyone can call themselves a museum, even a glorified Spirit Halloween such as this.

👉🏼SKIP.👈🏼

I give them an extra star for having the best AC in Chicago today, and for their guest associate being perfectly polite and helpful, but that's it.

Many of the so-called "exhibits" were duplicates of each other. For example, the pillory, breakage wheel, stork, violin of gossipers, and double violin of gossipers were all shown twice. Their Temu-quality displays were peppered with typos, missing punctuation, and blurry and pixelated images.

Most importantly, none of this is historic. Everything here is a haunted-house-quality replica of whatever they're trying to depict. You can touch and mess with it all because none of it any actual value outside a Halloween convention.

If this is a museum, then so are Cracker Barrel's walls.

To top of off, some of the graphics are ridiculous in the context of a "museum." Expect women with their breasts out and on display like bad pinups while many of the men look like Shrek extras, such as in the picture I included with my review.

Hard pass. After I left, I got embarrassed when I realized I still had their admission sticker on. Wearing it basically advertised to every local who saw me that...