While Miller Residence Hall typically sits empty, last Friday, Oct. 25, Res Life once again hosted their Haunted Halls event. While some may remember the event from last year, Kevin Schultz, assistant director of Residence Life, says this year’s turn out put last year’s to shame.
Schultz stated that he “lost count,” of how many people went through during the night, some groups coming back multiple times. There were a total of seven rooms — each designed to scare — that were put together by resident assistants.Chandler Buchfeller, resident director, was responsible for leading each group through the darkened hallway, and students were asked to open the door to each room as they approached it, not knowing what to expect on the other side.
There was one room with a spooky nursery rhyme playing, featuring actors dressed in all black for jumpscares; a double room with a narrow hallway draped in plastic that hid the actors as they screamed and banged on the surrounding walls; a room blasting death metal with strobes lighting up a grisly murder scene; a dark room with strobes and lots of blood; a room to mimic the movie “The Purge” (complete with the eerie and iconic purge announcement); and finally a room that was simply pitch black darkness and silence.
Walls and floors were painted with fake blood, masks and costumes were donned, blood-covered weapons wielded, and haunting melodies played over every speaker.
The RAs took the form of spooks and haunts as they screamed, jumped, stalked, chased and scared for two hours.
Shultz has big plans for the future of Haunted Halls, hoping to expand the event to all the levels of Miller, including the connector areas. He would also like to have different on-campus clubs and groups be in charge of a floor or room, allowing attendees to vote on their favorite spooky setup. “If I had a dream, that would be it,” Shultz said.
