By Jesse Ya Diul

This weekend, Shenandoah University was home to multiple festivities to celebrate Halloween, but the main attraction was the Haunted House at Parker Residence Hall which generated a lot of buzz throughout the week.

Going into the Haunted House, I did not know what to expect. I was nervous. Not nervous of being scared, but more nervous that I was going to react poorly and involuntarily knock somebody out. As a precaution, I recruited three other friends to go with me.

I am not a fan of haunted houses, but even so I had to appreciate the way this one was set up. There were three rooms each with a different scenario that was read out by a tour guide. It was then up to you to walk in the room knowing full well that something was coming for you. You didn’t know when or where, but you just knew it was coming. The anticipation was unnerving.

In my opinion, the best room (and when I say best I mean the scariest) was the room featuring a toy clown that had come to life. Before even entering the room you could hear the clown hollering and laughing throughout the hallways. As we walked in, I noticed a small doll on the ground and I was fixated on it. I waited for it to get up and start walking towards me, but it didn’t. Instead, I heard something move behind me and turned around only to be face to face with a screaming clown.

There were two other rooms; one with a demented butcher, and one with abandoned children who were horribly disfigured. Both were done exceptionally well. In the room with the butcher, I felt like I was in the movie Saw. I wanted to help the “hostages” who were tied up but I had to remind myself that it was a safe environment.

Overall, the Haunted House at Parker exceeded my expectations. It was very well put together and the performances of the students/actors were absolutely outstanding. I tip my hat off to them. I was totally floored by their absolute commitment to their roles. Without them, the Haunted House would not be the success that it was . The only issue that I had was that it was too short. I wish there were more rooms because I felt it ended just as it was starting to get good.  Nonetheless, I would give it an 8.5/10. Would definitely recommend.