By Alanna Dent, Staff Writer
Halloween is among the most popular holidays. According to The Guardian, it is celebrated by 93 percent of kids, and 68 percent of adults contribute to the festivities in some way. Some like the sweet side of the holiday, dressing up in costumes or watching family movies with their pumpkin spice lattes. Some like the thrill that comes with Halloween, the jolt that can only come from fear and adrenaline.
Susquehanna University (SU) Paranormal Club, Phi Mu Delta, and Tau Kappa Epsilon have each come up with a frightening theme to benefit their philanthropies.
SU Paranormal Club decided to base their haunted house around the theme of the original Grimm fairytales.
Kris Kaytes, head of the makeup committee for the event tlaked about the event.
“The Theme was Grimm Fairy tales, and the idea was that of a happily never after or fairy tales go wrong,” Kaytes said.
“Our main attractions were Rumpelstiltskin’s office, Ariel’s grotto, Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel, The Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, Beauty and the Beast…”
It is worth noting that every haunted house was used as a tool to raise money for different causes. According to Kaytes, SU Paranormal Club donated a portion of their funds to Lungs for Logan, a local charity that is seeking to cover the cost of a double lung transplant for Logan Roush.
Phi Mu Delta’s haunted mansion was held at their house, and was centered around American Horror Story’s “Freak Show.”
“Our theme was a bloody carnival, sort of like American Horror Story’s Freak Show,” said junior Nicholas Trotter.
When asked for further explanation on the haunted house, event organizer and member, senior Garrett DeWald, said: “While at the end of last semester we tried to make [the haunted house] American Horror Story themed, by the first few meetings of this semester, we really turned it into exclusively a carnival theme haunted house. There were a multitude of different things we tried to incorporate into the haunted house.”
DeWald went on to explain that the entrance of the house was turned into a freak show, including a lion tamer, a lion, and a gorilla as well as a bearded lady and hunchback who were arguing.
“One of the first real scares we had was after walking past the pool table into the living room, the group walked in on a group of clowns frozen, hiding, or fighting each other,” DeWald continued.
“Little did the audience know that as they walked by the pool table, a clown would sneak out of the bathroom and follow them, only to scream behind them, causing the group of clowns to chase after the tour, upstairs,” DeWald concluded.
After this initial scare, the group would look back down at the lion tamer and his animals, only to see that the beasts had mauled their handler.
This was followed by the next real scare, which according to DeWald, was the murder-by-clown of an FBI agent who happened to walk into a murder scene.
After this, the group was stranded without a tour guide until they reached the end of the hall.
“The third big scare [was] with the Ring Leader, who was the last stop,” DeWald said.
The group found out the Ring Leader had been brainwashing people, and then “attempted to capture the tour in order to add them to his collection.”
The tour ended with a chase by what DeWald described as “a multitude of carnies, freaks, and clowns”, but their final tour guide would then be captured by the World’s Strongest Man.
“After this the group was showed to the exit, and hopefully went to support the Paranormal Club by going to their haunted house next,” DeWald said.
As previously stated, each haunted house was a tool to provide funds to a charity. When discussing the creation of this year’s haunted house, DeWald said that they had a unique approach to adding “fun” into the fundraiser.
DeWald said: “My committee and brothers were a huge help to me, there was no way I could have done it without them. I also really enjoyed making something that I knew was going to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital as well as hopefully give the students and faculty on campus a good time.”
DeWald stressed the importance of philanthropy and that the events should be focused on fun for everybody, even the volunteers.
He said it was tricky to balance the fun of playing a Halloween character with the eerie feel they sought to provoke, but that they felt they did an excellent job.
DeWald’s concluding thoughts on the haunted house were dedicated to the time and effort that went into it and that he believed it was well worth it.
“While it might have been a tad stressful in the end, making sure we had everything we needed and having to get last minute supplies, once the event came around and started I knew it was going to be a fun event,” DeWald said.
“The event took a lot of planning, with weekly meetings starting in the last few weeks of the Spring 2017 semester, and a lot of work, but being able to do it with my brothers and for such a great cause made it well worth the time commitment that it took,” DeWald continued.
Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) drew inspiration from last year’s regional creepy clown incidents when preparing for their haunted house.
Their haunted house was held within the TKE house and was taking place during the Halloween on the Avenue event.
The Halloween on the Avenue event is a trick or treating program held by the sorority, fraternity, and theme houses on the avenue.
The organizations that reside within the houses pass out candy and offer Halloween theme activities for the kids of Selinsgrove.
The houses were decorated with hay bales, pumpkins, cobwebs, “spooky” decorations and more.
The children went from house to house trick or treating and enjoying the organizations giving back to the community. This is where TKE provided their haunted house.
When asked about their theme, TKE president senior Austin French said, “The over-arching theme was clowns, however, we also tried to incorporate some horror movies in.”
The profits from the haunted house went to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which is TKE’s national philanthropic organization.
TKE also won in the fraternity category of Susquehanna’s Halloween on the Avenue house decoration contest.
Sigma Kappa, a sorority with a house on University Avenue, won the best decorated house for the sorority category for Halloween on the Avenue.
Another Halloween theme event that students experienced during the weekend was the Halloween “BooPhi” event.
It was sponsored by the Phi Beta Sigma Inc. fraternity and was held at the Trax night club.
There was a costume contest that concluded the event and also a dance off by the members of Phi Beta Sigma Inc.