Preveterinary freshman Madelayne Shammas has had acting experience in the past, but volunteering to be a zombie in the Mason and Abbot halls haunted house was a new experience for her.
“I’m a theatre minor … so I wanted to do something a little scarier than I normally do,” she said. “I’ve never done a haunted house before, so it was really fun to get to try something new.”
Mason and Abbot halls hosted its annual haunted house from Sunday through Tuesday. The event was just one of many events MSU hosted across campus this Halloween season for students and East Lansing residents, including a carnival and haunted neighborhood in Gilchrist Hall on Tuesday and a door decorating contest at Bailey Hall on Wednesday.
Building sanitation worker Jon Wilson, who managed the Mason and Abbot halls haunted house for the fifth straight year, said he gets his inspiration from other haunted houses.
“When I go, I look for stuff that I can copy and take and bring, and we have changed it up over the years,” he said. “We always try to add new elements.”
The haunted house featured dark mazes, a cemetery, a death chamber, an insane asylum and creepy little girls and clowns, among other things.
After going through the haunted house, several students, including athletic training freshman Patrick Sarni, said the hard work paid off.
“I was super surprised; I thought it was going to suck,” he said “It was definitely a lot better (than I expected).”
Wilson noted students have their own unique reactions once inside the haunted house.
“Some people laugh a lot, I don’t know if that’s a nervous thing, and some people get really scared,” Wilson said.
In terms of audience reactions, Shammas gave a more specific example.
“To one girl, I held up a fake arm and said, ‘Have you seen my sister?’ And the girl said, ‘She’s over there!,’ and ran away from me,” she said, laughing.
The house of scares was created primarily using recycled materials, and most of the costumes were donated, Wilson said.
“We actually recycle and reuse everything every year, and we save it, so it’s a big recycling effort, too,” he said. “A lot of the wood came from when we used to have lofts here in the building and we’ve saved a lot of loft lumber and reused it.”
The event doubled as a food drive, and participants were asked to bring nonperishable foods as their admission payment in lieu of money.
Sarni, who donated cereal, said he was happy his efforts were aiding a greater cause.
“It’s a good charity event because a lot of people want to do it, and it helps people,” he said.
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