Haunted Hall Review

Preparing a haunted house is never an easy task.  Great deal of careful planning and dedication go into each and every haunted house ever made. Many men and women sacrifice their time, talent, and money with one goal in mind: scaring the pants off of patrons. Before I begin with the review, I’d like to preface this review by saying that the work everyone put into the Haunted Hall during Concord University’s Spooktacular this year was evident. Everyone involved deserves praise for what they were able to accomplish in such time that they had. Unfortunately, the Haunted Hall was not scary. Although the subject of fear is quite a subjective topic, and many people surely found it scary, I did not. Unlike many Halloween haunted Houses, the Haunted Hall attempted a story based on the history of the Alexander Fine Arts Building. This is a decision I applaud, as it lent a certain weight to the events that would have otherwise not have been there. However, any potential that this concept had was squandered on parlor tricks. After a woman was murdered at the very beginning, the tour guide stated that the spirit of the murderer’s guilty conscience continues to roam the halls of the Fine Arts Building. As stated previously, this was a cool concept that unfortunately failed in execution. The guide took us through the halls and the backstage area, and while at first the Haunted Hall followed the plot that had been set up, any semblance of even having one was lost by the time the tour group reached the music hall. From there, the tour sort of devolved into the typical jump scares, moans, groans, and shrieking that most haunted houses are known for. From an outsider looking in, it felt as if there were two major visions for how the Haunted Hall should be, and that compromises were made. That hurt the effectiveness of the Hall overall, in my mind. It should either have stuck to the script, or went all out and did a kind of Grindhouse type of a Haunted Hall. Perhaps there were some rules and regulations that needed to be followed in the creation of the Haunted Hall this year. However, I could not help but feel that a lot of it was hastily put together.  Perhaps next time they can develop and perform a haunted house that is more focused. In my mind, good clarity and a strong focus would have made it something great. Due to the nature of the Fine Arts Building, The Haunted Hall certainly did put on a creepy atmosphere. One of the things that an anonymous participant told me before the Haunted Hall was that they were trying to develop a kind of a Silent Hill-esque atmosphere, in which the creepy setting would do the majority of the scares and would rely less on jump scares and more on psychological terror. As previously stated though, the execution of such an idea seems to have been a bit sloppy. Despite this though, the effort that those that participated was quite evident. All of the participants got into their rolls and tried their damnedest to be intimidating. There were many problems that surfaced during my tour of the Haunted Hall. For instance, some of the glass fell off from one of the office doors, and smashed into a thousand pieces. The students involved were quick to discover it and reacted appropriately. Such concern for safety is worth of note, and should be admired. So while there was a lot of things wrong with this year’s Haunted Hall, their heart was in the right place, and I was thoroughly entertained. With a tighter focus on theme, the group may very well create something truly great in the coming years.