Kicking off Halloween weekend, Elliott Hall's Haunted House will celebrate its 30th anniversary starting Thursday and running through Monday.Tours of the fourth floor haunted house will last from 8 p.m. until 1 a.m. The theme for this year, "Haunted Asylum," stems from the legend of Will Schamberg, a World War II veteran."The story goes that Ball State had a program to help soldiers who came back from the war," Lori Walden, assistant chairwoman of the haunted house, said. "Will was one of those soldiers and supposedly hanged himself shortly after returning. One thing that sets us apart from other haunted houses is that we actually have our own residence ghosts. There have been claims of ghosts being on various floors, but we mostly concentrate on Will who is said to be on the fourth floor."Elliott Hall's premiere event is open to anybody in the Ball State University and Muncie communities. The cost of touring the house is $4 per adult or $3 with two canned goods. Children 12 and under will be charged $2 per person.Eric Bennett, chairman of the haunted house, said in the past, organizers scheduled a block of time during which groups of children were able to come through the house with the lights turned on and the acting toned down so the children would not get too scared."Unfortunately we did not have a large enough turnout to be able to set up a block of time this year, but if a large group comes, we will accommodate them," Bennett said.Elliott Hall's Haunted House also provides a way of giving back to the community. Last year more than $700 was donated to Indiana Special Olympics. This year, the money will be donated to the Hoosier Heartland Chapter of the American Red Cross because of the recent natural disasters, and the canned food will be donated to the Muncie Mission.The house generally has eight rooms, and each tour has five to six people in the group with two to three tour guides. Each tour lasts between 10 and 15 minutes but can sometimes last longer.Walden said the number of rooms and people involved depends on the number of volunteers who are willing to take some of their time to dress up, build the house and lead the tours.This year's haunted house reused materials from last year. Occasionally new materials are bought to replace rundown and worn-out items. Bennett said that in the beginning, the rooms are planned, and an overall theme for the house is decided. From that planning, a script is formed to match the theme. Tour guides are able to improvise on the script in order to fit the mood of the group. "Each year people leave with different reactions," Bennett said. "We have had some groups that have dashed out screaming, while others have caused us to drop character and ask them to please leave now."
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