Usually a place children are free to explore, the Muncie Children's Museum is discouraging the presence of its core audience due to their haunted house, taking place on Friday and Saturday evenings through the spook-filled month of October.
Advertising a haunted house to college students taking place at the Muncie Children's Museum raised a few eyebrows on campus. Posted fliers throughout Ball State University advertising the haunted house known as "The Basement" as "not recommended for young children." The confusion many felt at first glance can be explained by two university department's collaboration to create a "terrifying" basement.
"Initially I didn't think (The Basement) was going to be scary at all because it was located in a children's museum," freshman telecommunications major Mallory Sturgeon said.
Sturgeon was initially unaware that the haunted house was hosted by Ball State students, which included 11 teams of project management students and 11 theater students. The two university departments collaborated throughout the first part of the semester to give both Ball State students and the entire Muncie community a haunted house to remember.
"The theater majors gave us an idea of what they wanted in each room [of The Basement] and my class, working as the project managers, implemented what they wanted," senior marketing and business administration major Casey Ray Rusk said.
The Basement is a semester-long task for the project management students. Every year the assignment is different.
Senior marketing and business administration major Adam Merritt said time management has been the hardest part so far.
"It's hard enough to get our groups together in class, let alone teaming with another university department's schedule," Rusk said. "Most of us worked with the theater department very closely. We stayed in close contact throughout the weeks so we knew exactly what they wanted."
Some students were skeptical about how they were going to design an entire haunted house on their own.
"I thought I was going to be building everything from scratch. Luckily [the Museum] had props from last year," senior business administration major Kyle Pfeifer said. "We didn't have to buy anything."
Sheila Smith, the project management professor, warned her class this would be no easy task. Students said she gave them little guidance because she wanted to provide them with a real-world experience.
"That's pretty much the way it's happening. She gives us pointers here and there, but nothing is laid out for us. She wants us to see what it's really like in the workplace, which is the whole theme for the class," junior computer technology major Perci Garner said.
Students decided each room in The Basement would have its own theme according to the props provided. Every project management team was in charge of their own room.
Sturgeon was reluctant upon finding out it was a college classroom project, but said she was quickly proven wrong after her visit to the haunted house Saturday evening.
"Once you enter the haunted house you really get a sense of just how scary it is about to be. I was extremely impressed," she said. "It was really creative. There was a room with the theme ‘Christmas Gone Wrong' ... I have never seen anything like it. It actually really scared me."
Sturgeon did offer one suggestion for the Basement.
"If they could have done one thing better, I would have liked to have more things pop out at me. The themes in each room are what really spooked me," she said. "The atmosphere created was definitely the best part."
Want a scare?
"The Basement" haunted house
Where: Muncie Children's Museum
When: The Basement runs every Friday and Saturday through October 31. The 2009 hours of operation are:
6–10 p.m. Friday
6–10 p.m. Saturday
6–10 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29
6–11:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 30
6–11:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31
Cost: $6 per person
Who's invited: Not children. There are alarming and gory sights around every corner.
more information
Visit munciechildrensmuseum.com or call 765.286.1660.
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