After Dark: The Haunted Carnevil

I had the absolute pleasure of attending the After Dark event on Saturday. In the spirit of Halloween, UPC put on an amazing night filled with good food, fun, and an amazing haunted house. The After Dark event took place on the second floor of the Lane University Center. They had Stuff-a-Zombie, a petting zoo, and a costume contest. There was also a raffle at the end. The game room made a return from the first After Dark of the semester with air hockey, foosball, small basketball games, and car racing simulators. The animals at the petting zoo were so sweet and calm. I had a cockatoo on my arm for about twenty minutes that loved to cuddle.

Now, for the part that truly put the Carnevil into the name of the event. Since all of the festivities were on the second floor, that left the whole first floor for the Carnevil haunted house. I waited until about halfway through the night before I went in. Before that, I heard screams from both people going through and those participating. While the actors never touch you, they definitely get close to giving you a great scare. Greeted by a harlequin and her jester, she gave you the scoop on what the rest of the trip would be like, followed by a picture of the group going through. Walking through a dark-ish hallway, we were greeted by a clown who followed us through the rest of the rooms up to the maze. From the entrance, we entered the clown graveyard where there was an immediate jump-scare from a clown jumping out of a coffin, then immediately there was one with a chainsaw who looked enough

like a statue to get you scared that he moved. Leaving that room, there was one more jump scare from a girl behind a curtain yelling.

From this, we enter the maze part of the haunted house which was pitch black. There was barely enough light to see in front of your face. This made the rodeo clown that jumped in front of me even scarier. They followed very closely until there was a second one that joined in with a haunting laugh. The first blocked the way through the maze, getting close enough to almost touch, but never did. There was a few more jump scares throughout the maze, but none stood out as much as that. Finally, there was the finale like the end of any other carnival, the ring leader on stage to distract you while a clown came up from behind. This

event was the perfect amount of scary where you felt uncomfortable and wanted to leave but also wanted to see what lay around the next corner. I truly hope UPC puts on another event like this next year because the haunted house was amazing with outstanding volunteers. I also can’t wait to see what they have in store for the next few After Dark events before the semester ends.