This Halloween fell on a Thursday, giving students an opportunity to get spooky and celebrate in the middle of midterms. From pumpkin carving to costume contests, Northwestern students had countless opportunities to get in the Halloween spirit.
Communication freshman Tallulah Sarig spent her Halloween working in the haunted house in the Louis Room at Norris. The Northwestern Theme Park Engineering Design group designed the house. Inside, a small cast of actors performed jump scares, creepy songs, and everything in between.
After hearing about the haunted house open call through a flyer at Norris, Sarig used her acting skills to bring nightmares to life.
TALLULAH SARIG: I played a creepy mother rocking a zombie baby that had spiders crawling into its mouth. And this zombie baby was bought at Spirit Halloween, and there was a tag on it when we got it that said Spider Biter Billy. So in the haunted house, when people walked in, I would say, “Have you met Billy?” Like, I just named him Billy as a result.
Sarig said the haunted house was pitch black, and visitors held flashlights so they could see her. The catch was, she couldn’t see them.
SARIG: I think the funniest part was when someone I know would come into the house. I remember earlier in the house, someone comes in, and I’m like, Hi, have you met Billy? And she’s like, I know you, and I still don’t know who she was. So if you said, “I know you” in the house and you’re hearing this, call me.
For Sarig, the haunted house was an opportunity to explore a more immersive form of theatrical art than she was used to. Next year, she is interested in helping produce the event.
SARIG: I kind of got to take a look at a different type of theater. Like, I think that maybe before doing this house, I didn’t totally comprehend haunted houses and stuff like that as a form of theater. And I think it kind of just opened my eyes to like, “Oh, theater can be other things.”
Communication freshman Sasha Durta also viewed Halloween as a chance to let her creativity out. Durta created four costumes that she wore to various parties and events around campus. She was a skeleton, Cher from “Clueless,” Edgar Allen Poe reimagined, and a Yogi Bear.
Durta’s Yogi Bear costume was not representative of the character but of a bear that does yoga.
SASHA DURTA: I really like doing puns and word play in my costumes. I’m from New Orleans, and so we dress up a lot, not just for Halloween, but for Mardi Gras as well. And so my whole family gets into it, like last year, we were Dolly Parton, Salvador Dali and a furniture dolly, aka Dollywood. And then before that, my mom and I were Napoleon Dynamite and Napoleon Bonaparte. It’s kind of a tradition, and I just wanted to carry it on my first year in college.
For Durta, Halloween was an opportunity to go all-out on costumes. She did elaborate face paint, experimented with her hair, and bought costume materials from local shops.
DURTA: With Yogi Bear, I went down to Crossroads in Evanston, the thrift shop, and I found this great brown wool jacket. So that was kind of like the main fur, and then I got bear ears and the fur gloves that make it look like my hands are furry too. And then I gave myself some face paint, a cute little nose and everything. And then I just wore a sports bra and yoga pants, basically.
On Halloween night, Weinberg junior and resident assistant Dave Arthur hosted a trick-or-treat event with 13 other RAs in the Southwest Area. Students traveled to different dorms and knocked on RAs’ doors to receive a piece of candy, an apple, or an orange.
Arthur, who dressed up as one of his RA friends, said Halloween festivities helped relieve students’ stress.
DAVE ARTHUR: I think it can be special because everyone here is so stressed with classes, especially like first year students adjusting to college with their first round of midterms at that time, like Halloween generally happens week five, week six. I think, whereas other schools may not have those rigorous classes and have more of a party atmosphere, It’s like just another night. But for us, it’s something more unique, because it’s like a shared break.
For WNUR News, I’m Ingrid Smith.
[“Bats in the Foundry” by Material Gurl]
