Every year near Halloween, the first-year Collegiate Fellows (CFs) transition from student leaders to set designers, writers and actors. These students collaborate to bring the Gustavus community a haunted house in the basement of Norelius Hall.

On Saturday, Oct. 30 from 8:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m., the basement will become an orphanage-themed haunted house.

“The basement of Norelius is creepy anyways, but it will be a lot creepier when we’re done with it,” Senior Religion Major Bethany Ringdal and Norelius CF said.
The CFs will begin setting up the haunted house at about 10:00 a.m. on Saturday. The preparations started much earlier, however, with plot development, costume design, decoration planning and plenty of thrift-store shopping, Ringdal said.

The haunted house will follow a plot with a script written by a board of CFs including Andrew Lewis, junior economics and environmental studies major. “It’s kind of twisted, creepy and evil,” Lewis said.

“The basic premise is an orphanage that burned down,” Ringdal said, “but I don’t want to give away too much. I’m an actor, so I’m excited to put on a good show.”

“I’m really excited to be a part of the haunted house this year because it was such a highlight of my first year,” Sophomore English Education Major and CF in Norelius Kate Plager said.

The upstairs lounge will be a “Halloween hang-out” where students can sign up for a time to go through the haunted house. After signing up, they can either wait in the lounge or come back at their assigned time.

Although the haunted house serves as a bonding experience for first-years, the CFs stress that everyone is welcome at the haunted house. “The CFs put a lot of effort into this, so it’s going to be good,” Lewis said. “I’m really excited to scare people.”