Offering a twist on haunted house attractions available throughout Northwest Indiana, PNW hosts an annual Haunted Trail on the Westville Campus.

This year’s event, held Oct. 25, offered a uniquely scary experience for members of the university community and area residents. 

“The event [was] for students, faculty, staff and community members to come onto campus and to walk through our trail,” said Mya Methner, a graduate of PNW and the main organizer of the event.  

“It requires a lot of volunteers,” she said.  “It needs about 10 to 20 people hiding along the trail to get it set up.”

Participants entered the trail in small groups, armed with flashlights and high adrenaline.  As the groups wound their way through spiderwebs, corpses and bloody knives, they had to be on the look out for all the live ghouls.  Shrieks and laughter could be heard throughout the trail.  

Aidan Beaumont, a sophomore Biology major, was one of the volunteers who hid along the Haunted Trail.  He enjoyed being a volunteer ghoul. 

“It was pretty fun.  I got to see a whole bunch of other clubs and student council members working together to get skits and costumes ready,” he said.  “It was fun, laidback and pretty easy.” 

Visitors also enjoyed the experience. 

“It is our first time on the Haunted Trail and we loved it,” said Sandra Mitchell, who walked the trail with her son and husband.  “Can’t wait for next year!” 

Volunteers liked the reactions they got from visitors.

“A lot of the groups immediately after they would scream would start laughing,” said Beaumont. “They were having a lot of fun going through and getting scared in the walkthrough.