It was a wicked good time in Manor Hall during the annual Haunted Hallway event. For one night a year, the tunnel between residential halls Manor and Sorin became a haunted house for students to explore. Hosted by the Residential Housing Association (RHA), the event invited various student organizations to create horror-filled rooms for the hallway.

Held on Oct. 31, students congregated in Manor’s Great Hall for the Halloween celebration. RHA staff blasted classic Halloween tunes such as “The Monster Mash,” along with modern pop music hits through the duration of the night. Organizations including the Women’s Resource Center (WRC), Hamline Fashion Club and even Drew’s Hall Council set up tables featuring games and goodies for students. Attendees dressed in costumes could enter a contest with categories in creativity, fear-factor and the “best feminist” costume. But the main attraction of the night was the haunted tour.

Lead by RAs and RHA staff members, groups left Manor every five minutes to begin the haunting experience.

After being lead to Sorin, students wandered in the pitch black basement as actors lured the group into haunting rooms. Here, actors performed short skits that heavily featured jump scares, fake gore and flashing lights.

Attendance numbers for the entire event were estimated through these tour signups. The numbers showed great participation this year. According to RHA Public Relations Chair and sophomore Amanda Danielson, Haunted Hallway’s first hour drew in more students than last year’s total number of attendees.

“If the tours didn’t run every five minutes, we have been booked past 11 [p.m.],” Danielson said.

To Danielson, the growing number is almost a relief. With Haunted Hallway falling on Halloween this year, there was worry students would have other plans.

“It’s a great and safe way to celebrate,” Daniels said. “This is a great kick-off for the other RHA events this year.”

While the high level of attendance created some stalling in the tours, first-year attendee Shelby Giess had a positive experience throughout the night.

“I expected a wait for the Haunted Hallway portion, so I wasn’t upset about that,”  Giess said.

Though Giess’s tour was stopped once between rooms to wait for another group to continue, she did not feel it took from the experience.

“It was a very positive atmosphere. Everyone was lovely and the scariness level was perfect in my opinion, spooky enough whether or not you like horror things,” Giess said.

Despite the popularity, the tour was not for everyone. Senior Becky Hirsch, a co-judge to the costume contest, would love to see less scary programming on campus. This was her first time at the event.

“I don’t do scary stuff, so Haunted Hallways was never an interest,” Hirsch said. “The big pull is always the hallway, but the tables have other things to do.”

The event lasted three hours, with back-to-back tours. With Haunted Hallway considered a success, RHA will now focus on the annual fall semester’s Late Night Study Breakfast. The event will provide students a chance to break from finals cramming and enjoy breakfast food.