Haunted Union attracted both Eastern students and area children for frights and fun.

Brave participants entered 7th Street Underground where they were offered hot apple cider while they waited for the frights Saturday night.

As the line dwindled, patrons of all ages came upon the closed, domineering wood and metal doors that opened up to the screams, chainsaw noises, fog and strobe lights.

To prepare for the house, Katie Skaggs, senior communications studies major, made a trip to Champaign.

At a costume shop her and others were taught how to create the most convincing and scary haunted house. As part of her training, Skaggs learned that it is important to create “a chill room” where patrons can take a second to relax and breathe between screams.

Skaggs spent many hours making the haunted house a frightening destination. Skaggs had to travel to Arthur to pick up $300 of black sheets that were used to make walls, tunnels and hallways for patrons to walk through.

The day of the event Skaggs worked throughout the day to transform the underground from entertainment venue to a haunted house.

“Been here since 8:30 this morning. I went home and had some energy drinks for a little while and now I’m back,” she said.

The haunted house would not have worked if not for volunteers to help scare patrons. Black Student Union member Lauren Hayes, a sophomore communication studies major, decided to help out because she wanted to scare people.

“I have a chainsaw and a hat. I figured it would be fun,” said Hayes. “Most people don’t think of me as being scary cause I’m so little, but I think that I’ll scare them.”

The haunted house started with a dark room that had black walls and glow in the dark masks on them. Out of the dark a volunteer, who blended into the background by wearing one of the masks, would jump and frighten patrons such as Cescily Quinn, a freshman undeclared major, to the ground.

“I was so scared. I am too old to be scared and I didn’t mean to get scared, but it was good.” Quinn said.

Following the mask room was a demented clown room complete with a bubble machine and strobe light where a not so circusy clown was waiting around the corner to frighten patrons.

Next, a mock graveyard had patrons wondering what was next until a volunteer posing as a corpse rose from the ground.

The house ended with a tarp tunnel leading patrons through a claustrophobic maze of fog and flashing lights with the sound of screams and chainsaws echoing through the Underground. Volunteers waited around corners and in crevices to give patrons one final scare before they went on their way.