By Elizabeth Bunnell

Closing down multiple common areas in Reid Hall’s lobby, the Resident Assistants (RAs) constructed a walk through haunted house called “Hell on the Hill.” The haunted house features RAs from multiple residence halls acting particular roles in an attempt to scare participants.

Hell on the Hill offers students on campus a Halloween activity to attend on Oct. 24 and 25 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. After students walked through the haunted house they had the opportunity to attend an after party in Hotz Hall the night of Oct. 24. 

“Hell on the Hill would have started about 15 years ago and it has been in Reid the entire time because the Reid Staff was the ones who came up with the idea of having this program,” Assistant Director for Residence Education Christian Robinson said. “So, this program has a long-time tradition with the Reid Hall staff and community.”

This tradition is something Resident Assistants and students look forward to each year. The residents in Reid Hall had the opportunity to witness the preparations for the event first hand in the weeks leading up to the haunted house. 

“I don’t know what to expect with the haunted house, but I assume it will be scary,” freshman Reid resident Lily Davis said. “I think the people who go will have fun and the RAs have put a lot of work into it so I think it will be executed well.”

Students all across campus attended the haunted house event.

“I went to the haunted house with friends because I heard it was fun from other people who went,” freshman Pomphret resident West Carson said. “There were like five dark rooms we walked through with actors that tried to scare us. My favorite part was trying to make the actors laugh.”

Resident Assistants spent three to five hours a day over the past two weeks to prepare for the haunted house by putting up decorations, planning scares, and making costumes. The acting roles RAs performed took less preparation.

“We came up with what we were saying and what we were doing about an hour before we did the haunted house,” sophomore Reid RA Emma Kolker said. 

Kolker played the role of a hospital patient for the two nights of the haunted house. She wore a hospital gown for her costume with gashes of fake blood on her neck. Resident Assistants chose which room and acting role to sign up for once the haunted house was planned. 

“My favorite part of Hell on the Hill is getting to see these rooms transform into an actual haunted house,” Kolker said. “When my residents came through it was fun, but also hard to contain a smile as my residents would smile or say ‘Hi,’ and it was hard to keep the scary act.”

In order to set up the event Reid Hall blocks off multiple rooms from residents during the weeks before the event. Residents no longer had access to the gym, kitchen, or sitting area. 

“The construction has been a bother. With the gym and study room being closed, it’s been an inconvenience to not have those things at such a close radius. I’m ready for the gym to be open so I can workout easily,” Davis said. 

Each year Reid RAs work alongside Hotz RAs to put up all the decorations. Each room that is closed in Reid’s lobby features a different theme. The ten minute walkthrough haunted house includes themes like cults, clowns, graveyard, surgery room, lights out and a walk through maze. 

“It was honestly super cool watching the decor slowly go up as the days passed,” freshman Reid resident Rowan Riggs said. 

Riggs explained the most unexpected part of the haunted house was the actors grabbing the participants’ ankles while walking through the maze room. 

Each of the residence halls put together a campus wide event for students to attend. Reid’s event is Hell on the Hill. 

“I think the haunted house is to bring the community together and give people a fun and safe thing to do,” Davis said. 

Kolker considered Hell on the Hill a great success even though it was tiring at points. She explained all the work was worth it after seeing the big turn out of students.

“Something that surprised me was the amount of people who came. We were so busy but it was really fun to see how many people came out for Hell on the Hill,” Kolker said.

The Halloween festivities did not end after students walked through the haunted house, participants could walk next door to Hotz Hall to attend an after party featuring an escape room. The tradition of Hell on the Hill and other campus Halloween events has no end in sight.

“I would love to do Hell on the Hill next year,” Kolker said. “It was fun to bring a community together and work together with other RAs to create an event that was so popular.”