I walked into the haunted house confidently and without fear. That didn’t last long, since I was set to jump up and cringe roughly two seconds into the haunted house.
The USF St. Petersburg haunted house, called The Virus, was held in Harbor Hall; it featured an array of spooky sights and gruesome surprises.
On Thursday, Oct. 30, students and St. Petersburg residents awaited scares. But it wasn’t only the scare actors dressed and ready for the 10-minute thrill. Guests wore costumes as they made their way through the house, even the most obscure. Guests mistook one student dressed as the biblical figure Judas Iscariot for Jesus Christ, until the student revealed a bag with 30 pieces of silver#the amount Judas betrayed Jesus for.
I wasn’t scared at all when I first entered the house. I thought to myself, “Little kids go to haunted houses for Halloween all the time.” I thought that this haunted house event was just for laughs and entertainment perusing only, but I was very wrong.
I was stunned by the grotesque sights that lay before me. The scariest moment was the moment when the doctor came in and pulled the sheet off what was on the operating table. A body was stretched across the table with blood and organs # too spooky for me. When the zombies saw fear, they circled and growled into the ears of guests.
The time and effort that Harborside Activities Board put into The Virus showed. I am 21 years old and they scared me, so they did their job pretty well.
I was disappointed that the outside of the building was not decorated. True terror is created by building up the scary emotions. They did have various scary things such as cut off hands and scattered zombies on the way up to the haunted house. But looking up at a terrifying house in anticipation of being let into the building would have made a better presentation to an already amazing haunted house.
On a scale of one to 10 # one being terrible and 10 being totally awesome # I would rate this haunted house an 8.9 out of 10. I’m looking forward to facing HAB’s monsters in the haunted house again next year.
