With Halloweekend past, so concludes the highly-anticipated Hauntings on the Hill. This haunted house is hosted and organized entirely by the UVA students of Brown Residential College. From actors who spooked attendees to artists who designed the advertisements, Hauntings is always a unique opportunity to showcase creativity and community spirit, as the event is only made possible by the workers and volunteers who collaborate in designing and staffing each of the scary rooms. This year, Hauntings took place on the nights of November 1 and 2, after weeks of hard work and preparation. Shrieks could be heard emanating from Monroe Hill when the sun went down on those days. I spoke with Zoe Benton and Link Fu, both Brown college residents, who shared some valuable insights on what it was like to be behind-the-scenes:
What was your role in Hauntings?
Zoe: I was one of three of the Hauntings co-chairs. We are in charge of coordinating the entire event, including renting the tents, creating and constructing a room layout inside those tents, helping room leaders to purchase items for and set up their rooms, coordinating with any vendors, charities, and visiting organizations, and monitoring all of the activities during the event itself.
Link: I was a Hauntings Co-Chair alongside Zoe and Naila, which meant we were mostly working behind the scenes and took care of administrative work and behind the scene logistics. Me specifically, also deviated from past year’s sourcing for stickers, and instead printed out our own using our artists’ original designs, and made them holographic and waterproof. I’m very proud how they turned out and excited to continue producing our own stickers in the future to reduce costs and increase pizazz.
How did Hauntings turn out overall?
Zoe: Hauntings went very well this year! We definitely leaned into the goofiness that people loved in years past, and I’m so proud of all of the hard work that our volunteers put into making this happen. We tried a few new things this year, some of which we will keep in the future, and some of which we will adjust to better the entire experience.
Link: Quite well, I think! While we had a slower Hauntings on Friday, we had very high turnout on Saturday, and despite all the obstacles along the way, I’m confident to say that we had, at the very least, a good Hauntings this year.
Where did the idea for Murder on the Dance Floor come from; what was the inspiration behind the theme?
Zoe: We knew we wanted a music-themed house early on, as that was a highly requested theme in previous years. As for the name itself, that was suggested and chosen by the Brown College residents (B’residents)! Murder on the Dancefloor won the name vote in a landslide, and I think they chose well.
Link: The 3 of us brainstormed that a theme around music would be cool, and ‘Murder on the Dance Floor’ was a title that was pitched to us by a B’resident (Brown College Residents) and won the most popular vote. Funny story is that our other Co-Chair, Naila, hated the song ‘Murder on the Dance Floor’ so much she wanted to veto the title, and said “you’d have to kill me if that’s going to be our theme for this year”. A ghoul of her word, Naila was indeed murdered for the plot of pre-Hauntings.
What part(s) of the event went well this year?
Zoe: I think the room leaders did a great job this year of creating fun rooms for guests to enjoy. I loved walking through the house to check on everyone and seeing the reactions of the guests. Even though this was a busy week for everyone, and so we had to build late at night from 10 pm to about 1 am, we learned the ropes and made construction go fairly smoothly. The line management was especially great this year. There was a consistent line throughout almost all of Saturday night, but we kept the wait times low enough that nobody became annoyed by them. There was a volunteer that was in charge of splitting up the groups into manageable sizes, and two fantastic ‘bouncers’ at the door to prevent people from just waltzing into the house. All of the guides, pushers, and actors took the notes on timing I gave them very well, and so we never had any groups running into each other, and kept a consistent rhythm of groups passing through every three minutes.
Link: It’s always hard trying to recount the details of Hauntings, but we engaged almost a third of the entire Brown population, and had many first-year residents take initiative and come into leadership positions, and that’s always something good to see.
What sorts of challenges were faced along the way?
Zoe: Scheduling was definitely a challenge. The other co-chairs and I have about two hours total each week where all three of us are free at the same time, and so we had to schedule meetings at 7 am, 11 pm, or in that one tiny gap. Luckily, this position requires you to be a bit of a night owl. We also had an issue with people not reading their emails or communicating with us, and a number of people who decided not to show up to the event without informing us. We had some wonderful volunteers step up and fill their roles, and they did a phenomenal job. Even my other co-chairs stepped in and acted in a room!
Link: Communication was probably the most difficult and consistent challenge. I do not lie when I say I have sent 3 digits of emails pertaining to just Hauntings. Trying to get 80 people to do what they need to do when we want them to do it is, as you may guess, incredibly infuriating and near impossible to do with your sanity still intact.
If you could change anything about the event for next year, what would you change?
Zoe: Last year, we had heard a lot of people saying that they liked the goofy rooms more than the scary ones, and that they wished we had some food available while they waited in line. This year, we heard people saying that it wasn’t scary enough, and so next year we are going to try and find that balance between rooms that make you laugh and rooms that make you scream. This year, we had a food truck on Friday, but they couldn’t be there on Saturday, which was our busiest night (as expected). There was even a group that ordered pizza while at the event, but by the time the pizza got here, they were unfortunately gone. Next year, we plan to have a food truck available for both nights.
Link: Lean more into the ‘horror’ aspect of the event. We’re entertaining, for sure, but I think we can up play the jump scares and psychological horrors and try to reach a higher level on the audience scream meter.
Can you share any fun behind-the-scenes stories from both the planning process and actual event?
Zoe: There are so many fantastic stories from this week. After the first build day, we all took the elevator down from the hill, and I accidentally hit the ’emergency call’ button with my backpack as we were taking a picture. The whole room fell into silent laughs as the operator answered the call immediately only to hear me say “I’m so sorry! That was an accident!” Once the operator confirmed we were alright and hung up, we all erupted with laughter. The best part? The pictures we took captured the before and after.
Link: When we were trying to recruit people to volunteer for Hauntings at the Brown Banquet, Naila and Zoe made a presentation that I had no idea the contents of, and the presentation was basically a humorous slander of how much we yap about what we do, while I was yapping a lot about what we do.
What do you hope people take away from Hauntings?
Zoe: I hope everyone who went to Hauntings had a really fun time. I hope they enjoyed all of the wild, crazy rooms our room leaders created, and that they will come back next year knowing that all of this incredible creativity and dedication is being put towards a good cause. This year, the B’residents chose Charlottesville Haven to donate all of our profits to. Next year, I know they will choose another fantastic organization and theme, which will be even better than this year.
Link: For our B’resident volunteers, I hope they’ve met friends and other members of their residential community. For our audience, I hope they left with a smile on their face, shaking their head laughing “what did I just witness” and 10 years down the line recount once upon a time they had gone through Hauntings, a unique Haunted House experience no other event can ever compare to.
As the tents get taken down and the laughter fades away, the success and memories of Hauntings on the Hill remains. The event has brought together students, alumni, even President Jim Ryan for two huge nights of Halloween festivities in support of The Haven, a local homeless shelter and resource center. It could not take place without the work done by students like Zoe, whose countless hours of commitment has brought the vision to life. For those who did not get a chance to attend, be sure to look forward to next year’s Hauntings, which will improve upon this year’s feedback and achievements that has made this tradition such a success.
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