The Honor’s Program will hold its annual haunted house today until Saturday from 8 p.m. to midnight.

 The theme this year will be “Rolling Meadows, Bed and Breakfast.” The house will resemble a Bed and Breakfast hotel, run by Ma Poppins. Everyone who enters the house will be considered guests of the hotel.   The twist-Poppins is a wicked woman who takes the guests through a sequence of trials in order to run them out of the hotel, deeming them unworthy to stay.

 “There will be lots of brutal murders,” Michael Holman, senior psychology major and coordinator of the event, said.  “We’re all big fans of dark humor, so you may hear some off-color jokes.”

 Not only will the theme be more closely-connected than last year’s, but the tour is expected to go by much quicker.

 The guests will be divided into groups of five to six people in each. According to Holman, it should only take guests four to five minutes to walk through the entire haunted house, which will be stretched from the backyard to the Honor’s house.

 Not only will there be surprises inside the house, but also outside as people wait to enter.

 “They will have just as much fun as the people inside the house,” Holman said. “We want it to be an event that people look forward to and think of it as enjoyable.”
 Holman said that it was a group effort preparing for the event. He aimed to get everyone involved throughout the process.

 “I even wanted the people selling tickets or advertising to all have a hand in the final product,” Holman said.

 Holman looks forward to this year’s theme and anticipates a high number of attendees.

 “The first year that we did it, the turn-out was not good,” Holman said. “But, we learned a lot. Last year, the line was all the way out to the street of Georgia Avenue, so we obviously did a lot better. Hopefully it will be equal or better this year because we were more aggressive with our marketing campaign.”

 Helen Burkett, junior Mass Media major, said that the haunted house has definitely improved since the first one they held.

 “I’ve been involved in all three of the haunted houses that we’ve had so far,” Burkett said. “So, it’s been cool to see it grow from the first group that planned it, which was only made up of 15 people. There are so many people involved now and so many talents to pull from. It’s cool to hear a lot of people saying that they’re excited about going this year.”

 Holman admits that he begins planning for the next haunted house immediately after the last one is finished. He begins recruiting people who want to participate in the event as early as July.

 There will be hot apple cider and candy available to guests. Tickets can be purchased at the door for $3. All tickets are non-refundable.

 “So you can’t get scared and want to return your ticket,” Holman said.

 As this is Holman’s third year planning the Honor’s haunted houses, he said he has witnessed a few funny incidents.

 “Once, a girl and her dog peed themselves,” Holman said. “The pet just slipped in, but wished it hadn’t later.”

 While Burkett said she will be the first to interact with the guests while she collects tickets, Holman refused to confess his role in the house in order to keep the surprise.

 “Let’s just say my presence will be known,” Holman said.