Written By: Marquez Slaugheter

Halloween is the time of year to be spooked and to have a fun time with friends and family.

Haunted houses and haunted trails are popular to go to during the Halloween season for college students who are looking for something exciting to get into.  It is mainly for students to go in, get scared, and leave laughing about their friends’ exaggerated reactions.

Some students began their trips to haunted houses early, such as junior, Ahmaad Howard and his friends, who made a trip to 13 Stories Haunted House last Friday.

13 Stories, according to its website, is the largest and most expensive one year transformation in haunted house attraction history.  The 13 Stories Haunted House is built into 54,000 square feet of horror, and located in Newnan, Georgia.

The haunted house has five houses all together to create one main attraction, and for one of the houses, called Sacrifice, the visitor has to be 18 or older and must also sign a waiver because each visitor is blindfolded and the characters are allowed to touch the visitors.  Another house called Zombie Alley allows people to shoot laser guns at zombies.

Newnan is a three and a half to four hour drive north from Valdosta, and Howard said he and his friends spent around $40 for their admission tickets plus gas.

Out of the total amount of money that was spent, Howard said “Man—it wasn’t worth it.”

Howard has been to many haunted trails and houses, and ranked this attraction low, because he felt that it went by too fast for the place to have five houses and be as large as it is, as well as only being able to use the laser guns in one house.

As far as the feedback on Facebook, the majority of reviews are positive, which is what caught Howard and his friends’ attention to go to 13 Stories.

Another popular freight attraction that happened last week during VSU’s homecoming that some students attended was “Terror in the Wild” at Wild Adventures.

This event featured Black Death, Oblivion II, Farmageddon, Ghost Train, Thrill Rides and five different scare zones.

The attraction that gets the most attention in this event is the Black Death haunted trail, because the line stretches out further than the actual trail.

“I was hiding in my hoodie most of the time, but when I did look, it wasn’t that scary because you would just catch on to them jumping out,” sophomore Noelle Turner said.

Turner also said that “Terror in the Wild” last year was better and scarier because of the guys with chainsaws chasing people at the haunted trail’s exit.

VSU Campus Recreation is hosting its sixth annual haunted trail Oct. 28-31, called “Face Your Fear.”  This event, located at 1300 Sustella Ave., begins at 8 p.m. and ends at 10 p.m.

Tyra Hurst, junior volunteer for the haunted trail, said that the trail, directed by Dylan Volpintesta, graduate assistant of special events and student development, should be even scarier this year.

This is Volpintesta’s first year directing the trail, and Hurst said that he wants to make it big by bringing in an acting coach to teach the actors how to scare people.

This event is open to students, faculty and staff, as well as the general public.

The issue with this event is that some students are indecisive about spending $5 on the admission ticket and are wondering whether if it is worth it.

Another option is the 12th annual Adair Street Horror Haunted House, located at 200 E. Adair St. This attraction also costs $5 and lasts from Oct. 28-Nov. 1, from 7 p.m.-11