Campus Recreation and the Housing and Residence Life are sponsoring Haunted Trail beginning on Friday, Oct.15 and 16, running through each consecutive Friday and Saturday until Oct. 30.

The Haunted Trail will be located behind the Rec, starting at the Red Cross Center.

A food drive and raffle will be held each night of the event, and participants can win VSU athletics tickets in the raffle by donating two non-perishable food items. These items will then be donated to the VSU pantry.

On Oct. 15, the first 150 student tickets were sponsored by the Campus Activities Board.

On Oct. 22, the first 150 student tickets will be sponsored by Housing and Residence Life.

The trail opens with a video on a projector of a mad doctor inviting people onto the trail. A guide then tells the participants that they are invited to dinner and places them on the trail.

“Standing there watching the opening video definitely got me excited for what was next,” Will Smith, freshman mass media major, said. “It wasn’t as spooky as I expected but I had a great time.”

Chainsaws are fired up as the participants move along a dimly lit path. Scarers in masks and dark costumes line the path and jump out with loud screams.

“I had a lot of fun on the trail,” Landen Browning, freshman chemistry major, said. “The decorations were awesome, especially the school bus.”

According to the Haunted Trail’s website on Campus Recreation, rules and warnings include the following: no touching and actors will not touch you, follow the lights on the trail and refrain from using flashlights, secure all loose items and jewelry before entering trail, do not separate from your group and watch the step as the ground is uneven.

The website also concludes that there will be strobe lights and jump scares with sudden loud noises and tight spaces, and those with a medical or phycological problem that could be triggered by those things are not recommended to go on the trail for safety reasons.

The trail will be open from 8 p.m. to 11p.m. The cost for entry is $10. Tickets are available at the gate and valid for one night only.

Written by Madeline Harper, Staff Reporter. Photos courtesy of Madeline Harper.