Bradley University’s resident advisors returned a favorite for this month’s event, the annual haunted house. The five Bradley resident hall staffs came together to organize the event in Wycoff Hall.

Wycoff is vacant this semester, which allowed the planning committee to elevate this year’s haunted house experience. Instead of having one or two floors to work with, they got an entire five-floor building, even utilizing both stairwells.

After signing a waiver at the door, groups of four to six entered from outside the building with a tour guide and exited in the Wycoff-Harper joint lobby 10 minutes later. Some groups, too scared to linger, moved faster than the estimated time. Once they exited the haunted house, participants were greeted with a room full of snacks and games to wind down.

Many anticipated the event, with the line outside wrapping around the building when doors opened Saturday night. It was hard to hear outside, but a new round of screams was guaranteed every 15 seconds.

Ben Keil, the hall director of Williams Hall, has been involved in organizing the haunted house for the past two years. The graduate student recognizes what makes this event stand out from the rest.

“Just getting all five resident halls together is something that’s hard to do,” Keil said. “We’ve got a lot of good rooms this year, a lot of good passionate actors, really it’s the people that put it on.”

Ryan Bair started planning this year’s event earlier than last year, marking that as the key difference between this and last year’s haunted house. The larger planning committee aimed to make this years’ experience bigger and scarier.

Bair believed the event was a success, though he worried about the long line outside and the low number of tour guides to take those patiently waiting residents in.

“I think the line’s a little worrisome because I don’t want people waiting and then deciding they are not gonna wait for this anymore, but I think once we get more down consistently, we will get more people in and out of the haunted house,” Bair said.

Bair mentioned some highlights, including the twin room, where a pair of resident advisor twins creepily trick the groups, with one popping out of the closet and another from under the bed. A goal shared among many planners was to incorporate more jump scares this year than before.

All who entered were terrified yet amazed. That was the reaction the hall directors were looking for. Azariah Evans went as a freshman, this time around she brought some of her friends to experience it with her. Evans enjoyed it last year, yet she was surprised how much of a step up the haunted house was her sophomore year.

“There was some scares and there was some laughs, but overall a good experience,” Evans said. “A little bit scarier than I was expecting.”

Evans was impressed with the upgraded costumes, props and scenery compared to last year.

Lilli Ybarra attended for the first time and enjoyed the spectacle, knowing it was going to be a good experience once she signed the waiver.

“I loved it. It was actually a lot of fun,” Ybarra said. “One thing I didn’t like was that everyone kept running away. [My group] was screaming too much”

Some were going to have to wait a long time before they could experience the haunted house. Logan Huber brought his friend, Gabe Nye, just to see his friend jump. They were stood in line on the other side of the building.

“Gabe is one of my good friends from the rock wall, he’s not really good at anything scary, he watches a horror movie and screams, so I want to see what he acts like in a haunted house,” Huber said.

On top of watching Nye squeal, Huber’s friend was down in the chainsaw room and he couldn’t wait to see his friend in action.

Huber is a haunted house connoisseur, stating he didn’t expect a waiver for Bradley’s, but that didn’t change his excitement. On the other hand, his friend Nye’s nervous, chippy demeanor over his first haunted house became frozen still once he overheard there was a waiver waiting for him at the door.

With a long line outside, heightened expectations from those who entered, the impressed patrons in the snack room and, of course, the constant shrieks from inside Wycoff Hall, you can safely say this year’s haunted house topped the rest.