Students at Elsie Allen High School in Santa Rosa are opening their second annual student-built haunted house to the public on Thursday and Friday, Oct. 29 and 30, from 8 to 10 p.m. It's free, and the school is asking for donations, the Press Democrat reports. Both nights appear as a "Haunted House - Community Event" on the school's calendar.
This year's theme is "Alien Invasion," inspired by student advisor Ryan Halverson's own UFO Halloween decorations. "We have a cow that's going to be lifted up into a UFO, we have a UFO crash, we have the Ghostbusters car crashing through a barn door, and we have an enchanted forest this year," said Principal Casey Cunningham. Halverson is building the UFO and rigging the 3D-printed cow.
How it started
Last year's haunted house was built in just four days as a recruiting event while the school's enrollment boundaries were being redrawn. At one point nearly 400 people were in line, the principal estimated, and about 50 students volunteered. "Seeing the kids take some of our ideas and just run with them and make them better is great," Halverson said. Cunningham said the line moves fast: "We get them in and out pretty quickly."