"What people can expect to see in the Haunted Auditorium is the messed up minds of the theater department and their nightmares," said Casey Hunsberger, co-director of the Haunted Aud.
This weekend marks the fourth year the Michigan State University Department of Theatre has put on the Haunted Aud. The auditorium is open to the public from 8 p.m. to midnight. Oct. 26-27 and from 8 to 11 p.m. Oct. 28. General admission is $10, and all funds go to theater students so they can travel the country to showcase their talents and hopefully get signed by an agency.
Hunsberger said he enjoys working with this event because it allows him to express his dark side.
"I enjoy blood, I enjoy scaring the crap out of people, I enjoy making people feel afraid," he said.
Lydia Hiller, also a co-director, said the auditorium is more than just a spooky old building to decorate for Halloween. She believes it is truly haunted.
"They say that there's a ghost of a little boy who died here who has a ball that he bounces as he walks down the hallway," Hiller said. "I've never seen the little boy, although I was here the other night with a big group of people and we distinctly heard the sound of a child laughing."
Haunted or not, Hiller isn't counting on real ghosts to do the scaring this weekend. She said it is up to the actors and the atmosphere to reach people's true fears.
"The thing about our Haunted Aud is we have a bunch of creative minds who find really interesting ways to get at what really scares you," she said. "Not just ghosts and skeletons, but what is deeply frightening."