What Scares You? NSO Students Test this Question While Attending the NSO Spooktacular ~ JWU NSO

By Samantha Wilber

Business Management and Marketing, 2012

Costume Contestants
From Left to Right: Kyla Washington,
Professor Wilkinson, and Cassandra Aaronson

What do you fear the most? It is the age old question around Halloween, as haunted houses open their doors. On a cold and rainy October night I put this question to the test along with 11 other JWU students, eight NSO members and three guests at the NSO Spooktacular. We boarded a JWU van and killed time during the 17-mile drive by singing Halloween classics and talking about what we fear most. I observed the costumes of my classmates and knew it was going to be a toss-up for who would win best costume later on that night. Within 30 minutes we had reached our destination: the Factory of Terror in Fall River, MA – hailed as New England’s largest and scariest haunted house attraction.

We were accompanied by advisors Dr. Erin Wilkinson and Professor Michelle Morin, who, surprisingly, were just as scared as us, if not more. While waiting in line we observed the architecture of the bloodcurdling factory that had blood splatter and cobwebs everywhere. I instantly felt a chill while the frightening ghouls all around taunted me. At this point I could only envision the fright I was about to experience as I stepped foot through the doors of the Bloodworth Dungeon and walked through thirty terrifying chambers of the factory.

The gates opened with an eerie spine-tingling creak while our horrified screams filled the murky room. We crossed the threshold and the door slammed behind us. This is where the fright set in as we came face-to-face with the grueling figures of the 113 factory workers murdered in the 1956 mystery murder massacre.

We entered an underground 3D and 4D dimensional area called the Gothic Nightmare. We continued to make our way down dark paths and crawled through tunnels of corpses. As we ran through the vortex of lost souls we found ourselves entering the Phobia Mayhem. With the thought of never escaping, we stumbled over each other, falling in fear from a chainsaw killer. Terrified, we made our way into a room full of giant mutant spiders where sounds of Professor Morin’s nervous giggle and our screeches were all you could hear. We continued to travel and came across many other petrifying zombies, mutants, and lost souls until we made it to the end and managed to get out alive.

Costume Contest Winner: Cassandra Aaronson

After making it through the Factory of Terror, we enjoyed a nice hot chocolate, and then voted to determine the best costume. Freshmen NSO student Cassandra Aaronson won the top prize - a $25 Barnes and Noble’s gift card - for her cat costume. As the night came to a close, we bonded with details about ourselves and what we feared the most on that cold October night. For Professor Morin, it was the sound of a chain saw closing in behind her. For me it was the giant hissing spiders in the Arachnophobia room. However, when it was all over, I guess it wasn’t so scary after all. We had each other; so we survived.