Friday night the Turlington Hall Council will transform the residence hall’s basement into a haunted house, or specifically, “Artiste Asylum.”

This year the haunted house will be different from those of previous years, as it will be a guided tour. Tour guides will take groups through an insane asylum where actors will take pleasure in scaring people as much as they can.

“It is called ‘Artiste Asylum’. It is about the journey through insanity. Everybody interprets it differently. I interpret it as the mind of a deranged artist…but if I said any more it would probably give it away,” said Courtney Jones, a junior in psychology and resident adviser in Turlington Residence Hall.

Jones is one of the many actors who will be performing in Saturday’s haunted house.

Antrone Burke, a member of the council and a sophomore in animal science, and Jones agreed that this year’s theme was collectively their ideas.

“The whole aspect of psychological warfare, it just calls to me. Alfred Hitchcock is one of my favorite directors…it is so simple but it hits you, and that is what we aimed to do with this… plus scaring people is fun,” Burke said.

The council has been working all year to create this year’s haunted house. They will begin setup around 5 p.m. on Friday, and they hope to finish around noon on Saturday.

“We’ve been planning it since the beginning of the year. It is a very drawn out process.” Jones said. “Finding people to help with setup is the big part.”

Jones said it also takes a lot of time to get things ready. This involves making sure the theme is perfect, the actors are in costume and know what they are supposed to be doing and running through the performance.

Setup involves transforming the entire basement of Turlington Residence Hall into the creator’s vision, making sure costumes are in order and doing a run through of the tour. The actors are responsible for putting together their makeup and costumes before tours start.  Burke said the tour is semi-scripted. The actors are given a general idea of what to say and they have to develop the information they are given.

The Turlington Hall Council provides the money to buy all of the decorations, makeup, costumes, and anything else needed to make the set perfect. This year the council also received a donation from a middle school. Students from the school will be allowed to tour the haunted house 30 minutes before it opens to the public.

Last year 250 people attended the attraction and this year the hall council is hoping to top that, according to the Turlington Hall Council.

Jones thinks that this year will be even better than the last because they have a more consistent theme and because it is more psychological than last year. “It is more about the startle factor and less about the gore.” she said.

Although portraying ghosts and ghouls from the mind of a deranged artist can be mentally and physically demanding, the actors said they enjoy every minute of it.

“I enjoy working with everybody…that is the fun part. The set up is absolutely hilarious. We had a big sleepover slumber party in the basement afterwards, which was one of the most fun things I think I’ve ever done. The whole ordeal is just awesome. It is one of those things you don’t forget being a part of,” said Jones.

Dillon Ladenburger, a sophomore in food science and actor in the attraction, said he can’t wait to “freak some people out” and that it is going to be awesome.

The haunted house is not for the faint of heart as it is designed to scare students, according to Ladenburger.

Ladenburger said, “People need to have a light heart, approach it with a fun spirit, and just have fun with it.”