DIAMOND BAR, CA. – For many Halloween aficionados, haunted houses are the best part of the entire holiday. And this last Halloween, Diamond Bar High School’s Pathways Communication Academy students created a haunted house in the gym with great success. In fact, some may say the students took their love of scary movies one step too far.
Ashlyn Conway, Pathways’ lead coordinator, worked with her students to pull off a haunted house with a twist. Rather than relying on ordinary horror motifs, DBHS’s latest haunted house made reference to some of cinema’s greatest horror films.
“At the very beginning stages of planning, we had a brainstorming day, and once we had our top three, we asked how could we execute these ideas, and then we voted on the theme. This year’s theme was Night at the Movies,” Conway said.
She explained that many of the seniors who were involved played significant roles in setting up the haunted house this year to ensure its success. In fact, their work had begun even before October rolled around.
“The seniors of Pathways spent six weeks planning the haunted house, organizing it and getting all the details ready for the haunted house,” Conway said.
Seniors also played a large role in organizing and delegating jobs. They worked tirelessly to plan out a theme and layout for each section of the haunted house and worked with fellow sophomores to make their dream a reality.
“The specific roles from the beginning was they were all divided into a different room. The seniors were in charge of that room, so they had to plan the theme, the layout, the costumes and where the scarers would be. They also had to build it,” said Conway.
That is not to say that the process was easy or that the Pathways team faced no struggles in setting the haunted house up. In fact, the haunted house’s unique theme and setting intially concerned many members of the Pathways team.
“One of our biggest hurdles that we were testing this year was that it was a “pop up” theme, and we had to set it up the day before in the gym, versus last year when we got to use classrooms that were empty. But then we worked all day, everyone came, and we got it done,” Conway said.
The effort paid off tenfold. Students praised the haunted house for its unique theme and thrilling frights.
“I would think that our main goal would be to have as many students get to experience it and have fun, and make it bigger and better than last year, and we were able to push through a lot of students in two days,” Conway said.
Conway also discussed many of the unique and enjoyable moments that she personally experienced during her time working with the team.
“As a teacher, a memorable moment for me is just getting to see the kids succeed and see their first brainstorm come to life,” Conway said. “Another couple of funny moments is just seeing kids get scared when they’re in there.”
Reflecting on the experience, Conway believes that overall her students will continue to create amazing memories and haunted houses well into the future.
“I would say the haunted house is always unique because every set of seniors gets to come up with their own ideas. I am here to support whatever the seniors want to do, and that will always be unique and different from the year before,” Conway said.
In addition, Conway explained that the students benefited from the process as well.
“The kids definitely gained so much leadership experience. They have to be able to first brainstorm, plan and be creative. They also get to learn how to delegate roles, build and produce costumes,” Conway said.
