Cobwebs were strung across the doorways of Callahan Hall. Creepy clowns lurked in the hallways and nurses clad in lab suits soaked in blood wandered around the basement.

The normally quiet Callahan turned into a dormitory of haunt and horror on the night of Oct. 29, when the Association of Campus Residents put on Callahan’s eighth annual Haunted House.

Dana Jetter and Brandy Brawner were in charge of the haunted house this year. Brawner serves as the president of programming.

“I was inspired to get involved through the Association of Campus Residents,” Jetter said. “We were given a $500 budget, and it took about 10 to 20 hours of preparation.”

Callahan Hall, formerly Lakeside Place Nursing Home, is a residence hall with a history.

According to the legend, Lakeside Place Nursing Home once employed a nurse named Millie who was very hateful to her patients. After years of abuse one day her patients revolted against Millie and strangled her with their IVs. Lakeside Place was then abandoned, leaving all of the dead bodies of their former patients inside.

NKU purchased Lakeside Place in 2007, and renovated the building the following year. Each year around Halloween, the residence hall is transformed to fit the fit the legend of Millie and Lakeside Place.

On these nights, the spirits of the patients haunt the residence hall. This year, tours ran from 7:00 to 11:00 p.m..

Freshman tour guide Kayla Lumpkins participated in her first Callahan haunted house this year.

“I wanted to get involved because Brandy made it seem like the coolest job ever and I wanted to see people get scared and be a part of scaring them,” Lumpkins said. “The Association of Campus Residents has been planning this for the last month or so, but just started actively getting things together this past week.”

Lumpkins said that the group drew inspiration for decorations and costumes from shows like American Horror Story.

The tours started at the Bistro as small groups of students were led down the hallway, then onto the elevator where they awaited their fate. The elevator descended to the basement, where students were tormented by ghoulish creatures.

Nurses and slaughtered patients lunged from doorways and lurked in every corner. Bloodstained bodies crept up from the floor and grabbed at students’ feet.

The tour continued to the laundry room where monsters spooked the students by  rattling the machines.  

Freshman Colleen Gruffey was not only a participant in the event but also a resident of Callahan.

“I came to the haunted house because I was intrigued by the idea of a haunted house being ran within a dorm,” Gruffey said

Gruffey said she was impressed with the way that the haunted house was ran.

Despite the fact the event is over, people believe Millie keeps the house haunted year-round. Allegedly, there have been accounts of missing socks, random doors closing, and mysterious noises that can be heard even after the all the ghoul and gore of the Halloween season subsides.