On October 12, the 58th annual Children’s Museum Guild Haunted House opened in downtown Indianapolis. This year’s theme is “Game Night Fright!”

The creation of this event falls upon the Guild, a volunteer organization aiding with fundraising projects and organization of the Haunted House.

The haunting, on the other hand, is the responsibility of teenage haunters with parents that work in the Guild. Of these haunters are freshmen Lucinda Dilts and Lucy Kaiser.

Kaiser has been haunting for two years, while Dilts took on the task for the first time this year.

The haunters dress up in costumes pertaining to the room of the house they are in, and scare those who go through.

This not only adds a thrill for the visitors, but is also a source of enjoyment for those running it. From finding creative hiding places to getting into character, haunting brings a lot of excitement.

“There is a lot of screaming, too, I lose my voice,” Dilts said.

With scaring comes the opportunity to witness a visitor’s reaction, which Dilts and Kaiser claim to be the source of their favorite memories.

For Kaiser, her highlight was when she scared someone to the point of them tripping over a chess piece.

“There was a prop sitting on the floor, and it was nailed into the ground,” Kaiser said, “the person fell on top of it, and it fell over.”

Dilts shared a similar experience involving the fright of a dad. While he was making fun of Kaiser while she was on the floor, Dilts found the perfect opportunity to scare.

“I jumped out, and he got so scared,” Dilts said.

“He fell over too,” Kaizer said, “people fall over a lot.”

Although the haunted house is filled with fun, it acts as a way for the community to join together and serves as a fundraiser for other museum programs such as InfoZone.

Kaiser and Dilts believe these aspects make the museum all the much better.

“It’s good for the community. I know that, when I was a kid, one of the things I looked forward to around Halloween was the haunted house,” Kaiser said.

When buying tickets for the house, there is an option to donate tickets to deserving families in the Old National Bank Mid-North Promise Program or from the Mid-North neighborhood.