MHS After Dark, a horror-themed maze open to all of MUSD, took place in the theater on Oct. 30. The maze took after Halloween Movie Night’s movie of “The Ring,” and featured scare actors and Halloween-themed decor. Aside from the maze, the event featured food stands, vendors, and games around the perimeter of the theater.
The maze started from the front entrance of the theater, where attendees were led through a path on which scare actors would jump towards them, screaming, and led out of the side entrance.
ASB was in charge of the decorations and line for the maze, and also the vendors that were present, senior and Thespian Troupe 8201 President Mazaria Aldrich said. In preparation for the event, the Thespian Troupe held a workshop to teach scare actors how to act and do makeup, she said.
“We had makeup artists do our makeup, and scare actors were able to do their own as well,” Aldrich said. “And by the help of Miss Schwartz, she helped us become more like a professional scare actor and how to build character. And that really helped us know how to become prepared for people to come in, like how to scare them and how to do it safely without being exhausted.”
A lot of people attended this year’s event, senior and scare actor Doris Phi said. In terms of the scare actors’ performances, this night went fine, she said.
“I’ve worked on the last two,” Phi said. “This one was definitely upgraded in a way because we had a theme. So there were a lot more props and more of what can we do and what we cannot do, but the last two years were way more free-reign, where we could just do whatever we wanted.”
Inspired by “The Ring,” a well from the movie was placed on the stage of the theater. There, the ghost from the western adaptation of “The Ring,” Samara Morgan, would crawl out and try to scare maze attendees.
Phi had a lot of fun playing as the “Ring” girl from the well, as she got to crawl towards people and scream at them, she said. This After Dark was more like a path, rather than being an actual maze, Phi said.
“I feel like, as it went on, they created more of a defined path to go to,” Phi said. “So it’s not necessarily like a maze, but more of a, ‘Go this way and get scared.” So the quality got better, but in terms of fulfilling the maze part, it got kind of worse because it’s just a pathway.”
Senior Merliin Robin believed the maze could have been scarier with more actors, she said. Robin’s favorite part of the maze was “The Ring” theme, she said.
“The favorite part was the main character of ‘The Ring,’” Robin said. “The girl who sat on the stage was so good. Her performance was so good.”
If Aldrich had to choose a favorite After Dark, it would be this one, she said. Actors were allowed to break out of their comfort zone for this event, Aldrich said.
“Our unique twist is basically like, go all out, try to scare people,” Aldrich said. “Think about your character and how you would scare this person? And how would you do it?”
