By Amelia Tarallo
Hometown Weekly Staff
On Saturday, October 19, brave Medfield residents of all ages traveled to the Medfield Library to try their hand at the haunted house.
Residents came in droves, forming a line that stretched out the doors of the library a mere five minutes after the haunted house opened. As they entered, they were greeted by a sign, “Welcome to Deadfield,” along with a matching book display of numerous scary and haunting tales. There was plenty of entertainment for people to enjoy as they waited for their turn to see the haunted house. Families visiting the psychic reading tarot cards took turns having their questions answered and their futures read. Many kids ran straight to the craft table and made a purple bat headband with construction paper. Other kids carried their friendly cup ghosts back to their parents before running off to their friends.
Many of the children were dressed in their Halloween costumes. One child, who couldn’t have been more than four feet tall, kept his white hockey mask on the entire time he was in line, imitating Jason from movie “Friday the 13th.” Luckily, he wasn’t as scary as the movie version. Other costumes included little witches with their iconic pointy hats and at least one vampire.
When they finally got to the front of the line, visitors were greeted by a costumed teen and reference librarian Erica Cote, dressed in her own scary costume. “Is that real?” one kid as pointing to a bloody wound on her neck. Erica replied that it was just makeup.
When it was time, visitors descended down the stairs to the basement of the library. Usually lit up with florescent lights, the basement was almost completely dark. By the time visitors hit the bottom step, they had met their first frightening residents greeting them with a terrifying scream.
Their guide asked them to ignore that and to keep walking to the first scene. A teenager sat in a chair across from a terrifying librarian. “Do you have your books?” the librarian asked the disgruntled student. The student replied that she had forgotten them. The librarian asked again if she had them. The student, annoyed replied that she had just said that she didn’t have them. The guide tried to usher the tour group away, but not before they could see the terrifying result of the interaction.
The guide continued to take them around the basement, forcing visitors to see study rooms turned into terrifying scenes reminiscent of some favorite horror scenes. Two girls standing in a hallway was enough to make some of the adults scared. “Do you want to meet my friend?” one girl asked. Before visitors could answer, her friend crawled out from underneath the desk, reminding visitors of a scene from “The Exorcist.”
When their tour was finished, visitors went back up the stairs to the land of the living. “That was so creepy,” said one middle schooler. For many, this first try at a haunted house was a bit scary. For the more seasoned visitors, it was a great way to spend a Saturday night. But for everyone, it was a fantastic way to start Halloween festivities a little bit early.
