By Steffany Gutierrez
Halloween is just around the corner. As ghosts and ghouls prepare for the day, students are also making Halloween day preparations.
“I am going to spend time with my friends downtown,” communications junior Alexa Lewis said, adding that she dressed as a cowgirl last Halloween.
Her favorite part of Halloween is the shared excitement.
“I love how everybody gets into the Halloween spirit,” she said.
For those students who, like Lewis, plan to spend their Halloween away from home, the city offers a wide array of fun, and terrors.
Bars and dance clubs will have drink specials and special events starting Halloween weekend. Kremlin, for example, will be having Vampoween, a night of costume contests, prizes and drink specials Oct. 29.
Havana Ultra Lounge, in the same building, will have a Halloween Super Hero Party featuring costume contests, drink specials and dance music also with free entry in costume, on Halloween night.
Communications senior Chris Ramos said he had a great time last year with friends visiting Horror in the Hills, a haunted house in Bandera.
“The house included a hay ride, your typical zombies, clowns, butchers and witches roaming the place,” he said. As far as Ramos’ favorite Halloween activities, he likes pumpkin carving and trick-or- treating because, “they highlight the fun of Halloween.”
Although Ramos mentioned he probably will not dress up this year, if he had, Steve Jobs would have been his costume pick.
Haunted Houses
Nightmare on Grayson, 201 E. Grayson St, San Antonio’s longest-running haunted house in the Pearl Brewery district, offers visitors nearly 12,000 square feet of rooms filled with ghosts, ghouls and other creepy creatures.
The house features a festival filled with additional scares, vendors and entertainment. Admission is $17. The group rate for 10 people or more is $15. Discount coupons for $2 are available at Alamo Drafthouse, Game Stop, Spirit stores and on the Nightmare on Grayson website. Hours are 7:30 p.m.-midnight Friday and Saturday, 7:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m Sunday and 7:30 p.m.-midnight Halloween night.
Terror Mansion, 414 W. Laurel St., a “4-star rated scariest haunted house,” is another alternative for those adrenaline, terror-seeking victims. The house features 23 rooms with famous killers Jason, Michael, Leatherface and Jigsaw, and clowns, chainsaws and more. Admission is $20. For groups of 30 or more, advance notice should be made at (210) 226.2226. The group rate is $14 on Sunday only. Coupons are available at Papa Johns, Burger King and Regal Cinemas. Hours are 7 p.m.-midnight Friday and Saturday, 7 p.m.-10 p.m. Sunday and 7 p.m.-11 p.m. Halloween night.
Thirteenth Floor, 1203 E. Commerce St, San Antonio’s largest and newest haunted house attraction across the street from Sunset Station, features two haunted houses for the price of one in what their website describes as “an intense, graphic, theatrical show that will take you on a gut wrenching ride of visceral thrills and psychological horror.” Admission is $19.99. Hours are 7 p.m.-midnight Friday through Halloween night.
Ghost Tracks
Business senior Gloria Reyes remembers Halloween as a time for family and tradition.
“I remember we would get together and tell scary stories after trick-or-treating,” she said. She also recalls visiting the ghost tracks in previous years, a popular Halloween haunt.
As the story goes, these tracks were site to a terrible accident in the 1940s. To hear it told, a school bus of children stalled on the tracks, at which point a train crashed into the bus, killing all the passengers. It’s said that any vehicle sitting on the tracks, located off SE Loop 410 by Shane Road and Villamain Road, will be pushed by invisible hands — supposedly of the children — to safety.
Students with young children staying far from from the local haunts are in good company this year.
Communications junior Marcie Arriola said she will be taking her son, Weston, dressed as a dinosaur, trick-or-treating around her neighborhood.
“Halloween is my favorite holiday because I love to see people’s creativity in dressing up,” she said. “Now my son is old enough to participate in the festivities.”
