Holland’s House of Horrors returns to The University of Tennessee at Martin this Halloween weekend to give the local community a fright to remember. 

Hosted by the University Scholars Program, the haunted house is designed as a walkthrough experience that transforms the Holland McCombs building into a host of mysterious rooms. Each room is designed with a different theme to keep guests on their toes what could be around the corner. 

“The haunted house kind of turns… the McCombs building into a full haunted house. So, we’ll go around the outskirts of the building… we do use ¾ of the building at least, there’s about nine rooms with different themes in each to give a good scare to people going through,” said Emma Self, a junior civil engineering major from Somerville, Tennessee, and the fundraising chair for the University Scholars Program.  

Along with the themed rooms, this year’s event will also include an outdoor section—providing a fresh take on the classic haunted house setup.   

“We’ve got an outside area that we’re going to kind of lead people through, so that’s a new one that’s going to be really cool,” said Dylan Hembree, a senior environmental and ecological biology major from Charlotte, Tennessee. “That one’s different…this is my third year doing the haunted house, second year heading it, and we’ve never had a group that [has] done a room…more into the outside section like we’ve got this year.”

For the scholars who help run the event, seeing how everyone comes together to pull off an event as big as Holland’s House of Horrors is one of the most rewarding parts of the experience.  

“One thing that’s really great is just seeing how the creativity of everyone comes together,” said Hembree. “…the people in the rooms, we give them creative freedom, more or less, and seeing some of the ideas that people come up with is really cool. Just seeing everybody get to put together the rooms to create the whole house is really cool.” 

“I know in my room we have a couple freshmen, and you learn a lot about a person by going to the meetings and working together,” said Emmalee Lattus, a biology major from South Fulton, Tennessee. “We’ve thrown out so many ideas, and different personalities come out, and it’s so fun.”

Holland’s House of Horrors will take place on Oct. 31 from 7:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. and Nov. 1 from 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Admission is $5 per person; cash is preferred. 

If you are looking for a scare this Halloween, be sure to check out Holland’s House of Horrors, if you dare.