By Paulette Lash Ritchie, Times Correspondent
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Springstead High teacher Todd Toomer drags a “bloody” hand down a locker for a commercial for the Horror High event.
SPRING HILL — A fifth high school is about to open its doors in Hernando County, but only for one frightening night.
Horror High, which happens to be on the same campus that houses Springstead High School the rest of the year, will start taking visitors into its horrible halls on Saturday night.
Horror High '10 offers 13 scare zones with live performers and concessions. About 200 sports, entertainment, recreation and marketing students will be involved as zombies, cannibals, inmates, psychiatric patients, mad doctors, psychotic clowns, a janitor who has issues with students who leave messes, and a disgruntled detention teacher
Performances are expected to be so realistic that producers will not allow children younger than 13 to enter without an adult and recommend that age limit for all visitors.
There will be a waiting area with family movies and concessions available for family members and younger children to enjoy as older siblings go through the scare maze.
The event is being coordinated by sports, entertainment, recreation and marketing teacher and DECA sponsor Travis Spiva, assisted by marketing and sports marketing teacher and DECA sponsor Marco Feola and digital design teacher Todd Toomer.
Construction teacher Carl McCoy has been helping with things like tombstones, a doorway and a fake electric chair. TV production teacher Vincent Brancaccio helped with the filming of commercials that are advertising the event in the school.
"We're going to overload their senses," Toomer said about the guests.
They will be bombarded with lighting, sound, images and live action. Although the actors will not touch the visitors, the guests will still feel varying temperatures and they will encounter smells that complement the various rooms, such as dirt and mustiness.
Junior Dominic Raines, 16, is the manager of the Sudden Death room where the victim of a past prank comes back to seek revenge, he explained. Dominic said he has learned how to manage a room of people, telling them what to do and how to do it. "I'm pretty pumped up," he said this week.
Senior Alex Ferguson, 17, is supervising the Detention Room. "Basically," he said, "it's a torture chamber." Visitors must avoid being sawed in half or strapped to the stretch rack.
Alex said the event is good for everyone. "It's a great opportunity to get kids out and do something good on a Saturday night," he said. "It's all benefitting the program."
Horror High '10 is financed with money from other projects and donations and the proceeds will go back into the curriculum. "If it goes off well, it'll be a yearly thing," Spiva said.
Parking will be available in front of the school (limited) or at the Mariner Theater lot. Guests should then move toward the entrance of the school to begin the trip through the maze of scare zones.