The Michigan Daily I michigandaily.com I Thursday, October 23,2008 The Daily Arts guide to the best upcoming events - it's everywhere you should be this weekend and why. This kind of thing would never happen in California. Halloween is the time of year when, asa child, you get to carve a pumpkin, dress up as the cute little vampire and have your mother hold your hand in chilly weather as your neighbors - some sketchier than others - drop miniature lumps of teeth-rotting gold into your pillow- case. And that's pretty much the entire holiday. A little flash, hopefully no snow, maybe a few pumpkins and pos- sibly a razorblade that one of your neighbors stashed in a Snickers bar. All in good fun, really, until you get too old and the same neighbors refuse to give you any candy and tell you to just go home. This is where haunted houses come in handy. They capitalize on the adult portions of Halloween: fear and terror. And there might not be a better state in the nation to celebrate the next stage in our Halloween life-cycles than Michigan. For a state so economically depressed, Michigan's haunted house market is one sector that isn't suffering. More than 50 haunted attractions can be found within a few hours of Ann Arbor, with more being added each year. This hasn't always been the case, though the popu- larity of Halloween among college students is sky high (even if that means a lot of beer and a lot of cleavagey Cinderellas). A lot of the credit for the state's position as the nation's most haunted area can be traced back to Ed Terebus and his brother James, owners and creators of the nation's largest haunted house, Erebus, in downtown Pontiac. What started as a side project has turned into an all- out passion for Ed Terebus, a locksmith by trade, who prior to 2000, sold his home and moved in with his broth- er, James, to buy the warehouse where Erebus is now housed. The two brothers have been in the haunt busi- ness for 28 years and are the creators of the Fear Finder, a newspaper listing of local haunts across Michigan. Though Erebus - clearly the leader in the haunted house world - competes with other haunted attractions in the state, Terebus said that keeping the little guys alive is a big deal for Michigan to support such athriving haunted market. "We want to keep the little guy alive," Terebus said. "We were all small haunts at one time." This sort of camaraderie among owners in Michigan is one of the main reasons for the explosion of haunted houses in the area, big and small. Families and couples are able to make a night of terror for themselves out of a pseudo-road trip to explore the haunted attractions. Two such smaller attractions, the Haunted Winery in Farmington and Terror in Townsend Forest (run by the Oakland County Sportsmen's Club) in Clarkston, may not have the pizazz - nor the budget - of something like Erebus, but they still manage to pull off a haunting thrill. The Haunted Winery capitalizes on a confusing maze of dark rooms and people in costume who, to vary- ing degrees, jump from behind corners looking to scare people. Terror in Townsend Forest is a different type of experience. A tour guide leads a group into a forest filled with goblins behind trees, funhouse tricks and plenty of chainsaw-toting clowns. Dick Wilton, one of the Forest's tour guides and a life- time member of the Oakland County Sportsmen's Club, has been leading tours for three years and says the forest is geared more toward families and teenagers who aren't looking for a massive spectacle. "This isn't like (Erebus). People like the woods and t this is a little bit different," Wilton said. Though the woods provide a clever alternative to the standard haunted house, they provide people an oppor- tunity to explore another part of Michigan's heritage: the outdoors. See HAUNTED, Page 4B 1 IN CONCERT Under the direction of graduate music students, the University Symphony Orchestra and the Univer- sity Philharmonic Orches- tra will join together to perform their annual Hal- loween concert Sunday at 4:30 and 8 p.m. The musicians will be decked out in costumes and the audience is encouraged to dress up as well. Tickets start at $8. ON STAGE The low-end warriors of the University of Michi- gan Euphonium/Tuba ensemble show off their bass register chops all weekend in their annual gala, Octubafest. Profes- sor Fritz Kaenzig directs. At 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the E.V. Moore Building. Admission is free. ON TOUR Ever wanted towatch a band of "ghost hunters" lead a tour of the Michigan League and reveal their "paranor- mal findings"? Well, that's exactly what will happen at the Halloween Festival hosted by UMix and UUAP at 10:30 p.m. tomorrow night in the League. There will also be games, prizes and free food. FINDING FRIGHTS, EVEN IN COLLEGE Face it - we're too old for trick-or-treating. But there are other options in the area. Daily Arts sent three editors to explore the unknown in three different haunts less than an hour outside Ann Arbor. Have you ever wanted to see an exhausted Freddy Krueger kick back with a bottle of grain alcohol? Well, look no further than the Haunted Winery in Farmington. Here, no ghoul is too half-assed; no shock is too predictable; no prop is too common; and no performer is too method to take a break and swig on what appeared to be some hard, child tantrum-eliminating liquor. Yeah, this place is kind of crappy, and it highlights generic examples of nearby haunted houses. Obviously run and operat- ed by locals, this is bargain-basement Halloween. Imagine four twenty-something Michigan students looking for a few cheap thrills, only to be harassed in and out of a chintzy maze. Throughout 15 to 20 chambers, teens (likely emo kids) jump out of corners in Michael Myers and Jason masks, with plenty of "hoos" and "haas" to spare. When we didn't react, we were told, "you suck." In one room, our lack of response merited a claim from one creeper that we should "hump each other." Little bastard. OK, it was kind of funny. At the end, the biggest shock was that we were out in ten minutes and quickly propositioned with coupons to play laser tag by a guy who may or may not have been with the show. He was just thatgoth. But it was the drinking Fre that made this one worthwhile. It's not the operator's fault this thing was paled in comparison to so many other elabo out there. Still, between the garage sale belo backyard vibes and the general cornball nat experience, it was still kind of fun. Halloweer taste, so this was no exception. Now if only it had actual wine. CR( fi OWfTND This was not how I wanted to spend my Satu again, this was not howI wanted to spend any through a dark forest with people in rubber m at me from the bushes. But hey, Halloween wa away, and what's the season without a few right? The Haunted Forest is clearly a commun come in droves, even though the place is locate abandonedback road. Locals sold t-shirts and (a hot dog and potato chips) in the small cli ddy near the end waited our turn. In the middle of the clearing, a small bonfire burned brightly. As groups were called one by one and led, like so hokey. It just cattle, into the darkness, a clown named Slappy "entertained" rate productions us with a fake severed head. Needless to say, by the time our w the house, the group's number was called, we were ready to take our chances ure of the whole in the woods. n's all about poor our walk through the forest started quaintly enough. In fact, it was exactly what anyone would expect - lots of flashing lights, ghosts on strings and people in masks jumping out of the BLAKE GOBLE shadows. But as we ventured deeper and deeper into the for- est, things began to get, well, creepier. Some of the "monsters" FOR MST became genuinely bothersome. One "goblin" gave me goose- '; 0 N bumps. Ieven jumped a few times. Maybe it was just the atmosphere of the whole place or the irday night. Then full moon working its magic, but by the time we stepped out 'night - walking of the darkened maze, passed the cackling witches and nearly asks jumping out ran head first into a chainsaw-wielding clown, I was genuinely s a couple weeks freaked out. kitschy thrills, Alas, we made it out alive. Walking to the car, I turned back to getone last glance at the eponymous forest. Instead, my eyes ity event. People zeroed in on Slappy the Clown, holding the dangling, severed d off a seemingly head, still smiling cheerfully. "monster meals" -Brandon Conradis earing where we See FRIGHTS, Page 4B AT THE PODIUM The 2008-2009 Dance Legacy Lecture series kicks off with "Arcs In Time: American Postmodern Dance Protagonists," as Michigan professors Jessica Fogel and.Angela Kane lec- ture on American postmod- ern dance. Both speakers will deliver presentations on different perspectives of the art form Friday at 4 p.m. in Palmer Commons. Tickets are free.