Clowns Cory Waldorf (left) and Susie Swangler (right) scare on the 13th floor of the Canad Inns. Photo by Nicholas Nelson/The Dakota Student.

Trick or Treating came early to Grand Forks as Canad Inns, located adjacent to the Alerus Center, hosted a “Haunted House: Tower of Terror” on Tuesday night to raise money for the United Way.

“It is the first year that Canad Inns has done a haunted house event for the hotel,” said Canad Inns general manager Kevin Robson. “It is a great way to raise money for the United Way.”

Canad Inns donated part of the proceeds to the United Way.

The main floor of the Canad Inns featured a pumpkin carving contest, a bouncy castle and several games for the children to win Halloween treats.

The second floor of the Canad Inns was for younger children. It featured door to door treats along the hallway and at the end, there was a cake walk where the children won cupcakes when the number they were standing on was called.

The Tower of Terror was featured on the 13th, or “penthouse”, floor where older children and adults made their way through a darkened hallway of scares. Seven rooms were decorated with beer, blood and babes as the theme of the haunted tour was “A Wedding Night Gone Wrong.”

A guide would lead a small group of people up an elevator to the 13th floor where they were told the terrifying story of what happened on the floor:

“When the hotel opened in 2007, a wedding was held, and the bride killed the groom and the entire wedding party. Since then, the 13th floor has been blocked because of the bride that haunts the penthouse. It has been closed off to people except for a few paranormal investigators who never made it out alive.”

“It was not scary for me,” UND senior Valentin Arredondo said. “But definitely for a kid it would be.”

Some of the rooms that were part of the tour included a woman holding a seance session to tell the guests their future, a girl who had lost her teddy bear and that bear was found to magically come to life and a bachelorette party where the attendants were severely intoxicated and warned the guests about the bride.

“The fortune telling room was my favorite room,” Arredondo stated. “I really enjoyed her acting. The actors did a good job and the different rooms were good.”

Even though Arredondo got to experience the event, the amount of students attending was lacking.

“I only knew about this because of my wife (who was volunteering at the event),” Arredondo said. “There wasn’t really a lot of marketing throughout UND or the community.”

However, even though the event was popular among students, the Tavern United, a bar adjacent to the hotel, held an after party from 9:30 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. There was a best dressed costume contest and a live performance by “Shake, Rattle, and Roll.”

“Next year, they should definitely make a hall strictly for adults and students,” Arredondo said. “I think if they advertised at UND and made it scarier, more students would have attended.”

Colin Johnson is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. He can be reached at [email protected].