In The Burbs: Friends -- Scare up some Halloween, seasonal fun with friends

Laura Dwyer is already making plans to celebrate Halloween by going to a haunted house. But the Batavia resident is not going alone.

She prefers the company of friends for a spooky, yet possibly comical outing at a haunted house.

“It’s more fun with friends,” she says. “Your friends are there to laugh hysterically at you when you scream and run away and you’re there to laugh at them. You don’t want to go alone.”

The spooky holiday and season inspires a number of activities for friends to do together in the suburbs -- from dressing up in costume and taking hayrides to listening to ghost stories and cowering in fear together.

This Halloween, students with the West Aurora High School theater department are giving their peers something to scream about with a new haunted house. The students have constructed The Crypts of Campana: A Factory of Fear that will take up a portion of the 1930s Batavia landmark, the Campana Building.

“It’s just a remarkable structure,” says Tom Lorenz, the technical director of West Aurora High School’s theater department, who is one of several people overseeing the project. “We’ve been wanting to put together this haunted house for a while now. It’s a fundraiser for the (high school) tech crew ... while giving them experience to use their technical skills.”

The Crypts of Campana will play off the stories of the building that was once a factory, featuring Dr. Campana, who invented a skin care product that was produced in the factory and of which the factory is named after. Also, the employees who refused to leave the building when the plant finally closed will haunt guests.

The theater department’s technical crew will be taking care of all of the special effects, Lorenz says.

“It’s something to do,” Lorenz says of the haunted house. “People can get scared, but still be in this safe environment.”

THE CRYPTS OF CAMPANA
WHERE Campana Building, 901 N. Batavia Ave., Batavia; www.factoryfear.com
WHEN through Oct. 31; 7 to 10 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28 and Thursdays; and 7 to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays 
COST $13
EXTRA A family-friendly haunting is from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 25. The cost is $13.

ALSO TRY

Cook
The Haunted Manor in Countryside
Brookfield Jaycees Haunted House
Witch of Westchester
Haunted Archer Avenue Ghost Tour and Pub Crawl in Berwyn
The Cicero Town Hall of Horrors

Kane
St. Charles Historic Ghost Tours
The Haunted Manor in St. Charles
Nightmares Basement of the Dead in Aurora
Halloween Sleepover in Elgin
Halloween Hayday through the Geneva Park District
Evil Intentions Haunted House in Elgin

South DuPage/Will-South DuPage/Lemont
Haunted Mansion & Asylum 13 in Bolingbrook
Woodridge Park District’s Haunted Forest Walk
Ghost Tours of Naperville
Lisle Haunted Dungeon through the Lisle Park District
Halloween Night Walks in Oak Brook

East Dupage/Northeast DuPage
Lombard Jaycees Haunted House
Elmhurst Lions Club’s Fall Family Fest
Halloween Scare Walk through the Wood Dale Park District
Disturbia Torment of Fears in Addison
Bensenville’s Halloween in the Park
Dream Reapers Haunted House

Northwest DuPage/West DuPage/Central DuPage
Wheaton Jaycees Haunted House
Sonny Acres Farm in West Chicago
West Chicago Park District Spooky Trail
Haunting in the Valley through the Schaumburg Park District
Itasca Haunted House

If you are familiar with any other seasonal events to come, please add them to our comments.