Every year, students at Bak Middle School look forward to attending the Fall Thriller, which included food, music, games, a haunted house, and more. It took a lot of work from both teachers and students in the visual department to put the production together and bring their plans to life.
This year’s theme for the Thriller was “The Lab,” which included creepy scientists, experiments gone wrong, and other ideas coordinated with the theme. The visual arts department worked together to form this event that students have gone to in order to witness the thrills this event has to offer. Emily Steele, a visual arts teacher, helped coordinate volunteer work for students and parents. “We’ve gotten pretty good at the Thriller by now. This is the 20-something year the visual arts department has done it.” Though they have had lots of practice, the Thriller is “always stressful because there are so many little details that need to be done, so it can get hectic,” said Steele.
The Thriller included activities like the famous haunted house, a DJ, carnival games, and food in the cafeteria. This year, the Thriller included a costume contest. Students entered the competition and were chosen in categories like best historical costume, best makeup, and best duo costume.
Paul Barker, a visual arts teacher who helped create the haunted house with another visual arts teacher Glen Barefoot, shared what his students have learned and his favorite and most memorable part(s) of this year’s Thriller. “The costume contest is one thing I like to see. This year I was flattered because two students came dressed as me,” recalls Barker.
The Thriller takes a lot of work and discipline, but when everything is finished it is something students and staff look forward to experiencing every year. Visual students are able to experiment with new techniques and styles while creating artwork for it. “There’s so many parts and pieces to create it, like painting, props, and shape or form. They also learned how to make paintings feel scary and eerie, as well as making things look metallic and rusted. We had to make props and contact parent volunteers. It was a lot of work,” says Barker.
Stephanie Chesler, a fellow visual arts teacher, had also had hard work cut out for her and her students. “I’m in charge of collecting the candy and handling the carnival games. I was at the bus loop using the water gun, shooting at everybody’s feet for the candy. For the carnival game part of it, I’m in charge of getting all the bits and pieces we need for the games, and it’s a big job.” said Chesler. She also said, “My 8th graders traditionally work on props and preparation as far as making posters, logos, and helping put up the haunted house.”
Juggling school and the Thriller can be a struggle for students and teachers who are working on the production. Since the Thriller can’t interfere with schoolwork, this creates a challenge. Students can’t always stay after school to help out. “Time is the biggest issue. We can’t superimpose our class time, so most of the work is done after school, during planning, and parents also help out. Sometimes parents sign up for things, but then they don’t show up,” said Chesler. Visual students who worked on the Thriller also had to keep the haunted house a secret. Some stayed after school to work on the haunted house, while others worked on it in the visual building.
We held a poll on if students liked the haunted house or carnival games better. The haunted house had a landslide of a victory with the haunted house having 66 votes, and carnival games with 34 votes.
Tickets for the Thriller were $32 per student, which included a one-time use food and haunted house pass. There were only 900 tickets for sale, which were completely sold out. The final sales were around $30,000. Profits made were given to the visual department.
Visual students and staff who worked on the Thriller had to face some challenges like working around tight deadlines, but in the end, they had new memories that would last them a lifetime. “It’s really nice to see all of the kids finally just being kids and having fun, not worrying about homework, schoolwork, or anything else,” said Chesler.
