This year’s fifth annual haunted house at the Rheem Theatre in Moraga helped raise money for non-profit organizations and brings the community closer together. Joanne Foy, one of the organizers of the “Dark Dreams” haunted house, and her fellow friends held this event in order to help charities, such as the California Independent Film Festival. According to Foy, the haunted house was a safe and fun activity for the whole family to do on Halloween.
She and two of her friends worked on building the haunted house since September 19th. It was Joanne Foy’s fifth year doing a professional haunted house. She used to host haunted houses at her home in Livermore.
Foy said, “They just got bigger and bigger and we just got better and better. We decided that if we could find a big enough space we could raise money for any charity that needs a little help.” Admission was $8; the proceeds were donated to the California Independent Film Festival hosted at Rheem in February.
Joanne Foy decided to have a haunted house at Rheem because it would reach out to the teens. Foy said, “When you are a teenager there is no place to go and nothing to do without paying $25 or $40 to go to Great America… We just want to give the kids something fun to do on Halloween that is fun and safe.” The haunted house at Rheem has attracted over 300 visitors.
The “Dark Dreams” theme was a worst nightmare scenario, where all the movie props come alive. The haunted house was set up in one of the theatres with all of the lights turned off. Volunteers that hid throughout the entire theatre waiting to scare any community member that happened to walk by.
For younger ages some lights were left on. The minimum age for the haunted house was ten and up. Foy said, “Some kids like to be scared…we recommend ten and up so they don’t have nightmares and aren’t messed up for the rest of their lives.”
According to Foy the haunted house is not constructed of just cardboard and plastic. Foy said, “If you are not too scared you would appreciate some of the artistic flare.” She believes that everything should look authentic and alive. As a child Halloween had been Joanne Foy’s favorite holiday because it is fun and scary.