by: Michelle Barnhart
In addition to college students in the Champaign-Urbana community, college professors are gearing up for the Halloween season. Thom Schnarre, an English professor here at Parkland College, is a self-proclaimed horror fanatic and Halloween lover. Between catching up on the latest horror flicks and relishing the macabre, Schnarre does not let the Halloween season go to waste.
“I love the aspects of creativity and imagination it allows us,” he said. “First as kids, and then as adults, allowing us to imagine ourselves as someone else. It’s really most of our first exposure to theatricality.”
Schnarre also enjoys Halloween because it allows people to embrace and celebrate the darker aspects of life.
“It plays with death, the afterlife, evil, and our fears, and makes us deal with those aspects of life that we try to avoid, but in a fun way,” he said.
Despite his adoration for Halloween, however, Schnarre admits he is not big on some Halloween traditions.
“I used to take a lot of time deciding on costumes and where to celebrate,” he told the Prospectus. “I was never much into Halloween decorations, unless they can be used all year round.” Schnarre currently has skulls and crystal balls scattered throughout his house.
“I also love a good haunted house exhibit with lots of actors doing outrageous things”
To celebrate the holiday, Schnarre watches movies and TV shows that give him the creeps. Some of his usual watches are Psycho, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane and Rosemary’s Baby, his all-time favorite horror movie. He is also a huge fan of the series American Horror Story, and just finished a binge-watch of Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House. This season, he is particularly excited to watch Hocus Pocus again, which, according to IMDB, is the most popular Halloween movie of all time.
For avid horror fans such as Schnarre, there are different places around the community that can provide enticing Halloween experiences. One of those places is the Virginia Theatre, which is currently playing popular horror movies, such as Frankenstein and Dracula.
“I also love a good haunted house exhibit with lots of actors doing outrageous things,” Schnarre added.
There are many haunted houses and similar events around Champaign-Urbana. There is the Dark History & Horror Convention, an annual event at the City Center that incorporates the darker side of history, beloved horror characters, paranormal creatures and more. Then there are more kid-friendly events, such as Centennial High School’s annual Haunted High. Many residents also choose to host haunted houses their own homes.
Along with Halloween traditions, Schnarre has one major superstition; it involves ghosts. Regarding this matter, Schnarre shared the experience of his grandfather’s death.
“I was sixteen and awoke in the middle of the night to see him staring at me from the reflection in my bedroom mirror,” he said. “He then turned and walked away, which was in the direction of my parents’ bedroom. The next morning, I brought it up at breakfast, and my mom almost dropped the skillet she was holding because she’d had a dream that he had come to her and kissed her on the cheek.” This dream woke Schnarre’s mother up at 3:15 a.m.
“About an hour later, we got the call that he’d died in the hospital at 3 a.m.,” Schnarre said.
When asked for any additional Halloween thoughts, facts, or experiences, Schnarre described something on American Horror Story that he finds interesting. The show’s mythology establishes that the dead walk with the living for one night on Halloween.
“For some reason, that thought is very alluring to me,” he said. “Maybe I like thinking those we’ve lost are just hanging out, just out of reach.”
