Dr. Slaughter can see you now

Montana State University-Northern is opening the doors of Dr. Slaughter's Horror Hospital tonight at 8 p.m.

"The criminally insane on the second floor have escaped," a flyer for the haunted hospital warns. "The dead in the basement morgue have been reanimated, the power is out, the hospital staff seem possessed, and the patients are dying to escape."

The haunted hospital will open every day at 8 p.m. until Halloween. It closes at midnight, except on Halloween, when it will close at 1 a.m.

The nursing students of Northern are organizing the haunted house, hence the hospital them

Tina McCulloch, the administrative associate of the nursing program at Northern, said it only seemed natural.

"We've been gathering meat hooks and other things, too," McCulloch said.

Administration allowed the nursing students to use the vacant Donaldson Hall for their haunted hospital, and they put the last touches on it today.

"It's pretty creepy," McCulloch said. "It'll be interesting to be in there."

She said Donaldson already has a reputation for creepy happenings. Students say they see lights on in the building at night and people in the windows, she said.

"No better location than a place that has been rumored to be haunted anyway," McCulloch said.

Tickets to Dr. Slaughter's Haunted Hospital are $15 and only people ages 15 and up are allowed to go through it. Visitors must also sign a waiver before going in, to agree they know they might be touched and that the hospital is not for people who are scared easily.

Students with IDs and seniors pay $12 per ticket and people can buy four tickets for $50.

"It should be pretty scary and very, very bloody and gruesome," McCulloch said.

All the proceeds from the event are going to send nursing students to Nepal for three weeks in May.

In Nepal, they are going to spend their time volunteering at orphanages, clinics, hospitals and rural villages. This is the second fundraiser out of four that they are putting on to help with the costs of the trip. They are going to earn as much as they can from them, split the proceeds equally and then the students will pay the rest out of their own pocket.

The trip is going to cost around $2,200 per student.