Emma Bennett—Staff Writer

 This year’s Halloweekend presented an exciting time for Dordt University students, including a mixture of games and community through The Price is Fright! At this Saturday night event, students mingled in the Grille area while spooky music played. The majority of the attendants were costumed, including the Lorax, Loki, a plague doctor, and a Canadian. The group who caught the most attention, though, dressed up as well-known bald men, such as Gru from Despicable Me and Dr. Phil. Eventually, everyone made their way to the rows of seats, and the game began. 

Dakota Klein, a senior, hosted the show.

“I actually wanted to have a co-host, but they thought it would be better if it was just me,” Klein said. 

Klein dressed up as Beetlejuice Barker, as a nod to the well-known Price is Right host from 1972 to 2007. The game show consisted of four rounds, with four contestants chosen by drawing names out of a bucket. These contestants viewed a bucket of items and they had to guess the price of the objects by writing on whiteboards. The winner then got a new game to play. The first round was trivia and the second was matching a price to its item. The third round was guessing whether the given item cost more or less than the price listed with it, and the fourth round was guessing whether the price of an item was current or from the 1990’s. The items for the beginning of each round connected to each other via a pop culture reference, such as Bones/No Bones Day and the Our Table Is Broken! video. 

Most rounds offered prizes, which went up in value as rounds went on. After the fourth round, the previous winners were invited back up to spin the wheel. The goal was to get as close to one dollar as possible. Each person had two spins, which they could choose to use or not. The winners were Kendra Oostenink, Emily Brinkman, Brittany Bloemhof, and Sharlee Fopma. Each won $100 for their spins and now had a chance to win more. Their last task of the evening was to look at two different baskets filled with items, the closest to the real price getting to keep the basket. The first one contained a Beatles record, a record player, two glass mugs, a live plant, a coffee maker and coffee. The second was more outdoorsy, with a marshmallow fork, grill set, hammock, rope, two camping chairs, and the game Bottle Bash. Each girl wrote their prices, and in the end, Oostenink won the record basket in addition to cash. 

“Now I’m slightly less broke!” Oostenink said. 

The Price is Fright event was cancelled last year due to COVID-19. Because of this, many sophomores got their first taste of this Dordt tradition. Though there was some initial confusion on how the game worked, as well as technical issues with squeaky mics, the audience kept in high spirits and laughed along with the host. 

“It was really fun, and I was really thankful for the opportunity,” Klein said. “I love doing hosting stuff, [and] this was very different than anything I’ve ever done before.”