photos courtesy of Lynn Gusman
On the night of the Halloween Palm Court Party (PCP), one of the largest and most extravagant parties thrown at New College (NC), its antithesis lurked on the on the other side of the overpass. This year upon walking through the doors of the Four Winds, one was greeted by a horrifying party. Groups were lead through the maze by “coke-crazed” party girls, meanwhile a vomiting party goer heavs up her own intestines in the bathroom, while a screaming alcoholic has part of his liver forcibly removed. In a cacophony of people grabbing, caressing and shouting at visitors from behind sheets, there were crazies mistaking logs for babies, talking corpses watching television, and a disoriented girl on the floor whose throat was stuffed with the tube of a beer keg being vigorously pumped.
This year ran by thesis students Crystal Miller and Maddy Ringold-Brown, the haunted house was visited by about 200 people while 30 worked to scare their pants off.
“We were kind of inspired by Greek lifestyle or hazing, so we explored this aspect of fraternity/sorority party plans that together came to haunt you,” Miller said. “Despite how terrifying we tried to make it, we also tried really hard this year to be more politically correct, to be really respectful of the themes we were dealing with—we wanted it to be scary, not victimizing.
The SAC funded the Four Winds $600 this year, to be used on ingredients for vomit, brains and intestines; about 3 gallons of blood, stage make-up, and 8-9 hours of running around to different Halloween and Party stories.
After a few complaints of having scared people too much, Miller concluded with this:
“We [Brown and Miller] teamed up, and we wanted it to be spooky and also everybody else wanted to make sure that we weren’t trying to make anyone uncomfortable, and if we did I don’t think it was in any way intentional.