House of horrors

"These are the gates to Hell ... and here are the tortured souls," said senior Kendall Gourley-Paterson as she turned a corner created by wood framings and black plastic.

The "gates" were far from intimidating: an arched door that lead into a non-descript hallway in Hansee Hall's eastern quadrant, with nary a flame nor a devil to be seen. The tortured souls also seemed to be out on lunch; the corner she pointed out seemed to host more dust bunnies than spirits.

The Thursday evening before Halloween, the tour was not a sign of what was, but what would be.

Hansee Hall's haunted house, sponsored by Hansee Action! and the Resident Hall Student Association, was two days from opening. Gourle-Paterson, two-time project coordinator, and her team were frantically making sure everything would be ready for Saturday's fright fest.

Thursday night, with the lights on, the three large common rooms in Hansee were only mazes of black plastic and wood. This would be the night the dramatic mood lighting would go up, and some of the initial scenery would be moved in.

"We have accumulated a lot of our props over the years," Gourley-Paterson said of her project. These props would be used to create rooms dedicated to The Ring, a crypt, a spiders lair and others.

"Last year I really didn't have a clue what was going on," she said.

She was thrown into the project during the 2004 Halloween season, having planned one and not knowing the full extent of what she was getting herself into, she said.

"I felt it was unfair to put it on anyone else," Gourley-Paterson said.

Plus, by being a returning coordinator, she could focus on how to make the house run more smoothly and add new, scary elements without having to reinvent the wheel first, she said.

Before Gourley-Paterson came onto the scene, the Hansee Haunted house had already been running as it does for well over a decade. While it originally started for kids -- similar to Haggett's Tower of Terror -- UW student demand caused a shift in focus to the members of the University community.

Seven years ago, the project director at the time decided it needed to be bigger, scarier and a staple of the University's Halloween experience. He solicited companies in the area, and managed to get outside funding to buy many of the materials (including a majority of the wood, stage lights and the plastic covering for the walls) that are currently used.

Despite the business of having to construct and perfect a haunted house in just a week's time, the staff managed to find ways to relax. Behind one of the wood and plastic walls, a ping-pong table was covered in tools, pizza boxes, bottles of water and remnants of empty junk food.

As time passed, the lights began to go up and get positioned along the scenes. The lights are one of the most important parts, the director said, because the soft reds and blue are a large part of what creates the haunted mood.

Friday, Gourley-Paterson said, would be dedicated to finalizing scenes, running and inspecting of each element of the structure. Saturday, volunteers would come in, be instructed in how each of them would make their magic and sent into the halls to assume their positions.

Junior Michelle Faust was helping where she could until she could fill her role Saturday night.

"I came to the meeting and they said they needed a dead piano player," she said. "I figured it would be easier for me to be in the haunted house than having to go through it."

Faust admitted that she gets easily spooked, and she'd much rather be the one doing the scaring than the one being scared.

After all, it's hard to be scared in a haunted house when you know the fake "Jason" body that falls in front of you at the very end of the haunted house is nothing more than an inflatable sumo costume wearing a tutu and a hockey mask.

Saturday night came soon, and the haunted house was open for business. A series of costumed volunteers guided everyone from the door of Hansee to the door of their spooky spectacle. A docent guided small groups through the labyrinth, and each time the door opened it seemed like someone was fulox shrieking.

The Hall of Spiders was faux tarantula-infested bodies which writhed everywhere as the sounds of screams echoed through the hallways.

The Gates of Hell and tortured souls were both fiery and frightening, and Faust fit her role as a dead piano player perfectly.

"People definitely get freaked out," Gourley-Paterson said of her masterpiece. And sophomore Diane Hahm couldn't agree more.

"I honestly wasn't expecting something built in a dorm to be freaky at all," she said shortly after exiting/getting attacked by Bob. "But that was some scary ..."

A scream drowned out the last word Hahm said.