Script Magazine: The Horror Issue

great

diy

ideas

to save some

money

horror the

issue

usu STUDENTS’

ASSOCIATION AT UNITEC

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Editorial

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Hello from Shannon

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You Say Crazy, I Say Beautiful

A Story of Miss.

Fortune

Next Issue: Min

Editor: ashley smith Graphic Design: Mark Lovatt

Contributors: Shannon Pennefather, Andrea Stills, Harsha Goonewardana, Abbey Yule, Ellen Chitty, Jeremy Haxton, Steve Ellmers, Tessa Robertson, Jayne King

Special thank you to: Auc

contents 7 May 2012

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A Solemn Story

Ov e r n i g h t I n Building One

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Ghost Story Vox Pops

Far From the Maddening Crowd

nd Body Soul 21 May 2012

Advertising and Editorial Inquires ph. (09) 815 4321 ext 7927 studentmedia@unitec.ac.nz

ckland Museum and Gordon Maitland

Disclaimer Opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publishers. Submissions and contributors are welcome, but the publisher reserves the right to select and edit the material submitted. Materials submitted will remain property of the publisher unless alternative arrangements are made.

usu STUDENTS’

ASSOCIATION A T U N ITE C

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EDITORIAL

ghosts goblin

I will be the first to admit it; I go out of my w of the DVD rental store, cry in haunted house speed limit when I’m by myself in the car in t absolute scaredy cat when it comes to anythi in movies or talk of drifting reckless spirits. together this issue was a bit of a challenge.

oh

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I

ns

way to avoid the horror section es and drive way beyond the the middle of the night. I am an ing inclusive of pop-out scenes . So as you could imagine, putting

n the past couple of weeks, I’ve been up until the late hours of the night reading about murder cases and lunatic debauchery. Needless to say, it’s left me a bit unsettled. My poor flatmates have fallen victim to my extreme case of nerves. I’ve been an absolute spaz walking to the kitchen at any hour after sunset.

To be honest, the history of Unitec in its day as Auckland’s leading lunatic asylum has really caught my interest. There are so many incredible stories, scandals and controversies that create a massive archive of Carrington Psychiatric Hospital’s past. Within the pages of this issue, you’ll find many historical accounts of real stories from 1865 onward. Some of my favourite stories include: The night of the 1877 fire, accounts of missing inmates…never to be found or heard from again and the desperate pleas for dismissal heard from “imprisoned” inmates.

So the next time you find yourself studying late night in Building One and get that cold shiver down your spine, go ahead an dismiss it away as the drafty old building. You’ll be lying to yourself and you know it.

If you’re in for a bit of fun join us at Fright Night in the Building One Chapel on May 8 for the screening of Paranormal Activity. See you there!

my!

Godspeed, Ashley

INTERNATIONAL

FOOD DAY

Thursday 17 May 10am - 2pm

i n t h e H u b (bldg 180) se Come along and tantali your tastebuds with the O r variety of food on offer nd from countries all arou the world usu Students’Association at Unitec

Run a stall and represent your country by selling your national delicacies

To register a stall please email usuinternational@unitec.ac.nz

www.usu.cO.Nz

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Kia

ora

Unitec

I

sometimes feel that our super natural friends on campus get a bum deal. Haunting is not the carrier opportunity it used to be.

With a more cynical population and a lack of old buildings it is getting harder and harder to find the time and opportunity for a troubled soul to scare the jizzwollop out of some one. Just the other day I was told about a 3rd year architecture student working late who had a run in with a ghost. This student did not have the common decency to wet herself and run away screaming however. No, instead she chose this moment to critique one of our oldest friends from the other side on his out dated appearance and clichĂŠd scare tactics. Thanks to this insensitive hipster the ghoul in question has lost all self confidence and spends his days haunting a disused broom cupboard.

The time has come to stop ignoring this problem and denying it even exists and start giving Unitec’s haunting spirits the respect they deserve. They have been here longer than you and will be here when you are gone.

So next time you get shivers down your spine walking through a dark corridor or hear a bump in the night maybe give a sharp inhale and walk a bit quicker to show your fear. If you actually see a ghost Jazz hands + scream + run is the proper response.

Stay cool Shannon

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a solemn

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All of the black and white photographs in this feature were taken by Margaret Matilda White (1868-1910). She is speculated to have been part of the nursing staff at Carringtons Psychiatric Asylum in the 1890s. These photos are part of a series she took during that time period that reflects on the conditions of the hospital staff themselves at that time. Thank you to the Auckland Museum and Gordon Maitland for providing these timeless images.

e corridors th ts un ha at th ry to his rk da ep de a is e Ther e we now drag er Wh s. ing ild bu c ite Un d ol r ou of me so of Black CafÊ our feet to class or slump our way to Long tients once pa al nt me p to ’s nd la ck Au e, ffe co ing rn for a mo built in 1865. It en th d an d ne sig de s wa ing ild bu e Th . ed loom Council in an ial inc ov Pr e th om fr an lo a th wi ed nd fu s wa Auckland. There effort to erect more public buildings in city who e th in s nt tie pa al nt me of nt ou am ing ow were a gr of Carrington n tio uc tr ns co e th e nc he e, ac sp re mo ed need 1992 the building to rd wa on 67 18 om Fr . um yl As ic tr hia yc Ps ntroversy. was the home to scandal, mystery and co

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Group of Female Assistants , Auckland Mental Hospita l

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Female Assistant, Auckland Mental Hospital

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he Unitec that we know and love today has undergone a remarkable change since it’s heyday as Auckland’s scandalous insane asylum. The campus, specifically Building 1, 6 and 76, was the quarters for “lunatics” and nursing staff. The Asylum existed during a time where mental illnesses were conditions taken more lightly. Sorts of behaviour that deviated from ‘the norm’ risked time sent away to the “loonie bin”.

The Asylum underwent many changes, upgrades, renovations and renames when it was active. Over its near 120 years of service it was known as, “The Auckland Mental Hospital”, “Oakley Hospital” “Whau Lunatic Hospital” “Avondale Asylum” and more familiarly as “Carrington Psychiatric Asylum”. The Asylum saw its final days at the start of the 90s when the building was sold, and the patients were moved out.

Over its years, Carrington Psychiatric Asylum saw its fair share of scandal.

Within the first couple of decades, the hospital admitted far too many patients for the capacity of the facility. At one point, it is remembered that crowds of patients were sent to sleep in the Chapel to free up space. There were constant discussions surrounding the overcrowding at the asylum within the House of Representatives.

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Group of Male Assistants

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXII, 27 December 1911, Page 5:

There were also many conversations in the media and political spectrum regarding the amount of available staff. The staff nurses and guards often complained about working conditions, hours and expectations. There were not nearly enough people employed at the hospital to keep up with the stressful demand of the job.

Whether the patient to staff ratio played into the next set of scandals or not, we can not be sure. There are many accounts of escaped or “cured and released” patients who claim that the treatment of “lunatics” within the hospital was totally unethical and at times unwarranted.

Often, patients who were brought to the hospital were admitted under unconfirmed circumstances of insanity. Here, we find an example of a man who was admitted for being “found wandering aimlessly around

Epsom”. Surely, there are quite a few of us who are guilty of much more speculative behaviour than some aimless wandering.

There were multiple accounts of the wrong patients being withheld at the hospital as well as those being released into public again. The lack of a “half-house system” at the time caused a major stir throughout the discussion of asylums all across the span of New Zealand.

On the night over 20 September 1877, the hospital saw its first tragic fire. This fire left the entire first floor of the east wing in ruins. A man by the name of Philip Herapath was brought in to redesign the wing of the hospital. He drew up plans for the extension of the hospital soon thereafter.

By 1880, the extension of the hospital was completed in order to properly house and accommodate for the growing amount of

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Female Assistant Leaning Aga inst Tree, Auckland Mental HospitalHospitaL

s, Auckland Mental HospitaL

Colonist, Volume LV, Issue 13809, 25 August 1913, Page 4

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SHOOT. FROM THE LOOKS OF IT, SOMEONE DECIDED NURSES TAKE THEIR BREAK FROM THE ASYLUM FOR AN AFTERNOON PHOTO UND...

BACKGRO THE IN THEM JOIN TO

patients. Unfortunately, the extension only exacerbated the overcrowding issue as more and more patients were admitted to the hospital due to its increased space.

At the tail end of 1879, the Crown purchased the farm land behind the Hospital. The farm introduced a new set of ‘leisure activities’ for the patients that focused their attention on physical activities outdoors. Patients worked to maintain and cultivate the property.

Alternative medicines, treatments and activities were experimented with over the next hundred years for treating patients at Carrington Psychiatric Asylum. It is rumoured that the electric shock therapy

room was located directly under where Long Black Cafe now stands. During the early 20th century, there were also many stories leaked to the media about patients being mistreated and even abused at times.

Throughout the remaining years of the Asylum’s existence there were countless deaths on account of murder, suicide and “accident”. These deaths included those of both patients and staff members. It has been speculated that on certain nights, the ghosts of these tortured souls still visit the corridors of Building One.

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Thames Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 10465, 5 April 1906, Page 1

Two Male Assistants, Auckland Mental Hospital

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F E AT U R E Asylum Scandals from the Archives

Asyl

Sc a n d a l s f r o m

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lum

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OVERNIG

IN BU

On 19 April, 2012 five student volunteered to stay overnight i BUILDING ONE! The old Carrington Psychiatric Asylum is rumou in the wee hours of the night. Watch the footage now to see wh building.

>

CLICK HERE IF Y

GHT

1

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UILDING

in Unitec’s most haunted of buildings, ured to still receive ghostly visitors hat the students discovered about the

WHATS THERE TO BE

?

F O D I A R F A YOU DARE!

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On first thought for the Horror Issue, I considered the history of Carrington Hospital, which was known over the years by various names including Whau Lunatic Asylum, Auckland Lunatic Hospital, Avondale Hospital and Oakley Hospital. However, it became apparent to me that the allure of hearing about ‘mental asylums’ or as they are perhaps more commonly, and inappropriately, referred to ‘nut houses’, was that mental illness is largely unknown, and what we don’t know, we fear. Since I personally have several close family members who suffer from schizophrenia, it made sense to talk about what I know about mental illness, given our Mt Albert campus’s history and what irritates me in relation to the way the illness is perceived.

O

ccasionally we may hear of someone who has schizophrenia murdering someone, or perhaps several people as was the case with Aramoana and Raurimu.

However, even though the murder of innocent people is undoubtedly a tragedy; the pain and suffering of the person who is unwell, delusional and paranoid, is largely ignored. This may seem like a sensational claim, after all, how can anyone feel sympathy for a murderer? I suppose if you are a close family member of someone with schizophrenia, or other mental illnesses, there is a greater understanding of how mental illness impacts a person. I empathise with the families of those who have been victims of people who are mentally ill; however I also empathise with the fami-

lies of those who are mentally ill and have committed violent acts. More often than not, these violent acts are against themselves; however these often go unreported as there is sensitivity around reporting such matters in the press.

Previously people who were mentally ill would have been institutionalised in facilities like Carrington Hospital, they would have had ECT, or electric shock therapy as it is more commonly known. Often times this would happen without their consent and sometimes used as punishment. They were put in straight jackets, at times to pacify them, or punish them, or simply because the institutions were understaffed. The patients were locked in cells, abused by staff and other patients in worst case scenarios, and heavily

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medicated, with little consultation with families or the other patients themselves.

Someone I loved very much was a patient at Carrington Hospital who in the later stages of her life she suffered from dementia. Despite many of her memories fading and not being able to recognise family and people she once knew, she remembered the hospital and suffered from a fear of the area when she would drive past Unitec. She would beg ‘please don’t take me there’.

Thankfully there has been progress in the care of psychiatric patients; people who suffer from mental illnesses have been more involved in their treatment these days and medication is not the only assistance they receive. Steps toward a more holistic approach have been taken, with diet, exercise and trying to get people with mental illness to do things that may be simple for the rest of us, in an attempt to encourage independent living. It is now acknowledged that mental illness affects mind, body and spirit, and there is a need to address all these issues, rather than just the physical symptoms of the illness. Charitable trusts in the community help with everyday things like shopping, hygiene and social interaction. These organisations such as Walsh Trust and Challenge Trust receive some funding from the government; however they also rely on donations and other forms of funding.

They encourage social interaction and have regular physical activities for clients to attend.

Although the media only seems to pick up on issues surrounding mental illness when things go wrong in the wider community, there are many instances of personal suffering among people who suffer from

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mental illness which go unreported. A family member of mine, who suffers from schizophrenia has had the Armed Offenders Squad called out when false claims were made by another tenant in assisted accommodation.

He has had to seek medical assistance for tissues that he had put in his ears to stop the voices that taunted him.

He has been on medication that made him pace incessantly, sleep for more than 24 hours at a time, gain excessive amounts of weight, and various other side effects that these powerful and largely ineffective, drugs have for many patients. He currently takes the ‘last-stop’ medication Clozaril (Clozapine), which is reserved for patients who have tried all the other antipsychotic medication available. It is restricted due to risks associated with the medication, which has included deaths in the past. Clozapine

"Thankfully th progress in psychiatric pati suffer from me have been mor their treatme and medication assistance they toward a more h have been taken exerc

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has several side effects and is available only with regular blood tests to monitor white blood cells. On the whole it can take years to get medication right, for my family member it took about 15, which can lead to constant upheaval for the person suffering from mental illness and their family/support people. If the medication works however, it gives back to people who suffer from schizophrenia some of what the illness took from them. It’s kind of a best case, worst case scenario.

here has been n the care of ients; people who ental illnesses re involved in ent these days n is not the only y receive. Steps holistic approach n with diet and cise"

Over the years I have heard and seen so many misconceptions surrounding the illness: that someone who is mentally ill could ‘flip’ at any moment, the idea that they are all scary and violent and should be avoided, the common perception that people with schizophrenia have two, or more personalities, which is simply not true. There are many more, you know: the funny cartoons

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with the person talking to himself. Hilarious! (NOT!) In fact some people like to say schizophrenic (not PC, don’t say it) a lot, for any and everything. The ‘know me before you judge me’ campaign had a good point however it essentially failed to educate people about the illness itself.

People with mental illness are like you and me, they have hopes and dreams and fears. They need love and support and consideration, in larger doses than the rest of us at times. However, they also have a lot to offer in return. Having a close family member with schizophrenia has been painful at times; this person has said hurtful things, done things I will never understand, and heard and seen things that do not exist in my world. However, this person is also generous and kind; is intelligent and caring, and although their illness is a curse, I would not change the fact that they are my family member for anything in this world. People should not be defined by an illness they happen to have, hence my irritation at the term ‘schizophrenic’.

This illness is something which happened to them, through no fault of their own.

They did not deserve it, nor did they want it, however it is the everyday reality for some people and at the very least they deserve our consideration.

So next time you think about the history of our campus, or see someone who you think is ‘mental’, please be considerate of the people who suffer from these illnesses everyday of their lives. They are the ones who really suffer. For us it is merely an imposition.

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Miss. Fortune

By: ASHLEY SMITH

This story is based upon true events that occurred before the1877 fire at Carrington Asylum.

It certainly was not the first time that she had threatened it. Only last week during her bathing hour, Mary Ann had screamed straight into Cynthia’s face, “I’m going to do it. I’m going to burn this mother fucker down”. Afterwards, she’d had a slight feeling of remorse; Cynthia was actually one of the nicer nurses on the ward. She’d never stepped out of line the way some of the others had. She just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time; dear Cynthia.

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egardless, Miss. Mary Ann B. Fortune meant what she said this time. The dreaded isolation within her cell had to come to an end. The only company she knew was that of the plate of undistinguished slop shoved in her direction at 8 am, noon and 5 pm; like clockwork. Mary Ann had grown so accustomed to the near silence and seasonal lighting shed from the nearby window, that she’d began to manifest an internal clock in which she could nearly predict the moment that the door at the end of the corridor would swing open and the food trolley wheels would squeak their way down the narrow hallway.

She’d mulled over the reasons. Was it the monotony that had ACTUALLY driven her to the near point of insanity? Or was it the dreadful scream of neighbouring patients at midnight as they were jacketed and escorted to the basement? Mary Ann had once suffered from severe nightmares.

She would wake in the wee hours of the night screaming and sweating, sometimes bleeding from her shoulders where her sharp nails had dug so deep in to a self offensive embrace. Within four months at the asylum, Mary Ann’s nightmares had subsided; soon after, the hygiene nurse discovered the etching near the floor of her cell that read, “Sleep yields no fear.

These walls contain all the dread one will ever know”.

Mary Ann knew how to walk the line in this place. She knew where and with whom to

bite her tongue to avoid a midnight visit from Lars. Lars had a reputation for his brute strength and empty soul. Mary Ann reckoned that the 20 years employed at the asylum would damn right steal the soul from anyone, she couldn’t exactly blame him. Only last week on her way to the bath room, she spotted Lars out on his cigarette break under the front tree. She could have sworn she caught a glimmer in his eye that indicated the bit of heart he had left in him.

Her absolute mortification towards the man was only gently outweighed by her deep sorrow for him.

She had waited long enough. The time had come, she knew it was right. She was to begin her own personal revolution to free herself from this prison. She had no idea where she would end up, but it would surely be a place free of torture and belittlement and mania.

In the visiting hours three weeks prior, Mary Ann had been released to the gardens to enjoy a smoke with her brother. Arno was sweet. He was the only one who had managed through the years to continue on with regular conversation and behaviours.

He never visited with superficial gifts. Her mother had made the mistake only the year before. She handed the pearly parcel to Mary Ann with a dreaded look of sympathy and sadness, which bewildered Mary Ann; wasn’t her mother the sole decisionary force behind her confinement? Mary Ann opened the package to find a shiny new fascinator, reminiscent of her heyday at the races she was sure. Her mother was

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so kind. She really shouldn’t have. It was then that Mary Ann actually lost her grip and awareness; the world around her faded to black inward and her inner ear began to swell with the haunting sound of accelerating eagle wings. She took the fascinator and delicately attached it in her short stringy hair. She looked up slowly and meticulously right into her mothers eyes and slapped her across the face as hard as she could. Mary Ann doesn’t remember much afterwards. She still couldn’t recall if she had passed out immediately or been swiftly tranquilized by one of the staff.

Arno had not been there that day, but surely he’d heard the stories. Nonetheless, on his next visit, there was no mention of the incident. He and Mary Ann enjoyed their conversation of Edgar Allen Poe and Eccles Cake.

On this past visit, Arno had seemed a bit more jublilant than usual. Mary Ann reckoned he had finally found some decent sex. He was always involved with the most humdrum of girls. As the two of them strolled under the canopy of trees, Arno passed Mary Ann his pack of matches to light her cigarette. He was so engulfed in his recap of current events outside the Asylum, that his usual instinct to reach back for the matches did not register. Mary Ann slipped the matches into her brassiere and took a long distracting drag from her cigarette, nodding in submissive agreement into his opinion on foreign trade.

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Since that day, the matches had not left the underside of her breast. Mary Ann had actually developed a slightly obsessive compulsiveness about them, feeling for their whereabouts nearly every five minutes. It was for this very moment that she had been musing over since that day in the garden with Arno. The pale half light from the high-moon left just enough light into her cell to find her bearings with the matches. At 2 AM on September 20, 1877, with a confident and sure hand, Mary Ann B. Fortune struck her match of death.

The immediate gleam from the flaming match instinctively widened her eyes in the dark cell. She held the flame close to her face for a moment before she tossed it to the opposite corner of the wooden cell. Mary Ann sat calmly on floor, arms wrapped around her bent knees watching the flame erupt into a violent and hungry fire. As the smoke began to fill her cell and escape out the assistance window, Mary Ann took a deep long breath, closed her eyes and accepted the destiny of Miss.

Fortune.

On the early hours of the morning on 20 September 1877, the entire first floor of the East Wing of Carrington’s Asylum was lost to the historical fire. All but one patient were able to escape safely. The only casualty listed in the Auckland Star was Mary Ann Fortune.

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Insanity and the physical manifestation of it in the form of mental institutions have been reoccurring themes in cinema; mostly in horror. Even as the suburban baby gangstas giving mad props to each other’s’ crazy rides to David Brent promising after work festivities to be mentally in order to attract a shiny young temp, mental institutes are often portrayed in cinema as creepy palaces where unspeakable acts take place (with a bit of ghoulishness thrown in for good measure).

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unda Fo h lt a He l ta en M e th to g in rd Acco New Zealanders experience disorder within the last year and

m r o f y n a t h g u o s only 40%

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he device commonly used to invoke terror is the fear of a sane person sent to an asylum forcibly. Coupled with a catch-22 scenario where the patient asks to be released because he is actually sane, thus he must not be sane, and cannot leave. This creates the perfect setting for terminal despair and inescapable terror. In Gothika (2003) Halle Berry finds herself in an institution after she blacks out during a car accident, supposedly after murdering her husband.

Although she has amnesia, Miranda is convinced a ‘not so holy ghost’ is the main culprit. Yup tell that to medical professionals for an early release.

Another interesting take on the theme is Twelve Monkeys (1995), set in the year 2035. Bruce Willis plays the thinking man’s Terminator, where he retuns to the past to collect a sample of a killer virus that devastates the Earth in the future.

The good citizens of 1990 do not give his amazing tales of time, travel and future dystopia much credence and Bruce gets a cookie and a one way ticket to an asylum.

Girl Interrupted (1999) is based on an autobiography of a teenager whose parent thought the best cure for teenage angst was electric shock therapy. The story is related through a set of flashbacks by

Winona Ryder, who is diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder as she reflects upon the despair of a sane person treated as insane .The film is a mishmash of crowded rooms, fists full of hallucinogenic drugs, electroshocks, senseless ranting, cold baths and wearing handcuffs to bed; not far removed from a typical Kiwi OE experience in London.

A variation of this theme is when a sane person pretends to be insane to infiltrate an asylum. In Shock Corridor (1963), a reporter with everything going for him (a steady job, stripper girlfriend, shot at a Pulitzer) pretends to be crazy so he can be admitted to an asylum to solve a murder. Populated by a bizarre cast of characters including a black college dropout convinced he’s a Ku-Klux-Klan leader (surely there must be easier ways to avoid student loan payments), the movie documents Peter Breck’s journey into insanity as he get closer to solving the mystery and getting his mitts on the Pulitzer.

The movie which features a man getting transferred from a prison farm to hanging out with the asylum “nuts” is initially the best thing that ever happened to Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975). Almost immediately, he begins to sow chaos and disorder,

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ation, 1 in 5 some form of mental d

"

m of assistance. skirmishing with the deceptively sedate Nurse Ratched, who makes Lucretia Borgia look like Florence Nightingale. In this place, revenge is best served via lobotomy.

Finally, based on the autobiography of a certified New Zealand treasure, Jane Campion, An Angel at My Table (1990), provides an uncomfortably frank look at mental illness in New Zealand society.

After a panic attack and an attempt to swallow copious amounts of aspirin, Jane played by the Kerry Fox is treated for schizophrenia for 8 long years at an asylum.Finally, proving that the pen is indeed mightier than the drill bit, she is saved from a lobotomy by the timely publication of her poems.

While we get a guilt free peek at BDSM complete with clichĂŠs of spooky settings, creepy patients and deranged employees secure in our own self-declared sanity, it is important to acknowledge that extent mental illness effects our own society. According to the Mental Health Foundation, 1 in 5 New Zealanders experience some form of mental disorder within the last year and disturbingly only 40% sought any form of assistance. So if you or some one you know is affected by mental illness, go ahead and tell someone.

It’d be crazy not to.

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