To kick off the Halloween season on campus, Ringling College transformed into a playground of creativity, collaboration, and carefully crafted chaos. Two student-led haunted house projects—one physical and one virtual—brought screams and awe across campus, showcasing how creativity at Ringling can manifest in both fabricated sets and digital worlds.
In one corner, the Haunted Design Association (HDA) unveiled Little Red: Monster Hunter, an immersive, student-built haunted house that filled the Roskamp Exhibition Hall with eerie lighting, handmade props, and 15 dedicated actors who terrified over 500 guests. “This haunt is built on the relationships formed with students and faculty, and we could not be happier with the overall outcome of the haunt,” said HDA President Ryan Winders, who will go on to bring his themed entertainment skills to an internship with Walt Disney Imagineering after graduation in the spring. “We are so grateful for the opportunity to have led such a successful project and work with many amazing students and faculty.”
Meanwhile, across campus, the Virtual Reality Department invited guests to step into Tales of Ringling, a fully immersive VR showcase designed and developed by students over the course of a year. “I wanted to bridge the gap between the physical and digital,” said Nick Whittle, 2025-2026 Trustee Scholar for Virtual Reality Development. “Creating a seamless experience where guests could not only try our projects but also meet and talk with the developers behind them.”
Tales of Ringling: A New Chapter in VR Collaboration
Tales of Ringling brought together students from several majors to create a VR haunted house that combined storytelling, design, and technology in one immersive experience. Led by VRD senior Nick Whittle, the project built on last year’s experimental haunted house to create a fully realized VR Halloween experience. Through a year of cross-department collaboration, six unique virtual haunted stories came to life, complete with original branding, illustrations, and motion design.
“I wanted to bridge the gap between the physical and digital,” Whittle said, explaining his goal to make VR feel more approachable.
Posters by Jessica Natoli ’27, Illustration.
Little Red: Monster Hunter—The Haunted Design Association’s Fall Fright
At the same time, the Haunted Design Association was hard at work bringing Little Red: Monster Hunter to life—a physical haunted house built from the ground up by a passionate team of students. Following their spring attraction, The Cult of Camp Ros, the group spent months designing, fabricating, painting, and lighting the sets that filled Roskamp Exhibition Hall.
“The first day of school, we held a meeting with everyone who was working on the event, no matter their level of involvement. We had a full room and discussed the scope, making sure everyone felt supported,” shared Winders. “Everyone on the team worked on the aspects they were drawn to.”
With nearly 500 people in attendance, the dual haunted houses were a huge success and a perfect way to kick off Halloween at Ringling. Both Tales of Ringling and Little Red: Monster Hunter showed just how far creativity and teamwork can go—whether that means building an entire world in virtual reality or constructing one from wood, paint, and lighting gels.
Each project brought students together across majors, blending skills, ideas, and a shared love of storytelling.
Sign up for our newsletter to get the latest Ringling College news in your inbox.
Contact:
Office of Marketing and Communications
communications@ringling.edu
941-309-4008
