In Rhode Island, it is always quite easy to find out what's "new": the Providence Place Mall, the renovated T.F. Green airport, and the housing developments throughout South County. And it's easy to find historical places of note, proudly restored -- Rhode Island has more buildings on the National Register of Historic Places than any other state. But what about the historic places that have been neglected and abandoned?

When a group of Brown University students decided the backdrop for their new film would be exactly everything here before, they were presented with a Rhode Island not necessarily forgotten, but long ignored.

It started with a desire to explore and do new things over the summer. The first candidate for exploration was the infamous and abandoned Providence train tunnel from what is now Eastside Marketplace to North Main Street. Any upperclassman or alumni of Brown has some story about the tunnel -- in the middle lay a satanic temple, at the northwestern end, graffiti indicated a massive Rhode Island School of Design party. Some have ventured in, for others the murky water and stagnant air is too much of a deterrent. Walking through it is certainly an experience. The depth of the water can be up to the mid-calf. It drips from the ceiling onto strategically placed metal drums, causing a disturbing echo throughout the tunnel. A rusty car sits in the middle; shopping carts are scattered the entire distance. Remnants of small fires and empty spray paints cans are found at almost every step. The absolute darkness, however, is where the tunnel has its appeal. Even with the strongest flashlights, it is impossible to see a comforting distance. The walk through this tunnel, albeit frightening, only sparked the need for more exhilaration, leading to research into what the rest of Rhode Island held.

The list of places was comprised of the Sockanossett Boys Training School, the Ladd Center for people with disabilities, Rocky Point Amusement Park, Diamond Hill Ski area, and various abandoned houses along the way. It was early in the process of checking these places off the list as "conquered territory" that the concept of a film arose. The landmarks held such an air of desolation and reeked with human presence. Looking at them, it is no wonder the idea of the apocalypse finds its way into the mind. Walking through them and examining their walls is a relatively easy task when the highway back home can be heard in the background. Walking through them, however, imagining they are the only indicators of a better and more developed world induces fear and loneliness. Hence, these areas were to become a cinematic representation of "what was left." Cameras were brought in to document the fear and loneliness and to speculate on the human reaction to an environment consistently full of despair and wanting.

The training school is in Cranston and consists of a series of dormitories and a boarded up chapel. The dormitories can be easily walked in, and although the staircases seem safe, the floorboards are beginning to be unstable. Bats fill the arches in the ceiling and homeless dogs cower in the basement corners. It resides immediately next to the barbed wire fences of the present training school and correctional facilities, adding to the experience of walking through the area. A couple RI residents have photographed the buildings, and online pictures can be found at BrianHullPhotography.com.

The Ladd Center sits behind the Veteran's Cemetery in Exeter and has been the subject of debate on development committees for a few years now. The building focused on in the film is the abandoned hospital, still equipped with operating tables and morgue beds. There is, however, also an old school and an administrative building on the property. This area is to University of Rhode Island students as the train tunnel is to Brown Students—the subject of urban legend and the object of curiosity.

Rocky Point Amusement Park brings many a memory to most Rhode Islanders. For the older residents, it calls to mind images of the water, the salt water pool, and the Shore Dinner Hall. The younger ones remember the actual park, complete with roller coasters and midway games. What lies there now are the remnants of the park and a failed attempt at a seasonal Halloween attraction. The "House of Horrors" is filled with graffiti and empty beer cans. The eerie feeling comes from the nostalgia associated with the landmark, comparable to the feeling emanating from a lost Main Street USA.

The relative flat geography of Rhode Island makes it hard to believe four ski resorts once made their home in the Ocean State. Diamond Hill and Ski Valley were on the same hill; Diamond Hill is now a state park and Ski Valley is a housing development. A walk through the woods in this area will yield some fascinating discoveries. Rope tows and chair lift remains have yet to be removed; on Diamond Hill an unfinished condominium sits amidst the trees. Snowmaking pipes traverse the slopes, rusted and bent out of shape. The outline of these slopes can still be seen and now make for excellent hiking trails.

The film tries to capture a feeling with these landmarks that could take place anywhere in America. For the average Brown University student viewer, the empty emotion the settings convey will resound in their minds. For the average Rhode Island viewer, the setting will not prompt a feeling of dread, but rather an alliance with the background. Rhode Island is a state where people give directions based on buildings long torn down and replaced. Walking into a gas station to find a particular neighborhood will lead to "take a left where Almacs (a supermarket) used to be." All of these lefts, where things used to be, leave behind a different picture of Rhode Island, which, evident by this film, can be appreciated for a variety of reasons. They're worth exploring to find what that reason is for you.

Katharine Shuster is a native of Warwick. As a sophomore at Brown, she studies in cognitive science and evolutionary theory. Outside of class, she is involved in urban exploration and student government. Like most Rhode Islanders who give directions by what used to be there, she plans on renaming in Rhode Island after graduation. [an error occurred while processing this directive] [an error occurred while processing this directive]