It had been two years since I walked through House Belasco. I'd avoided it most of October, because, well...I'd seen it before, right? But maybe things had changed. Maybe it had gotten better in the intervening time...or worse. Either way, I had to know for sure.



Did I mention this is an Adult haunt?



This is a very Adult haunt.



"No" is right. Also, not sitting down. Also, I adore that candle lamp. (It's from Candlelight Evenings Antique Furniture, which I must check out after wandering through here.)

[Insert from Editrix after publishing: This business...does not exist? Link takes me back to the house, even though the location is different from said house. I'll research.]



This is a very big table.



It also floats, though it's not shown levitating here.



I forgot how...active...the house sanctuary is.

As it turns out, I can't show that much from upstairs; things have gotten a tad more explicit. But that's not the interesting thing. The interesting thing is that I'd forgotten about Hell House at the time I first went through the haunt. Between then and now, Hell House (the movie) had arrived on Netflix, and I'd remembered how much I loved that film.



For example, this is what rests behind the "Spirit Cabinet" curtains on the first floor of Hell House.

And there's a shot in this commentary about the film that shows psychic Florence Tanner (actress Pamela Franklin) in that same pose.

In fact, a lot of this haunt, from the architecture of the house, to sound clips,, to what populates the rooms, really does reflect the film. Considering how intensely sexual the film--and original work--tend towards, I'm rather shocked I didn't pick up all the references; not only that, but the sounds of both pleasure and pain that are constantly playing throughout the house. I can't even say I was that distracted by my companion, though, in all honesty, two years ago I may simply have had sounds off entirely.

What I can say is, if you don't mind nudity, or overhearing cries of pleasure, Hell House is worth a jaunt. There is an extensive notecard, with behavior rules and environment rules both, which is worth reading through as well. And do take your time with this one--since it is so heavily scripted, both for sounds and effects, things may take some time to rez in!

And, as ever, with October drawing to a close--Happy Hallowe'en!

[00:29] Corpse: Hello Emilly Orr. Thank you for visiting Silverado's Haunted House -Beware -Not responsible for any Heart attacks

Uhh...Right.



Because this is so heart-stoppingly terrifying.



So I pretty much picked a place at random, and came to Silverado's Haunted House and Graveyard.



It's got some okay poses in the crypt part of the cemetary, but beyond that, it's mostly just fog and screamers.



Until I turned to leave, and met this fellow.

[00:39] Nightstalker: HALT Emilly , you are trespassing on hallowed ground !
[00:39] Nightstalker: Emilly , You Foolish Mortal !!! lol prepare to DIE !!!!!!!
[00:40] Nightstalker: lol Emilly enjoy your eternal rest

I refuse to take seriously any haunt that says "lol".



Save I'd already started walking off the lot, so...died on the sidewalk. Wups.

I'd say, this is another one solely for completionists. It's got some okay photo ops, and the death-by-Reaper is pretty neat, but beyond that...it's okay, but not stellar.

Two out of five skulls?

I logged in to find I had a package waiting from Insanity's Own for the upcoming Envy edition of the Sinners' Hunt. And don't get me wrong, I'm glad I got the package, I will blog the hell out of anything sent my way, but...I didn't know I'd made the blog list for the hunt, 'cos no one told me.

So confused.



But this is the first thing, a garden chair/table set, and this is it, basically straight out of the box. By "basically" I mean, I put the table out, realized it had rezzed partially in midair, lowered it to touch ground, then rezzed out the chair and turned it to face the table. Did not change anything, and no Windlight was used to create this shot.



If it looks like the table is way higher than I am, there are two reasons for that: one, the table is taller than the average garden table, and two, I'm short. (Currently in this shape--including the six-inch spike heels--I'm 5'7", or in meters, 1.75, so definitely not average avie height!)



Still, it works pretty well, overall, and both items are copy/mod, so could be raised or lowered at need. That's not the neat thing, though. It took me a bit to figure this out, but beyond the inherent few sitting poses in the chair, there's a button that was marked with my name. I clicked it, nothing happened, then I realized my AO was still off. I clicked that back on, and voilà, I have my own sit poses from my AO!



That's kind of awesome.



Expect a lot of green on this hunt, 'cos Envy is all about being green with it, this table set fully included. I think this one would work well with a lot of different styles of decor, though, and it clocks in at one LI for the table, and just three LI for the chair.

The hunt starts November 1st and will run through the 31st; find more info on the Sinners' Hunt blog...when it's posted.

(Other stuph used in the shots:
(Skybox: Mine, I made it.
Autumn tree with rocks: ArchiTech group gift, but likely still available if you join the group.
Hair: Quintessa Halloween Massacre hair in Teal from ALICE PROJECT, available on the Halloween giveaway wall. It was yesterday's gift, so today, it's L$50, but that's still a bargain for all the colors.
Dress: Creature Feature mini in Teal, group gift from :{MV}:. May still be available.
Stockings: Stitches stockings in black from AviCandy; I think it was a Hallows gift this year? [But not positive].
Boots: Biker's Choice Fair gift from SHEY, back in March of this year. Still, going to SHEY and joining their group will net you equally nifty boots.
Skin: The Stitched 2 Skin in Blue, received back in July of 2009 from somewhere on Suffugium. Both sim and store are gone, though the maker is Kaeli Candour, in case you're interested.
Makeup: Almost entirely from [mock], including the Glitter Pop eShadow in Plums at Midnight with the Purple Rain Mad Woman Smokey eShadow over that, the Sahne Bitter Chocolate wearable Tester [Lip 1], and beneath all of that, Mock's infamous Mythic Neutralizer to tone down the now-faded-and-dated grey-blue eyeshadow and grey-blue lips on the skin. Also added Rue's Lip Service in Seduction to top things off; no idea if Devae has the Painted line or not, anymore.
Eyes: The Slime eyes from {SONG}, which were a gift found along the Nightmare Event twists and turns.)

Tonight's haunted jaunt takes us to Galicia's Spine-Chilling Halloween Hunt. I think they are slightly overstating the case.



I will say, though, it's lovely here.



Ethereal dancers move gracefully to the sound of the skeletal band.



AAAH! Piranhas! LAND PIRANHAS!



It is really, really pretty here, though.



There are places to sit and rest, sit and interact, sit and invoke...



Oh, you are...SO broken...



Because, of course, you get a bunch of animate voudon poppets together, they're going to pull out the Ouija board, right? (Also, that glowing pumpkin you see towards the middle? There's ten of those on the sim, they're fairly easy to find.)



Wait, no one told me Leviathan was on this sim! I'm out of here!

Above and beyond the hunt, which is mostly for seasonal tattoo layers, it's just moodily atmospheric and wonderful. There is one section near the shore that spawns Freddy Krueger, of all things, to chase you about, but run back to the main house and he'll fall back. Everywhere else (save for the mysterious Land Piranha pool) can be wandered with free heart and (relative) safety.

So, heard about a mini-hunt in a haunted house at Halloween Town, thought I'd check it out.


When one arrives in Halloween Town, there's a walk past several stores, leading down to the house itself. Which looks very much like it emerged out of Beetlejuice's miniature town model.



Once inside, arrows point you towards your path to travel, but you move through several individual movie "sets". This one? Silence of the Lambs. Very well done.



Seeing this was, hands down, one of the coolest things I've ever seen in SL. Imagine: standing in a darkened movie theatre. The Shining is playing on the screen. Words scroll up that say, when you see Danny on the screen, you can walk into the screen and experience the film. So you walk in...and you do. Wild effect.



I cheated a bit for some of these images; not anything against ToS, just that, because taking pictures in mouselook is difficult, I'd pop in and out of enforced view to snap an image. I fully recommend you just sit and stay for the whole experience, and disregard photos on the tour portions.



It also didn't hurt that they covered The Blair Witch Project. Since I'm one of those fans for all things Blair Witch-related, I really got into this portion.



And a lot of this comes down to the little details. Like this etched witch figure, or the bloody childrens' handprints inside the cabin. The exact carpet used in Kubrick's Shining. The absolute faithful reproduction of Silence of the Lambs' jail cage. Those are the things that take a haunt to the next level.



Oh, this is never good to see...Of course, they included The Ring.



It does? I mean, up next was The Exorcist, and also really well done as a set piece. Also, scattered throughout--in addition to little prizes in various rooms--are several opportunities to "join the action", so to speak. Photo opportunities abound.



Taking a picture of this room reduces it to stillness. When you're there, standing in the room, with everything moving, it's much more intense, and a whole lot of fun.



And don't get eaten by the shark!

This is only about half of what the haunt contains, there's just so much more. It's worth the time it will take to explore, and it's such a faithful tribute to all things horror that any fan of either Halloween or horror films in general, really should make time for this one. Highly recommended, I am definitely going back again!

So, finally dragged off to see The Truth About Bats and Avies charity event (it benefits Bat World Sanctuary), and found a whole bunch of 'bat facts' I wanted to capture for posterity.



I still don't know how this rumor started. Flying things as a rule don't divebomb humans, unless they're trying to drive away said human from a nest, and that's generally aggressive birds like jays, falcons and the like.



I kind of went wild on various Windlight settings, trying to make things readable. For shopping and wandering, the sim this event is on is set to Dusty, which is good, but for readable text? Not as efficient. (And just to note: my experiments didn't always work.)



Some bats are downright adorable, in fact.



So remember: when you say someone is "blind as a bat", you're actually saying they see really well in the dark.



Of course, that's just another supposition--people scared of bats call them 'flying mice' or 'flying rats' because they also think mice and rats are ugly, dirty creatures. It's all prejudice based on fear.



They also cuddle their young, grooming them like cats will with kittens.



White Nose Syndrome is a devastating fungal infection first discovered in 2007, which is now widespread throughout the US and parts of Canada. It affects all species of bats, leading to depletion of energy resources in the winter, loss of muscle mass, and eventual death.

Tonight's adventure is Angel's Haunted House, where I am greeted by Diablo himself. Sort of. Or maybe Darkness from Legend. Does that bode ill?



There seem to be a few haunts on this parcel. So I turned left from the landing point, and walked towards what sounded like two exorcists blessing an orphanage.



So...asylum, then. Got it.



I know her from somewhere...Where?



The morgue has clowns. Not surprised.



"Archangel, dark angel, lend me thy light; to death's fail too, we have ever been sight"? I can't quite figure out what the dolls are saying.

[Note from the Editrix before posting: Found it. It's Cradle of Filth's "Satanic Mantra", and the line as given there goes,

"Archangel, dark angel
Lend me thy light
Through Death's veil
'Til we have Heaven in sight!"

[I feel better knowing what they're saying.]



Upstairs we go. Ah, there's Reghan and the priest.



And the expected mad doctor, performing experiments on corpses...or corpse bits...for...probably nonsensical and random reasons.

Look, the sounds are good here, I won't lie, but it more seems like a jumble of various ideas than a coherent storyline. We've seen most of these things before. And after a while, Murray's invective--AKA, the skull on the countertop in the foyer--gets old, because he just keeps repeating his standard phrases over...and over...and over...on about a two-second loop. Ack.

Plus, one of the additional haunts turned out to be attached to the first house, so that was one unit, and the second house started off with so much shrill screaming, I never made it past the door. There's also a cemetary, which I didn't take in at all.

Three out of five skulls? Only for the haunt completionists in the crowd.