The clowns hate you, too. A maze adventure into the depths of clown hell. Carnival, funhouse, dark ride, evil clowns, theme park, haunted house, Halloween. Part of the Black Pearl Pleasure Beach Amusement Park & Solace Beach Estates.
I'm going back to meet the clowns. And I'm going in camouflage.
Now, this is a bit of trivia that has always fascinated me. First, though, before we address anything else, I'm fairly sure I've gone through this before, but it has substantially changed. Last time through, it was just a glass maze with pop-up clowns. This time...it's so, so much more.
But back to the Anatomical Venus. So part of the new layout is a freakshow tent, and scattered amongst the offerings is something the banner behind the display names as the "Anatomical Venus". Anatomical Venuses do exist, but are drastically different things, being entirely made of wax, marble, wood, or gutta percha for early medical studies. They're freakish enough on their own, but that's not the point of this.
What they're actually showing off is a Headless Girl. This was a very big deal from 1890 clear up until the 1950s, which wide-scale freak shows stopped being popular with crowds. Generally the trick was, a short woman would sit in a chair, wearing a dress with very tall, built-up shoulders. A hole in the back of the dress allowed her to recline her head back, while the arrangement of steel tubes and wires would fit inside the neck of the dress. No one was allowed close to the stage, which was blocked off anyway, so nothing could be seen of the model's head.
But doctors were invited onstage, and reported in shock that they detected a heartbeat! (Some were paid off, some where genuinely innocent, but both earnestly said beforehand that there was no way such a human being could continue to love.) And, as that article said, one of these Headless Girl displays even made it onstage at Ozzfest in the 1980s. That may have been the very last public showing of one, as far as I know.
After wandering the freakshow, I walked out and noticed something very haunt-like towards the back. It turned out to be a very tall haunt indeed, Poe's Haunted Castle. This is a shot taken from one landing below the top of the stairs (one enters at the top of the haunt, and works their way down).
It's obvious the castle was not designed with any strictures of geometry in mind...
This skeletal thing. I was in awe. It doesn't move, it's not a jump scare through a wall, it just stands there. And points. Into the void. It's awesome.
There's an up and down side to this. Note the labels, because yes, these are all game rips (and more than just that, I'm fairly sure.) But the main three are two characters from two different games. And that's bad. Bad and lazy and unethical and bad.
But the up side is kind of worthwhile--whomever got these, aftermarket, put animesh scripts and animations in them. But not the same ones. So the shaved-bald Alice struggles to get out of the straitjacket; the Alice in the wig sways side to side before falling down, looking stunned, then laboriously climbing back upright again; and Alma gleefully skips in a circle.
Movement does lessen the pain of seeing the rips used.
Next up, part two--in the Clown House!
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