maybe tomorrow I'll wake to find myself sleeping on the floor

It occurs to me that we're four days into October, and nary a haunt has been seen on the blog. This is very nearly criminal. So we're redressing that today by visiting the Haunted Reef in Kon Tiki North.



Entrance is suitably atmospheric.



There are rules. And yes, it is a dark ride.



The ride talks to you as you go:

[12:43] SUB 2022: Welcome to The Haunted Reef ride!
[12:43] SUB 2022: Along the way you will see strange, interesting, and amazing things!
[12:43] SUB 2022: We hope you enjoy the ride (and hope you survive:P)
[12:43] SUB 2022: Monsters lurk down here. Be still and they may not harm you.

Which is kind of neat.

Also, it's just a visual conceit, but I liked the illusion of a dome over the boat, so the riders have air. It's the little things.



A few rooms of coral and reef fish led me to this, an impressive display of very long electric eels.



Some parts of the ride led you through cave tunnels, or old ruins, like this one, and others were through open ocean.



And this is where your Editrix got very disappointed. Note the figures in the two circles. The closer is Lisa, from P.T., the one farther back is the Broken Neck Woman (called Kubi ga Oreta Onna no Rei in the original Japanese transliteration, or the Woman Who Jumps) from the first Fatal Frame game. They're both game rips. It's so sad to see.

I get that game rips are cheap. I get that they're everywhere. I get that some of them really work for zombies, or sim decor (the Fountain of Tears from American McGee's Alice: Madness Returns game is also everywhere). But they're still a violation of copyright.



And near the end? Laser sharks.

All in all, I found this a marvelously calming haunt, perfect for when you have the time to just sit and watch the sealife go by...but while I was expecting to give four, maybe even five skulls out of five for it--that room with the game rips drops them down to three. It's just so unnecessary, when the rest of the haunt is so inventive.