hush, hush, hush, here comes the boogeyman

Tonight, being unsettled, I went to find a haunt. I found myself at Hushed, picked spur-of-the-moment from the Editors' Picks in Destinations.

Wasn't my best idea.



I'll give them this, the entrance point is atmospheric. A back-country road, autumn leaves falling, and the ghostly letters hanging in the shadows spelling out "HUSHED".



The problem? Most of the rides aren't, most of the things that look like they can be walked through can't...it's a vast collection of set pieces with nothing more than that. There's no 'there', there, is what I'm saying.



This is not to say it's completely unenjoyable. This fellow, for instance, while standing in front of essentially a cardboard cut-out tent, is someone I haven't seen a thousand times before, like many of the other clowns. And there was a fun little haunted balloon piece next to him.



The one ride I found that did work was the Haunted Mine--or, as the lights spell out here, the Nightmare Tunnel.

The less said about that, the better.



And...that was really about it. This hovering skeleton with the halo of leaves was neat, but again--just hovering in a field that was otherwise undisturbed, next to a horse that didn't seem at all affected by the floating apparition of bones beside it.

They...tried? One skull for that, I guess.

nothing you can say can stop me going home

Tying up things for the year, a very disappointing one for haunts, all in all. But we're now at the Ils de l'Ours haunt, so...maybe this will at least be average.



From the front entrance, things look very foggy.



And monochrome.



It's atmospheric, I'll give them that. But it's just one graveyard. Next.

How about the Church of the Poison Mind? They're technically a club, but to the right, there's a haunt.



The furniture's interesting...



Ah, yes, the cannibal kitchen trope. Tired of it.



Probably shouldn't have had that third glass of arsenic...



But what I most want to know is--what happened to the baby?

Anyway, that's it for the year. I'm calling it. There may be more houses out there, but I'm tired of digging through dreck to find even paste gems. The angel statue in the first one made a great picture, and I do like the haunted bed set, to be fair, but...eh. Three of out five skulls?

I guess there's next October.

so I'll take two of what you're having and I'll take all of what you got (part II)

(Continued from part I.)



Another spider warning--seems like visitors are going to have to make their way through the webs to reach the front door.



Through the front door, more webs, more spiders...and a skeleton playing piano.



In a side room, two very tired skeletons, a wife and husband reclining after a hard day, and...a skinned dog??



Upstairs, in this very familiar build, the childrens' room--where the children seem to be watching over their possessed grandmother, as the crucifix slowly rotates on the wall.



And finally, the master bedroom, with a web-bedecked canopy bed, a web-draped sewing mannequin, and a very dusty vanity.

All in all, this one's fairly quiet, but well done. Not one for people who aren't fans of creepy-crawlies, but it's a pleasant walk, with some nifty decorations, and I quite enjoyed it. It's not a large space, but you know, they don't all need to be. My first five out of five skulls for the year.

so I'll take two of what you're having and I'll take all of what you got (part I)

GRIND Halloween's blurb said:"Romantic Dancing with your date and Halloween Spooky Sim brought to you by Alexzis Meredith.
Haunted,house,skeletons,zombies,zombie,graveyard,Scarecrow,scary,,ghotic,Ghosts,Tombstone,Graves, scary sprits, ghouls, witches,trick or treat, costumes, dress u" Well, I was in a dress, so...I went.



Turns out I didn't need one. While there was a dance floor--and people there--I was more interested in the marquee arrows that led around the side, because that's where I saw Hallows decorations. Including this rather familiar Slenderman at a bus stop along the sidewalk.



Well, this is certainly unusual. From a quiet sidewalk, through a wrought-iron gate, to...an alligator? Seemed upset, too.



To the side of the alligator--and the little shack it was in front of--was a side passage. Here be spiders, so be warned.



To one side of the house was this dancing masked fellow. Not sure why he was dancing there, but he seemed to be enjoying himself.



And to the other side of the house I noticed these color-changing skeletons. I hadn't noticed them on the other side of the fence, so...either they hadn't rezzed in yet, or they weren't visible from the front? Not sure, but they were also fun to watch.

Next up: the house!

Haunted Crowe

The blurb said:

"Open till November 1 - Come get ghoulishly thrilled! Haunted House Halloween ghost ghoul horror scare scary all hallows eve samhain spooky photography"

So I went.



There is way too much going on here, in all directions, but I did like the drunken skeletons. They were fun to watch.



Turning around to face the other way, I found a crimson cornfield and a spooky mansion high up a cliff. I didn't check over that way due to the everything else.



Coming up on the first house I picked up, I thought these were just adorable little spooks. They moved when I walked past.



I will say this--they are having fun with skeletons in this one.



A lot of fun--this guy bobbed up and down in one corner of the living room.



Outside again discovered more posed skeletons--this one next to another draped over a high-backed chair, which were both beside a swing set made of blood-streaked bones.



Across a little bridge I found this rather despondent fisher-skeleton.



I remember new trails. Whatever happened to them and their lovely sense of haunted whimsy?



Did I mention there's a lot going on here? At least four haunts, if not six, plus set pieces everywhere, including this ghost ship. Some game rips, not a ton, and even through all the clutter, there's a definite intention behind everything. Even if you just hit one or two places, as I did, you'll find something worth seeing, I think. Four out of five skulls.

can you help me to see it? because I want to believe in the magic

This is psychotically NSFW, but also hysterically funny and, in a rare bonus to the filthy-minded STEM community, just PACKED with information on geology, science, mineralization, pest control, and water systems! Just amazing.

In the meantime, I usually don't find storylines in .gifs (or memes), but apparently, I accidentally ran across one! And I must share. So here you go:



Near as I can figure, this is the first one? Everything else is maybe not in order of release, but made sense to me. More or less.



Same as the above, but with words...



And then...the painting inserts began.



Spreading love and bones everywhere!



And now pets!



And birds!



And back to people...



And finally, YOU! Now everyone's happy. And bones. And always remember--your skull is always smiling, underneath your skin.

(Apparently, there's even more of these joyous things, all done by an artist named Kiszkiloszki, and further oddity besides. I think I'm in love.)

Thirty-nine days until Hallowe'en!

Miss Slighted, high-minded, I’m stuck in the rain

Oh, excuse me, the title is actually Summit Nights and HALLOWEEN HAUNTED HOUSE! BOO! There you go. The description states:

Summit Nights: A unique "night garden" themed dance club playing great music from all genres.

Come and see our creepy haunted mansion, guaranteed to give you a good scare! Ghosts, ghouls, skeletons and zombies, oh my!

So...dance club, but also haunt? Or haunted dance club? I have no idea.



Well, it has rules.



And they've definitely worked to set a particular mood.



Because of course they have game rips, why wouldn't they? Cue massive facepalming.



This was a neat effect. Two of the four paintings moved up and down on the wall. Simple, but effective. This was the second wall with the effect--the first one seemed to be in more shadow--but there didn't seem to be repetition, which is my other bane--the earlier four paintings were different.



The game rips are getting on my nerves...



Really? Okay, it's possible this is not a direct game rip, even though Ju-On had a video game released for the Wii. (And yes, the little meowing boy? He is in that game.) But one way or another, this was my "I'm done here" note.

Haunts are an odd thing--they rely on two key principles, and they are opposing: originality and creativity on the one side, and tradition and established settings on the other. But it is far from impossible to play to both things, and make a haunt work, without involving game properties or established media properties.

That is, if the designer cares at all.

And...that's it. I'll make one more correction to the list of all the haunts, and then I'll start working on old pictures for the haunts, but this is my last haunted house for the year. Blessings of the season to you all!

and I don't know where I've been, and I don't know what I'm into (part two)

Picking up where we left off, there is a track section with spiderwebs. I didn't see any actual spiders, but there are webs.



I swear I've been here before. But I don't recognize the sim, or the house around the track. It's so odd.





This was also a neat effect. This was after the ride ended, and I went upstairs to explore the second level of the house. The kitchen had this, three slowly rotating chairs, with a ghost fading in and out.



Okay, but these twop rips I can't ignore. Time to go.

The ride part is fun? Even though it basically laps the lower house twice, it's still fun. The upstairs is sort of find-the-effect wandering, and that's about it. Plus game rips, so, y'know...either this haunt is another three-skull extravaganza or you may like it, who knows? All I know is copyright infringement when I see it.