knelt down at the crossroads, can't get the devil off my mind (part two)

So here's part two of Harvest Hollow. (Part one being yesterday.)



I get it. Kitchen's where you carve and cook the bodies. But it's...gods, it's overdone. The cauldron under the toxic water spout's neat, though.

Blogger changed their content policy recently, and there is a passage on violence and gore, but I'm erring on the side of Second Life being just digital violence? I may be wrong, but I'm holding to that.



But I'm also confused--the corpse has been wrapped, but the feet are exposed? The feet are exposed, but the head (now detached) was wrapped? Or was the head exposed, too? Then why not remove the hands, if head removal was to prevent dental records being used to identify Mm. Nameless Wrapped-in-Plastic?

Am I overthinking this again?



The rest of the haunt had nothing new, we've all seen it a dozen times by now. But outside, there was a bumper pumpkin ride. That seemed neat.



Another Madpea contribution--and you can't see it here, but the selection in the upper right, A1? Salmiakki bats! Even virtual salmiakki is marvelous. Bat-shaped salted licorice? Even better!



And I won a new ghost plush from the haunted crane game.

All in all, am I unhappy I went? No, not really. Did it spark joy? No, not really. Apart from great landscaping, there's very little we haven't seen before, and most of the more "fun" things are in the "CARN-EVIL" section. Still, there is fun to be had--there's an easy maze, tons of picture opportunities (if you don't mind advertising for the estate), and it's not the worst hunt I've been to. (That distinction still belongs to the Clockwork Curse.)

I'd say...go if you want? Or don't, I'm not your mom.

took the blacktop to Texas, Stevie Ray was on my mind (part one)

Welcome to Harvest Hollow, since I'm ditching the personal haunt that's eating my brain for the night (the night being the fifteen minutes I remain on the grid)...



Right. Let's goooooo.



Seeing the entrance area, I'm fairly sure that somewhere nearby is the rental office for the estate. There are paths leading to more haunted areas--I took the road to the left, then turned right at the fork after the bridge--but overwhelmingly, it seems like it's not a Halloween build, just an enhanced commercial build. Does that make a difference?



I will say, the sim is very pretty. Seriously, for the stroll factor alone, it deserves a visit.



...and almost instantly, I have to dock a skull for the advertising. Maybe it's because I'm frustrated with my own haunt-in-process, maybe it's because the survey that asked me to answer--in the welcome area at the entrance--for a "gift" really leaned hard into me answering that I was going to follow them on Facebook and rent from them soon, and...seriously, that is the exact wrong tack to take. I don't have Facebook, and I have no need to rent, but now if I did, it wouldn't be from them.



Maybe that's too much to put on a pumpkin. I don't know.



I thought this was a nice touch. Not only Madpea's knife mirror (since the rest of this particular haunted house is...repetitive), but the translucent butler who both greets and dusts.

Normally, I'd probably tie up the review here, but I took ten pictures, and I'm going to use all ten, so...this is now part one.Part two's coming very soon.

unraveling since I found you

I am three days from having this headache for two months solid. It's draining a lot of energy for...everything. But still, I had things to do today, and I did...some of them...and I'm still trying, perhaps in vain, to find one good, solid, scary haunt.

Tonight, before I leave for dinner, I'm taking in a haunt in Sleezywood...which already makes me think it's yet another disappointment. But let's go.

Game rip from go? No, we're moving on. I threw away the picture even.

Dear gods, what's left? What about the Haunt at the Admiral's Arms?



Took me a bit to find out how to get out of the rainy back alley to the haunt, but now we're here, and...wau, it's dark.



Okay, flashlight on, let's go, and...Okay. wait. One door leads to a games room stocked with adult furniture and erotic art. Another leads to a bedroom and a bar. Yet ANOTHER takes me to a shopping area downtown...Clicking on the door in the garage gets me to a Bloodlines storage area....What?

Finally I turned around to the ONLY door unchecked, the one that had the Circle of Avatar Moving off a land spot...save I didn't land there. Right, then, let's try that...and into a circular maze of demi-connected passages, leading finally to stairs down, spiraling towards...



...an occult library? Chest has some freebies. But...this seems to be about it.



Meanwhile, I can't believe I forgot to cover the "Bad Moon Rising" Bannered Horns from /Vae Victis\ when I covered the other ones. Where is my mind...Well. I know exactly where it is, in excruciating detail, and I'd rather I didn't.

But they're one of the hunt gifts at Hallow Manor, which I believe closes on the 31st? So there's a little time left, I hope!



So I went to 1313's redux of their "Curios and Spooky Things" haunt.

And why yes, I did tint the entire horns teal to match my hair. Doesn't really show up on the horns themselves, but look at how neat that shade picked up the runes on the banners!



I will likely drop the tent on these when I wear them again, because they truly are a perfect blood-moon red..but for now it's fun.



Haunting the radio station at the back of 1313's haunt is kind of fun.



Floating in the horns? Also fun. Oh, and just for the sake of mentioning it--for once, I wanted the heaviness. This headache is dire, and now on its 59th consecutive day, so horns that were just a solid, heavy presence actually worked for me.



I won't lie, I own a lot of horns. So many that they've been subdivided in the Fantasy horns folder, between 'antlers', 'demonic', and 'goat/ram' varieties, then further into 'bright', 'goth', 'seasonal', 'aged', 'natural' and 'construct' subsets. Some few also go directly into larger seasonal folders, under 'Autumn/Hallows' or 'Winter' usually. The beauty of doing this is not only that I adore covering really wonderful things, but that I can, without a doubt, say I have at least one set of /Vae Victis\ horns in the larger seasonal folders, and several have made their way into the Fantasy folder subfolder sets as well.

And even having said that, I think the Bannered horns are going to be heavily in rotation. Even when I smallenize them later, they fit my "occasional deer with sheep honns' aesthetic. :D

You can find them, remember, at the Hallows Manor hunt by searching for the hunt prizes in the back woods, orrr...this year I said the hell with it and bought six of the Silver hunt HUDs, and just going directly to the prize room. Several tasty things there, and I see no loss of honor in taking the easy route currently.

I'm unraveled by the truth I finally see

Okay, here we go...



I've visited The Haunted in years prior, but I think this is my first visit this year.



Oh, okay, I don't need to bother with this one. When you start out with four game rips in the opening space? Yeah, zero out of five, moving on.

How about Savira City Halloween?



Ultimate dissonance--finding these two at a side table, saying this:

[21:44] ixxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: oh goodness
[21:44] ixxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: are you feeling okay?
[21:44] kxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx:: im ok just aall the blood here
[21:45] kxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx:: i dont want it to make me sick
[21:45] ixxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: well sis we dont have to stay for long
[21:45] ixxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: we can always go back home and chill in our pjs
[21:45] kxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: hmm yea that sounds good right now lol

All the blood is disturbing her? When her rear is shaking like it's made out of not-entirely-set aspic? Elsewise she has two deeply buried motors just jiggling away...Like, that butt is mechanized, not just relying on physics, is what I'm saying.?

But sure. Whatever. I grabbed an apple cider from the cart next to them, and set off towards a random building.



Which...turned out to have phantom stairs. Why?



The skeletaur was neat. (As an aside, Beefburgers, owner of Aquatica FP Mesh, helped me find the skeletaur, because he made it--if you click this and follow the beacon, it's in the Limited Edition vendor on the upper right side of the back wall for L$99!)

There seemed to be no way to get into the rest of the haunt, so...I hopped over a hedge. And found a b'ar.



Big phantom b'ar, too. Didn't seem inclined to eat me.



And I wound up here. Seemingly no way out, nothing but a huge donation sign...so I just left.

I won't say there's not some decent ideas here, but...my gods, people, you had two whole sims, at least test things out first to make sure one of them doesn't have glitchy weirdness! Two out of five skulls, and that second skull only because I was able to track down the skeletaur. Sheesh.

you smile and laugh at me, but you don't see a thing

One more for the night. The description says:

"Welcome to the Haunted Woods for adults. Midnight and mouse look is advised. Enjoy all we have to offer that includes Zombies, Horror, Haunted House, Haunting, RLV Trap, Forest, Animesh, Clown, Scary, Demon, Gang Bang, Werewolf, Ghosts, and sex."

I am prepared to be thoroughly unimpressed.

And I am:

[22:43] Second Life: Only members of a certain group can visit this area.

I'm not joining your group just to see your haunt, my dude. Moving on.

Wait, there's a notecard. It has a landmark. Okay, let's try there.



Touch for weapons? Nope, I was right the first time. NOW moving on.



You know what? I've covered this before, but I have to go through some half-decent haunt this week, so...here we are again, at the Haunted Catacombs at Universal Temple.



Not much has changed, but I'm amused that the kraken decided to ride for a bit with me.



I have zero idea if Grimworx is even on the grid these days, but this is one of their original haunts. Pretty much just a transparent flat image, with flexi from the bottom up, not top down as most pieces use. They have this amusing little wobble to them, and they're still cool to see.



Arachnophobe alert, for any haunts that feature active spider content. I had a couple shots closer, but I think this is all I need to show. There's not a lot of spider bits, but there's enough.



And then...everything went up in flames.



After that, several haunts, and then a slightly darker patch of tunnel with snakes. The use of full bright on some of the props is starting to slightly jar, I will admit. And the snakes were so dark in the water, with my environment settings, I felt I should bump up the brightness. It's darker in the catacombs.



The only real glitch happened at the very end of the ride--when this chainsaw clown suddenly popped out of the wall and sawed through me. And kept sawing through me. Over and over again while I wondered if this was just a really long end sequence or if something had gone wrong.

Finally, I got out on my own and swam to the stairs, shaking my head, and went up only gouting a slight bit of blood from the chainsaw cuts.

All in all, this is nearly G-rated at this point, and exactly the level of relaxing, comfortable haunt I needed. Tempted to give five out of five skulls for that alone, but--that end sequence does them in. There are people who would hit that and--perhaps even justifably--freak out.

So it's four out of five skulls, but that's still pretty good. If you've never gone, you should go at least once to appreciate what early SL had to do for haunts.

close your eyes or just try to look away

I was wandering on the Quest Fur Cover hunt, then I started wandering on the Furry Fashion sim's crystal ball hunt, where little glowing amethyst crystal balls are scattered over the entirety of the sim, and then I found myself at a haunted house. Okay, let's go.



I have no idea how to get to the haunt, mind--I'm including a picture of the exterior and a direct SLUrl, but the region has a default port point, so...do your best?



Am I the only one who finds it a tad ironic that the furry sim's haunted house only seems to have skeletons and pictures of humanoids?



Welp, ya got poltergeists. Gonna haveta bless 'em outta here...

Unfortunately, the poltergeist action apparently grabs you, because after I captured the above vid, I couldn't get away from that corner of the room. I forced myself to leave the room--and then was immediately pulled back into the nearest corner of the hallway TO the kitchen. I ported off the sim--and was pulled to the corner edge of the parcel, flying in midair, pointing towards the sim the house was on.

I finally had to go to a sandbox, clear all three caches--while fighting my way back to the sandbox each time because it kept trying to pull me off the sim--and then log out, and log back in again, and stand there while 280K+ items load in.

Gosh, a more paranoid person would say, this was griefing. Me, I'm going to say, sorry, you had your chance, zero out of five skulls. I'm not going back.



So let's see about another haunt. How about Haunted Acres?

Ah, okay, sign says we're going to need a "vehichle". Got it.

And then...I was teleported home. Huh?



It's not rezzing the ride car. Fine. I can't even rate whether this one was good or not, because it doesn't WORK.

Moving on! Let's try a landmark I got from the Shop n' Hop, for the Spook Ride.



Which I have ridden before, but this year, actually at the designer's parcel. It's a short jaunt, but after the first two, definitely a palate cleanser. And if I ever do set up a full dark ride--this would be the one I'm buying.



Four out of five skulls, one knocked off solely due to the game rips seen inside. Still, pretty good overall. And right now--apparently on this parcel, and at their booth in Shop 'n Hop--they're running discounts on the full ride set. Kind of a steal, frankly.

don't come searching when I go missing

Am I bored tonight? Not really...more seeking distractions from the meatspace world. So, hie me off to Haunted Memories!



We apparently start off in...a...barn?? Maybe this is a dance space, and the haunt is the rest of the sim?



This guy does not look comfortable.



Touching the chest under the "Don't Touch" sign got me bats! Why would I mind that?!

(I did pull this one into edit--it's available on Marketplace for L$125. That's definitely something to acquire for later...)



Sim seems fairly accident-prone.



Wau. You are really tall.



Hello, game rip...



I take it back...you're really tall.

All in all, I'll knock them one skull for the game rips, but that still leaves them four out of five, because they've done a lot to make things generally creepy without being completely overdone. If nothing else, it's a quiet stroll with some haunted sounds, and that's not bad at all.

Even better, it's laid out with enough forest paths that you could easily attach a horse from inventory and ride around the sim. Which sounds like a very good thing to do in a few days, actually.

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!