Rhodenwald's Haunted Hedge Maze

Briefly pondering a trip to the Naked Rocks until I caught the first two lines of their blurb:

"A celebration of spookiness and nudity! You must be nude here or the grim reaper will track you down!"

Yeah, no, that's not happening. Next.

Was considering going to the haunt at Commune Utopia until I caught their blurb:

"Please turn Sounds and Music on, use parcel windlight, and explore each room of the dilapidated home of Horny McPhee, who disappeared while trying to find the hot tub across the river. Gift upstairs!"

Ugh, nope. Maybe I'm just in a bad mood? I know I'm struggling not to get sick, and it has set me slightly off. But still.

Carnival of Carnivorous Clowns? Also nope.

A haunted hedge maze? Oh, what the hell.



Well, this certainly looks charming to start with.



I do like that the girl in the mirror reaches out of it. That is reasonably creepy.



On the surface, just a gargoyle on a column. But I panned up, and got the tree with all the little faerylights, and that was magical.



It's important to note that the makers of this maze are very clever: several points, like this one, look blocked. But the objects in the path are phantom, and a lot of times, fog or cobwebs or other effects will hide the passage behind or beside them. Very tricky and imaginative.



I apologize to any arachnophobes--this was the picture I left as dark as I took it, I didn't want to enhance it just in case. And even for me, I had to think hard about walking past all those...multi-legged things...lining the hedge.



I actually found the door at the heart of the maze, and guessed the right answer--but I didn't find the gift promised. But that's okay, this was actually neat to go through, and it frankly blows away most virtual corn mazes. (And maybe even a few actual RL ones, this was really fun to experience!)

My recommendation is to go. Take some time, take a friend if you like (there are 'traps' [non-RLV] in the maze for pictures and such), and just have fun. Nothing will scream at you, nothing will jump out and claw your face off. It's just well done, and enjoyably seasonal. Finally, something not terribly depressing!

single-wides and ranches disappear before our eyes

Oh, sure, after the last few, how bad can it get? Let's try the Carnival of Horrors. The blurb's actually coherent until it descends into buzzwords:

"The Dark carnival, join us if you dare.The darks lost count of how many victims entered. No one ever kept count of the few that escaped. Carnival circus freakshow haunted house cemetary cornmaze swamp clown rides games zombie pirate apocalypse halloween"

Yep. Right. Onward.



Intimations of 'turn back now'. Huh.



I think I found the carnival.



Of course clowns.



Okay, this isn't terrible. Little bit incoherent, but I like the haunted mannequins/backstage seamstress area. The pipe gushing blood is a little bit weird, though, because it's so bright. It doesn't hit me as blood, it hits me as strawberry soda.



Really? I am so bored with this already.



And an asylum. Game and match, I can move on.

in these four blocks of rust piles and abandoned motels

Having a bad taste in my mouth from the last two haunts, I decided to try StormWind's Eerie Refuge. It's a good name, but their bio is buzzword central:

"Haunted house, scary, romantic, fun, halloween, entertainment, couples, things to do, friends, romantico, fantasmas, ghosts. lobos, hadas, wolves, fairies, breedables, teleport to store, garden, jardin, fotos, photos, club, casa embrujada, "

Yeah...not high hopes for it.



So...that's it, then? Plus a large invisible wall that made me have to skitter to the left until I hit the woods. Great.



Because of course the Crying Fountain is here.



Small cottage on the grounds, worth investigating, I thought. Lit with magenta light, even the clutter had clutter. I moved on.



Tiny graveyard, complete with semi-sourceless waterfall and mysterious lightning.



Inside the house, there were...well...furnishings. Not enough for the absurd size of the place, but...it was. Furnished.



So...that's a thing.



And yep, started with Alice game rips, ended with Silent Hill game rips, I'm done here.

he fired off a few hot rounds right into the sorry crowd

Okay, so that one didn't really pan out, what else...how about the POLTERGIEST ON ELM STREET !! haunt? (Yes, all upper case, spelled wrong.) Their bio is...odd:

"TRICK OR TREAT !
my house got possessed by the internet ; whatever you do DONT FALL ASLEEP !
haunted house,halloween scary horror movies
lounge , hangout ,spooky,"

Okay, then...



Marquee outside a normal A-frame home. Vaguely animated zombie things wandering around. Really bad overexposed Chris Sarandon cutout. Yeah, um...my initial reaction is "no", but...let's go see.



Floating chair. Floating cards. Carrie-Ann watching...Elvira, maybe? It was hard to make out.

Hanging basket bed, check. Fluffy sheepskin rug, check. Mysterious column of red light for no discernable reason, check. TV's playing Nightmare on Elm Street. Of course. And there's a door in the middle of the room...because that makes sense.



Oh, that's just...tacky.

Also...

[16:45] Emilly screams HELPPP I'm trapped !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No, I don't. Don't put words in my mouth.



There is way too much going on here. Sound too loud. Too many animated gifs. Stupid use of media on a prim. The whole thing is nonsensical.



And of course the door from the room of all the animated gifs opens into Gridworx' Overlook hallway set. Yeah, I'm done with this one.

I wouldn't recommend anyone go here, but...I guess if you really like being screamed at with sound and media, and otherwise, not a lot making much sense...feel free? Everyone else, just take my advice and avoid it entirely.

don’t think of what it’s cost me, it was all for a cause

I know, I know--another one? Well, I thought I'd covered all of 'em too. But apparently not, because there's one in Sand. Their bio:

"I made it 3 times bigger than last year and I now have 3 spooky rides, pumpkin bumper cars, haunted corn maze, haunted forest and a cemetery.. Haunted House"

Huh. Okay.

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Wait, I've done this one before.

But they said bigger...

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So much glow. So very much glow. Allll the glow.

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It's so specific a look, though. Like, not just reproducing a traditional crank-and-chain dark ride, but reproducing a traditinal 1960s-era crank-and-chain dark ride. It's a very particular aesthetic.

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But, okay, mostly seen that before, what else was here? Well, one of the new rides was named "Emerald City", a tribute to Oz. I did think this was neat--the cars are glittery red shoes, and the first room is entirely monochrome. Y'know, like Kansas.

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Second room was Munchkinland, weirdly without Munchkins, and the room after that was the Emerald City itself. Which, weirdly, seemed just to be lots of green walls, lots of green glow, and lots of faceted emerald textures. I...guess?

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I walked towards the third ride, seemingly some sort of asylum or zombie set-up, saw the Patient Alice and F.E.A.R.'s Alice in the window, and decided nope, I was done.

Unless you really like old-school rides, I'd say give this one a pass. Though if you haven't seen it, and you like haunted rides, then hey, there's three here, knock yourselves out.

my life is a long road winding slowly back to you

The ad says, "The Greatest Halloween Ride in the World EVER! - Haunted House". But it was the Alicia Stella ride I'd been looking for, so sure, let's go!

Their blurb is slightly hyperbolic:

"NOW OPEN YEAR-ROUND! Come ride the Most amazing Halloween Experience in Second Life! 20 Rooms of Terror! Over 15 Minute theme park attraction. Unlike any Haunted House in Second Life! Scary horror spook house ride fun horror mansion"

Right, though the note that they're open year-round is new, and neat. Onward!



Oh, the ambiance...floating ghosts, fog, headstones, empty crypts...even a vulture!



I admit, after yesterday's spot-on tribute to the Haunted Mansion, their homage doesn't ring the same joy in me, but note the wallpaper--that is accurate to what's on the actual Haunted Mansion walls.



Oh, and then you die. Not even kidding--your blood will splash the walls. Sorry about that.



The Bates Motel is a stop...



...before you're told to GO AWAY...



And what would any dark ride be without a stop at the Overlook?

The blurb isn't kidding--there are so many horror concepts on display in the fifteen minutes the ride takes. It's still pretty old-school, only a bit of mesh here and there, and of course there is copyright infringement--but for once, I'd be hard pressed to find a way to do a ride like this without some form of copyright infringement, especially with the extended Cabin in the Woods sequence.

All in all, this is joy and a jaunt this time of year, and if you have fifteen minutes, there are few better seasonal uses for them than to sit down, strap in, and ride it out. Do visit if you can. HIGHLY recommended.

I did another album for this one, because I took a TON of images for this ride, too.

I’ll find my way back home

The ad said, "haunted house"? The blurb wasn't better:

"haunted house, halloween,ghost,fantome,clown,zombie,witch,attraction,"

Okay...



The fact that they clearly have an obvious inflatable snowman repainted to be pumpkins on the lawn worries me deeply.



Seen the build before, but they're doing not terrible things with it.



A hidden Tarot parlor, with...framed pages from the Necronomicon? Interesting.



No. No game-ripped clowns, or game-ripped characters, in the nursery. No.



And the bedroom. Bed of course bloodstained. Yeah, I'm done here.

I'm not saying don't go. I'm saying, prepare for a small, fairly plebian haunt if you do. There's some nice touches, a couple good poses, and...that's honestly about it. Don't get your hopes up.

grim grinning ghosts come out to socialize

Rides? Did someone say Haunted Mansion rides? I am so there.

The bio mentions more:

"FREE 4 MAJOR Builds - THE HAUNTED MANSION 50s Thrill Ride TRICK-OR-TREAT treats tribute Disney zombies 2 scary haunted house 3 Carnival AMUSEMENT PARK Rides + horror EVIL DEAD midnight mania PIRATES hunt GREEDY Oculus halloween shops FREE"

Interesting. So...some shops, but rides? And haunts? Okay.

Have I been here before?



Wow. Maybe not, but that's a good Haunted Mansion. I decided to concentrate on it.



Someone loves this ride more than I do. (An image for comparison; yes, that is the exact sign that hangs in front of the entrance.)



Changing picture, from vital to dead, but what really got me was how cool the fireplace itself looked.



Leaving the library with a shot of the painting on the exit wall. Yes, the eyes do follow as your doombuggy travels.



The entirety of Madame Leota's parlor room, reproduced really faithfully.



And the circa 2000-era Bride in the attic. Soooo good.

All in all, I took far too many pictures, more than just these six. I threw them together into a Flickr album. This one...it takes time, as does the original ride, but it is so well done. Do go if you can, it does capture the feeling of the original in loving detail.

just one horse shy of a one-horse town, this ain’t the first time it tried to burn itself down

An occurrence has been discovered. Let's go see what it is.

First, their bio:

"No man can hold what the darkness can sow.

Spooky, eerie, haunted house, in the past or the future? Hop 2 in your tour of halloween madness at Pattern Recognition-2"

Apparently, we start with obsession.



Obviously an abandoned property, this corner punishment chair is particularly brutal.



Uh-oh. Looks like we found Jenny. (I wasn't sure if I needed to censor, as Jenny is represented by a doll, but...better safe than sorry.)



The house is spare, but...effective. Though I ended up wedged in some garbage bags trying to get to what I thought was the door out, so...cammed through the wall. Outside, there was a tentacled gate. On a whim, I clicked on it...and ended up..somewhere else. Where am I now?



This place is not just one haunt. And I'm definitely not going to get to all of it in one go. But I am fascinated.



Ah, between where I started, and where I ended up, is a game board. "Haunted Candyland". Do come play.