Scary Hunt Fun!

Bobbing for Brains from DoggMata.
Ohhh, Lludmila's never going to live this down!

The Scary Halloween Hunt is going on, offering some really great prizes for 1L. Lludmila knew she had to have that Bobbing for Brains tub. Even if it will ruin her reputation as a friendly, non-brain-eating zombie. Fortunately, the animation stops short of actually eating a brain.

Crime scene (among other things) from TaTToo PaRaDiSe.

Why do I think crime scene chalk outline poses are so funny? This was another "must have." One of my earliest photos is of Lludmila in a chalk outline pose [Found it! See below.]. I think this is so funny that, the day they were to return from their honeymoon, we went over to our friends' house and ran all over the yard with crime scene tape and made chalk outlines all over the driveway and front walk. Then we signed the bumper of the car that was left behind. Unfortunately, the hours between this and their actual return contained a rainstorm and all the really really funny chalk outlines of separate body parts, etc., as well as the signatures, were washed away.  They went all through the house trying to figure out what was stolen.

The Grave, with a multitude of anims for two people.

Many poses with a headstone and spooky tree set to brighten your Halloween ambiance is from Izzy's Attic. Want more Halloween!


DoggMata
TaTToo PaRaDiSe
Izzy's Attic

Oh, look! I found it! from 2007! System hair, system shoes.
You've come a long way, babe. This was probably the first
time I took any delight in something that was for sale.

Well, I'm Set for Halloween!

Iconic movie monster poses

Now to work on Santa!

I have since opened a store on the marketplace where I'm putting my free poses. Giggle giggle!

From One Extreme ...

Freddie, Jason, Michael - the gang's all here!

 Lludmila took the Scared to Death ride just to calm down.  It's all the familiar stuff: Elm Street, Carrie, Camp Crystal Lake, fire, torture, clowns, and graveyards - all with creepy sound effects.  Up to five people can ride in the pumpkin and giggle.  This was quite restful after the location below.

Village of Nyght - not sure if they're up and running yet (they have Great Plans), but they're all decorated, the zombies are wandering, you can pick up weapons and a HUD and have yourself a zombie-blasting good time, I suppose.  I mean, if you're into that sort of thing.  Which I'm not.  Jason, this is probably right up your alley.

Nice details! Opium upstairs!

 Lludmila made it to the haunted mansion and only saw one zombie, but she noticed them gathering around the house while she investigated the parlor.  Being a zombie herself, Lludmila gets a little squeamish about the idea of just blowing away her own kind.  But, if you're into role play, maybe this is for you.  Just knowing those zombies were out there was stressful.

Don't use fire, eh? Handy to know!

Grimm Experiences

Bats and shooting stars!

Grimm Shores seems to know what they're doing.  Yes, there's the obligatory insane asylum and all the pose balls seem the same, but you can hunt for five gifts in the skulls hidden around the sim.  There are secluded areas for romance, places to dance,  to break down (again and again), and diiiiiie.  All under a star-filled blood-red sky!

And don't miss the portrait of Marie Antoinette!

Shot through the heart (gift from Grimm Shores)

Moving on to Seventh Circle of Hell ... it was a bit laggy, but there was a reason for that.  There's a lot going on.  This is a place for big parties of friends to run screaming through the haunted house, be pushed around by ghost pirates, and share a huge dance floor.  The build is highly interactive and moderately imaginative (only one clown and no madhouse).

And don't miss the American Gothic over the fireplace!

Pay this clown 5L and enter if you dare!

Psycho Haunted House is at a "fun fair" - so you'll have to walk a bit (no flying!) to get to it.  Enter the fun house and become totally disoriented to some driving organ music!  We crashed once and the passages are narrow and intentionally confusing.  If you hated "fun houses" in RL, you might get annoyed by this, but more likely you'll have actual fun negotiating the labyrinth and ignoring the blood and tortured newbies.

This way to the Egress!

Accept no zubstitutes!  This zombie knows her haunted houses!

Haunted Houses Part the Second

This looks like it has potential ...

Lludmila tried two more haunted spaces.  It's going to be hard to beat Wunderbar, though.  She's starting to wonder about the clown business.  Man, no wonder people are scared of clowns!  Everywhere you go there's some figure or face with clown make-up and blood splashed all over.  Let's see what else we can turn into something sinister ... Ladies in tutus?  FedEx deliverypersons with bent envelopes?  Angry David statues? We beg you, find something newwww!

This haunted house at Island of Fear was okay.  There was room to move around (important feature if you go with a group) and a few novel items to click on and have a good laugh.

Don't miss the circus!

Spookyville is a whole Halloween town art-directed to death, filled to the brim with skeletons, ambiance, the mental institution (We're tired of that, too - if you or your family has ever spent time in one, it's not funny and it's just not new.  What about a terrifying office building?  Secretaries gone homicidal?  Disgruntled children's librarians taking it out on laissez-faire parents?  Zombie occupation of Wall Street?), the cemetery, picnic grounds ... wait, picnic grounds?  Anyway, it's beautiful, but there isn't much interaction ... unless you visit the circus.  Oh, and do visit the circus!

It's That Time Again!

Halloween is barely 31 days away, but here in the virtual world, ev'ry day is Halloween!  However, during the fall, a plethora of spooky locations pop up and Lludmila considers it her duty to visit as many of them as possible and review them.  We're not going to actually rate them, just give our impressions based on originality, spookitude, and artiness.  You can tell right away that it will be really scientific, eh?

The first venue visited is Wunderbar Haunted Mansion.  There is a HUD you must wear (but if you don't get it at the landing point, it will keep nagging you about it and offering) for the full effect.   The HUD is just a small label in the corner that keeps track of the "exhibits" for you in seconds and you can use it to opt out.

Effective spooky ambiance

The house interacts with you, giving instructions and hints.  The experience seems to be non-linear, or maybe we were doing it wrong.  Anyway, you have to find your way out of some rooms and work your way through the house.   Once you figure out some part, you might have to do a room over again to move ahead.  Click on everything clickable - no, go ahead (hrr hrr hrrr!).  Some areas have to be experienced by one avatar at a time, but for the most part you can run through it as a group.

Interesting and unusual effects

Kudos are given to the designers for originality.  If we were rating it, points would be lost for the obtuseness, but as at least one of us has her brains scrambled by menopause, maybe that should not be considered the creator's fault. Heh!  This haunted house is worth a visit even without the free gift.  Highly recommended.

The Haunted Library

Aw, shucks, I knew it! This was just a trick to get me to read a book!

At the far edge of Rachelville, in a secluded corner in the dark, lies the Haunted House of the Librarians. It isn't a scary ride, it's just a spook house with some deadly poses - with at least one I hadn't seen before. More than that, it's a resource for some scary stories. Dagnabbit! It's always books with those ding-dong liberryians!
Get a thrill reading them aloud to each other over voice chat.
Lludmila tries on her new pumpkinmask.

The real reason to go is that upstairs there is a selection of free pumpkinhead masks for free! Dang, these are cool! And free! Did I mention they were free? Yeah, so ignore the pesky reading stuff - just hop on a pitchfork and get some free pumpkinheads! For free!

Great Expectations

Okay, if you label yourself the Greatest Halloween Ride in the World Ever, you had better live up to it.

Kathy visited a couple of Haunted Houses later on her own and curled her lip at "the scariest haunted house in Second Life" when the front porch just had a big "Boo!" on it. So, she was ready to grade hard when she arrived here.

But you know what, they might be right. This ride had the usual stuff (Camp Crystal Lake - I mean, really!), but then suddenly it went underwater!

Traveling through the whale's ribcage toward The Flying Dutchman.

The stage dressings here were also beautiful and nicely laid out. Kathy unfortunately crashed part-way through, but we saw enough. Enough to say this is a "must see." I don't want to give away too much. Go, just go!

Carnival Pleasures

Carnivale Amusements is not really a haunted house locale (although there is a haunted house for visiting, renting, or sale), but has some good rides.

Cynthia wasn't as impressed with Carnival Amusements as a Halloween venue (despite the fall leaf ground cover and some decorations), but the rides are enjoyable.

The Alice in Wonderland ride is particularly good.

We had a great time on the rollercoaster, too. Kathy sucks at the shooting gallery. Sometimes it's pathetic to be out with her. Doesn't watch horror films, doesn't play video games ... not sure what she's good for, maybe just laughing at jokes.

It's Called *Acting!*

Ruh-roh, a black cat crosses Kathy's path!

Cynthia and Kathy continue their Tour of Haunted Houses.

This was good luck, we found a walk-in haunted house with a difference. Maze-like houses seem popular this year, but we ran across one with avs acting out parts. It was delightful! The poor things were trapped in position, sucking blood, impaled here and there, laughing maniacally ... you know, just what you'd want them to be doing. But they can also give you some lip. Heh! Cynthia and Kathy found this quite fresh!

Also popular seems to be directing you originally to one location and making you tp to the actual haunted house. This might only be fiddly if you were with a large group. It is slightly annoying.

Don't get fresh with the organist! She is apparently free to improvise.

It's That Time Again

Kathy and Cynthia meet for some Haunted House Touring.

My SL pictures from last year (labeled "Butter Haunted Houses" in homage to a misspelling on a sign) have been very popular for the past two months, perhaps frequented by people planning their own creations. My new friend, Cynthia, IM'd me and asked if I'd like to look at this year's crop. An "ossum" idea! So much fun to go with someone and crack jokes (or, in Kathy's case, laugh at jokes)!

We started at the Willow Grove ride. Riding in a pumpkin is not so novel, but the stage dressing was colorful, disgusting (yay!), and some of it beautiful!

A colorful example

Of course, the ride moves slowly and somewhat jerkily, but it lasts a good, long time and there was a lot of evident care and planning put into this. We were both impressed. In fact, it was so good, we went through it a second time.

A lovely graveyard area

Give these people a nice tip. Visit often. Bring your friends.

Ish Scawwwy!

Appwoaching the Picklefish Hawnted Housie

One of my dear friends, Mossflower, has added lots of Halloween fun to her slurl.com/secondlife/Picklefish%20Island/131/205/25">Picklefish Island location. I went to a party there Sunday and ran into Riffraff (AKA Simeon) and we danced until dawn. Mossie gave us a personal tour of the zombies (I'll never go zombie hunting with Simeon again, he's rubbish with that gun - of course, it's ten times bigger than he is, but he only managed to wing one of them so we were all bitten numerous times), the graveyard, and the house itself. Whatever you do, don't eat the candy apple! Don't listen to Mossie - she's cute, but there's the very devil inside her!
The haunted house has a few things I hadn't seen in Second Life haunted houses before, along with some old stand-bys (the crematorium, meathooks). Okay, they're only "old" because I've seen three of them this month without even trying. There's a cool funeral pyre (if that isn't oxymoronic) and ... and ... Oh, I don't want to spoil it.
The fun is spread out, so come prepared to wander around.


Lludmila warms up to the Halloween idea, thanks to some friends.

Beneath the Son of the Valley of the Planet of the Haunted House

I sent Giacomo out on one more haunted house investigation to the Toxic Tunnels. Being a city boy, I thought he could handle it. I mean, it's just a subway, right? He claims it's quite an original creation. He added, "Be sure to bring una torcia." I haven't heard from him since. Hmmmm.
slurl.com/secondlife/Hong%20Kong%20Island/144/83/27

Planet of the Haunted Houses

I suppose one shouldn't send a reporter on a mission he doesn't understand. Giacomo tried to spend the night at a motel at the Halloween Horror Village, and did nothing but complain about how Housekeeping kept him up all night. He was also disturbed that the elderly maid appeared to be some transvestite.


He said someone there had invented a teleportation device (an unlikely story), but that the inventor needed that transvestite maid because there were flies everywhere. I dunno, Halloween Horror Village looked like great fun to me with a wide mixture of horror movie themes and free masks.
slurl.com/secondlife/Antiqua%20Paradise/42/150/551

What's So Haunted About ThisTrain Station?

I'm afraid Giacomo is a bit of a cynic. I sent him to the Haunted Train Station and he was unimpressed. It was more of an auditory thing as far as he could tell and if you keep things set at midnight, you can't see buggerall and photography is pointless. However, while playing around with the view, he saw this ...

[Cue spooky organ chord!]
slurl.com/secondlife/Virtue/56/28/22

Despite being ever so difficult to find (it must be, there are these huge signs on the ground pointing to it), the Sleepy Hollow Haunted Orphanage is at least original in its conception and execution. Did I say execution? Heh! Anyway, it's not the usual haunted house. If you've seen one in Second Life, you've seen most of them. This one, at least, is novel. Your walking tour gets progressively more insane. Did I say insane? Mwa-ha-ha-ha-haaaahem. It's worth a gander. slurl.com/secondlife/Sleepy%20Hollow/122/97/34


Lludmila says she didn't take any pictures of this ride at Love Buggs so as not to spoil any of the surprises. It's a long ride in a pumpkin cart that holds four, so be sure to bring a few of your friends. Whatever you do, don't go alooooone!
slurl.com/secondlife/Lovers%20Lagoon/113/129/23

Valley of the Haunted Houses

As we all know, Kathy still hasn't returned from her visit to Halloweentown. I'm sure she'll be back soon. I hope. No real cause for worry, right? Therefore I have sent out my first-string reporter, Lludmila, to get the scoop on the fun that never ends. Here are some more haunted houses I've visited:

Maison du Mort looks harmless ... then you click on an innocent object and ...
slurl.com/secondlife/AV%20Puli%20Animations/69/206/25



If you think the flaming trees outside are terrifying, hold onto your nitroglycerin tablets for the Macarena on the Chair of Death at Age and Country Hotel. Hee!
slurl.com/secondlife/Minkartah/110/129/30


Hipville Halloween has it all: spooky house, cute rides, challenging corn maze (ha ha! Maize maze!) and amusing photo-posestands. Here Lludmila lives up to her corny reputation.
slurl.com/secondlife/Chima/39/60/82

Bride of Favorite Haunts

Kathy is left off at the castle by the ghost carriage.

Halloweentown has a ghost carriage that takes you to the ghost castle where you can take the ghost "train" through their novel house of horrors. There are other rides and a dance floor where you can dance with the rats. They also have a spooky backstory that I'd tell you about, but ... my avatar never made it back from this sim.
slurl.com/secondlife/Celebration%20Isle/217/189/26

Son of Favorite Haunts

Bentham has a large area of Halloweenabilia which you can traverse in the train. I was sort of disappointed in the haunted house itself, but totally captivated by the asylum! I tried out all the poseballs (I'm especially a sucker for anything that says "Do Not Press This Button" or anything else I'm instructed not to do) but my absoluteliest favoritest thing so far this year is the fire extinguisher at the asylum! I only wish I'd been there with someone - hoo-boy would that have been fun! As it was, I just went nuts in the waiting room all by myself. Say, that was appropriate! It is an asylum! (Giggles maniacally.)


slurl.com/secondlife/Sevenfold/201/137/170

Favorite Haunts - Old Favorites

Of course, I have to return to DarkDharma, which I enjoyed so much last year. Hey, how'd they know it was me again? I never have the patience to sit through the seance and I always fall for the attack chicken. This year, however, I was not splinched by the sofa. Sort of a disappointment.
slurl.com/secondlife/Benten/88/222/28



Octoberville is chock full o' stuff and the haunted house has mostly new things in it. I like this Conveyor Belt of Death concept and only wish that it actually moved the avatar inexorably toward something that would torture my av. But that's just me, innit? Must have some ambivalent feelings about Kathy there.
slurl.com/secondlife/PixelTrix/138/86/23