Well, now that Halloween is over and the haunt is closed, I can talk about it without spoiling it. Here this year where I live, we have annual haunted house called Darkwood Manor. This year, they decided to do things a bit differently in that, rather than more common themes of horror, they decided to have a Lovecraft theme. Needless to say, I jumped at the opportunity to go with some friends of mine and check it out. I was curious to see exactly how accurate they would be in there portrayal, and Im happy to say that they did not falter. The tour opened with a Five Nights at Freddys style surveillance room where a team of paranormal investigators were searching for some unknown species of creature that liked to inhabit the foundations and subterranean areas of old houses. This could probably be any number of creatures, but the first to come to my mind was the ghouls depicted in Pikmans Model. Then a presence attacked the computer technician, and we were forced to explore the rest of the house and its grounds in search of escape. We were led through aging asylum halls with foam-mouthed crazies gawping at us, and ichor stained corridors where men with guns desperately tried to fend of star spawn whose tentacles groped through the cracks and holes in the walls. The first really recognizable thing we saw was when we came upon the laboratory of Dr. Herbert West. Mutilated and mangled corpses writhed and growled on operating tables as Dr. West explained what he was trying to do and what had come of it. Soon however, a few of his more mobile patients burst in attacking him and us. I was at the back of the group, and I did have a moment of genuine panic as the doors wed come through seemed blocked from the other side. West begged us fee the a back door in the morgue and we escaped. At some point, I dont remember exactly when, but we encountered a series of rooms with creatures that seemed more reminiscent of John Carpenters The Thing than anything else, but it still fit, and the way some of their make-up was done and the strange machines that furnished the rooms made me think it could also be likened to MI-Gos. There was also one young lady outside of an ancient mausoleum who begged us to find her friend Warren. At one point we were stopped at a door where a panicked young man instructed us to give him a random number at great expedience. His body was covered in counting marks and after giving him our numbers he instructed us to go inside and meet the witch. Around on of the next corners was a dusty old crone holding an infant, shrieking at us to take it and kill it in a multitude of ways. This then led us to a small brackish beach outside with a very prominently placed alter to Cthulhu placed at its shore. As we approached, we were greeted very exuberantly by who I recognized as Old Captain Marsh, or at least one of his more direct descendants (due to the very clear evidence of Deep One genese in his face). There was a couple with us whom he got very close to, sizing them up like a fresh catch, and I felt very awkward as I got pinned between the girlfriend and the wall behind us. we were led about the perimeter of the beach to... a circus. With... scary clowns. I admit, I have not read ALL of Lovecrafts work, but to my knowledge, clowns was never really his bag. It seemed to me like someone was really into AHS: Freak Show. Personally, I hate the show, but to its credit, the Darkwood circus had more of a flare like that of Devils Carnival than anything else. So it wasnt so bad. There were only really around two clowns though: one male and one female. Because of the young woman and the way she was made up, I was more strangely aroused than anything else, so it was fun, but it sort of broke the flow just a little. Our next stop (and I forget the exact order) was the church of the starry faith, where cloaked figure in a mask ordered us NOT to look into the crystal, or else HE would find us. My sense of role play kicked in, so I tried not to look at it, but I did glance around. We passed a table of dead corpses who appeared to have a rather nasty night of reading with the Necronomicon, followed by the aforementioned crystal. It was a green/yellow lit rock with a strange script carved in its surface. We then found our way into a tomb, where another cloaked/masked man started telling us of the power of our sacrifice. He got very much up into my friends face, trying to intimidate her and convince her of the power of their god. I looked around at the blatantly Egyptian architecture and the pillar of bloodied bones he gestured to, and said aloud, I know this! This is a Shrine to Nyarlethotep! We then were led through a very tight corridor that was nothing but pure darkness that ended in what appeared to be the swamps of Louisiana. We waded through this huge inflatable thing which I imagine was meant to simulate either a river of blood or just the marshy water, and eventually the vines that we brushed from our faces turned into great green tentacles coming from above. Then, from our left we saw him, the High Priest himself, Great Cthulhu clawing at us from the darkness. We opened the barn door ahead of us... and we were back outside by the front entrance where we purchased out tickets. This only what I can remember. There may have been other things that either I missed or have slipped my mind, but overall, it was very enjoyable. Im still a bit mad though that we didnt see old Wilbur Whately! LOL Happy Halloween, everyone!
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 20:35:29 +0000
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