Halloween Sites and other Dark Sims

Only on Second Life can you pick your level of Halloween fun. Rez on a costume and brave the SL traffic. Visit a haunted house, go on a scary ride or explore a sim with a few twists, turns and screams around every corner. Or choose something simply because of the detailed setting. Here's a few to consider:

Octoberville 2011
PixelTrix (24, 200, 27)

At the helm of this creative sim is Master Kaos and his partners at PixelTrix. When Kaos was learning to build, he was interested in creating a fall forest with a campfire. The memories of his childhood in a small farm town in Kentucky surfaced seven years ago. Once a year, his friends recreate Octoberville. They want to incorporate into the build the fall experience.

"I set out to create an atmosphere for people to enjoy and feel a bond with," explained Kaos in a recent interview on the sim Octoberville. "Not everyone gets the chance to see beautiful fall foliage or go trick or treating."

Kaos stated that Octoberville isn't just a fall photo opportunity. It's also an interactive mystery game that is realized through a scavenger hunt type of gameplay. Cherub Spectre and Nathan Oddfellow are his partners in pixeltrix and they do the programming, scripting, website and some building and design. Kaos is the designer, artist and DJ at the night club.

"This is a private sim that we have our main business on and open up every year as Octoberville, free to everyone in SL," he said.
"We have created helpful business solutions and other useful products for SL residents to purchase. Such things as calendars, bulletin boards, mailboxes, furniture that you can store your inventory, clothing, etc. in."

As for the major attractions of the sim, that would be a custom haunted house, which features numerous clues to the story of Octoberville and the mad Professor Dalton and his family. The place to hang out and party there is called the "Crowbar." Check out Rashburn's trailer, the Witch hut in the swamp, the farm house and hop on the tractor driven by a ghost.

"Yes, Octoberville is shrouded in mystery! The Dalton family moved in and the crazed professor has tortured and murdered the people of the quiet farm town to fulfill his desires to bring his parents back to life," said Kaos.

Check out the wall of fame at the entrance where visitors finish the game/hunt and their names go up in the order they finish. They also gain new ranks/achievements each year for finishing.

Another friend of his assisting in writing stories for Octoberville is Wordsworth Scribe. Kaos stated that Octoberville is a labor of love and he wishes to thank his fans who have been amazing over the years.


Alice in Wonderland Dark Ride
Black Pearl Beach, (103, 186, 23)

Rez the gondolla and click the club to start the ride. You travel through a bottle, then a kitchen that seems warped, through a waterfall and past various Alice in Wonderland scenes. A lot of creativity and it moves throughout the building, but at times is difficult to see. Falling down you go to another level of darkness, huge cards, colorful and creative. But I wish I could have seen more.

Hell House - Haunted House
(Adult) Bad Romance (10, 243, 21)

From the creators:
This dark and dreaded place is not called Hell House for nothing. It is, indeed, a very disturbing and twisted "Palace of Perversions" filled with nightmarish and sometimes sexually explicit imagery. So if you are likely to be offended by such an environment, please don't subject yourself to the many sensual and not-so-sensual sights and numerous frightful occurrences which abound within the walls of Hell House. This experience is NOT for the faint of heart and is very much FOR ADULTS ONLY.

You have been WARNED.

Now, having gotten that out of the way...

Welcome to the infamous Belasco House in Maine's fog-shrouded Matawaskie Valley.

Built in 1919 by the illegitimate multi-millionaire son of an American munitions manufacturer -- the notorious Emeric Belasco, known as "The Roaring Giant" -- this ornate, five-story New England mansion has come to be better known as "Hell House" because of the private hell which Belasco deliberately created there in the years following its construction.

Hell House is an immersive, fully interactive, 3D experience, so be sure to take your time as you explore its many rooms and myriad terrors. There are many small clues in drawers, on table-tops, and in cabinets, so be sure to "zoom in" on small objects and Click on anything you can if you want to find out more about Belasco and his horrific legacy. And allow plenty of time. Keep in mind -- to see ALL that Hell House has to offer will take between 2 to 3 HOURS, so you may need to make more than one visit to experience each of the myriad apparitions and numerous paranormal events.

Also, for best effect, set your world to Midnight and make sure your Sounds are enabled.


Halloween at Old Europe Village
Old Europe (8, 206, 22)

Love the very detailed old world setting. Take the bat tour set up by the owners and creators of this sim: Up4 Dawes and Rux Anatra. Built in 2008, it changes with the seasons. Sites include the gypsy camps in the forest, where numerous events have been held. There's a park and ponds, Gemma Melunes Halloween parcel, a haunted house, houses to rent and the village square with a ferris wheel and a cargo ride.

Netera Landar

Some Haunted Places in Second Life

Second Life can be a lot of fun around Halloween. Besides the creativity in avatars being worn by residents, landowners are showing their own talents by showing off some Halloween haunts. A few are up year round, getting more attention this time of year. Others are seasonal, appearing in October to provide some scary fun.

Sinatra’s Spook House calls itself the first haunted ride in Second Life. It is one of the oldest, with yours truly having seen ads of it in sandboxes when he was a newcomer in early 2007. Unlike most later rides, a ten Linden fee is required before you can sit in the card and enter the tunnel. Although a little scary, it’s not very long. It’s main attraction would seem to be it’s status as the oldest haunt. Spook House is located at the Noyo sim at (102, 149, 25).

The DarkDharma Haunted Manor is a fairly popular haunt. Walking up, one sign will tell you to set your viewer to Midnight and particles to 2048. Another panel just outside the house asks you to look for nine “tarot bags” around the house, though warns you may encounter objects with powerful spells while looking.

Going through the house, I didn’t see many of these “tarot bags,” but there were a number of interesting features. The living room has a seance table. The hall has a trap that will draw blood if you don’t watch it. The attic has a nursery of horror full of demon toys and possessed kids. The kitchen has a witches cauldron with a shelf of ingredients, and a list of recipes which all can be used to make potions. And everywhere are ghosts and spooky images flickering by, with haunting noises in the background.

The DarkDharma Haunted Manor is located in the Benten sim at (87, 224, 28).

The Heaven's Halloween Haunted House is a hallway of scares that one has to pass through. Some of the images stare at you. Others suddenly appear as if to say “boo!” The path occasionally comes to an end with a magic doorway, which one must open and enter. One room offers magical tarot cards, which may give you a blessing or a curse. There's also a deathtrap to avoid.

At the very end is a rocket sled ride, which will launch and send the riders on a high speed tour of an area, then will climb high in the air, seemingly into space, and then plummets down back to earth, eventually landing near the entrance of the sim.

The Heaven's Halloween Haunted House is at the Anara sim at (174, 74, 25).

Bentham Manor is in two sections, Bentham Manor and Bentham Woods. The woods are best viewed at Midnight, in which the forrest appears as its creepiest, full of evil trees, dim spooky lights, and everything in the distance shrouded by mist. One could walk around back to the manor grounds, or take a magic door shortcut. The manor itself was full of spooky scenes, such as books in the attic flying around. And the manor grounds had a few things, such as dark tunnels to pass through.

One thing that I noticed were a few people on the grounds with the “Bentham Manor” group. Some just watched. Others were more vocal, talking about how they were going to get the visitors, “They came here for a scare. *I’ll* give ‘em a scare!” No word on whether they were just fans having fun, or connected with the owners of the place.

Bentham Manor is in the Sevenfold sim at (173, 173, 169)

Bixyl Shuftan