DC's

 

‘Weirdly, and to my considerable surprise, Eustace Chisholm & the Works reminded a lot of William Gaddis’ first novel The Recognitions – while it is shorter and less complex and lacks the vast amounts of erudition Gaddis splattered all across his work, both novels share something that I would like to describe (for lack of a better word) as their motion. Both Eustace Chisholm and The Recognitions are ensemble novels, they do not have a single protagonist whose unfolding story the reader would follow, not even a small group like a couple or a family, but a large cast of characters none of which would stand out as central; and their stories are not presented as continuous threads weaving a tapestry, but rather as isolated, small episodes which the reader has to actively perceive as a mosaic. Unlike the novels of, say, Dos Passos, however, who so far does something quite similar, The Recognitions and Eustace Chisholm do not replace the central character with a central perspective and ordering overview but, so to speak, stay at eye level with their characters and their fragmented worldview – while there is no single central perspective, each character forms the centre of his section of the narrative, resulting in a constant shift of focus throughout the novels, a stop-and-go, jerking, stuttering motion that can induce dizziness and indeed seems to have led to seasickness in many readers both of Purdy and Gaddis.

‘Eustace Chisholm & the Works, though, it has to be said, is considerable more accessible than The Recognitions. Where Gaddis often seems to be hellbent on frustrating the reader, Eustace Chisholm, while still a demanding read, appears to do its best to ease readers into its vertiginous structure – indeed, almost to lure them in, only to then shock and repel them with scenes of a harrowing violence that in their sheer, unmitigated brutality have an almost physical impact on the reader. The novel does have its humorous moments, does indeed have so many of them that it reads in part like a comedy, but in the end it is a tragedy that functions as its own satyr play.

‘And as it should in satyr play, sexuality plays a large part in Eustace Chisholm – more specifically male homosexuality to which the book has a remarkably relaxed and matter-of-course attitude that makes it unusual even today and that might very well have been just as shocking to readers at the time of it its first publishing as the scenes of violence. (And one might also note, to bring this comparison up for the last time, that homosexuality seems to play a structurally similar role in Eustace Chisholm as Catholicism does in The Recognitions.) But if the novel is accepting of homosexuality, its characters are not necessarily so, and in fact it is precisely this which finally gives rice to tragedy out of the farce – everyone in the novel is in some way or other refusing their innermost desires, not even acknowledging even – or possibly particularly – when they get a chance to fulfill them. Turning away their chance at fulfilment and happiness, they find that the denied desires will not be gainsaid but return to haunt them in invariably self-destructive ways.

‘Eustace Chisholm & the Works has apparently become something of a “gay modern classic” (at least that is what the cover of my edition claims) but it is worth reading not just because of its subject matter but because it attempts (and largely succeeds) to find a literary form for an altered way of life, the lack of a narrative centre or unified thread, the permanently shifting perspective capturing both the dissolution of social ties and the increase in individual freedom in 60s’ subcultures. In other words, this is excellent stuff and James Purdy is definitely a writer I want to read more of.’ — Heloise Merlin

 

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Further

James Purdy @ Wikipedia
Who is James Purdy? Edward Albee Tells
A Conversation with James Purdy
James Purdy: Memento Mori
James Purdy @ goodreads
The Strange, Unsettling Fiction of James Purdy
‘I’m not a gay writer, I’m a monster’: how James Purdy outraged America
The Mystery of James Purdy
An Interview
James Purdy Will Never Be Famous Again
James Purdy’s Chronicles of Outsiderdom
All of the Monsters (In Which I Accuse James Purdy of Throwing My Four-Year-Old Child Down Two Flights of Stairs Using His Powers of Telekinesis)
James Purdy (1914-2009)
Christmas with James Purdy
James Purdy’s Outrages Against the Establishment
James Purdy by Allen Frame
queerplaces – James Purdy
Seedy Equations: Dealing with James Purdy

 

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Extras

A Celebration of the Life and Work of James Purdy

James Purdy Radio Interview and poems with drawings

TLIO Episode 21: Eustace Chisholm and the Works — James Purdy

James Purdy Burial

 

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Interview
by Vince Aletti

 

James Purdy: You know the real fiction is life. It’s so complicated and we never understand it.

Aletti: Often in your books there are young men who are looking for fathers and find themselves taken up by older men who try to adopt them.

Purdy: Or older women. Or other young men, who are often unscrupulous.

Aletti: This seems to be an almost obsessive return to an idea.

Purdy: I think that’s one of the American themes, but it’s also in the Spanish novel. I lived in Spain and I got very fond of their literature, and they’re among of the first to deal with that subject of the lost children. Cervantes wrote a wonderful story called Rinconetti and Cortadillo about boys who are driven out by their families. They go to Seville and fall into the clutches of a gang of thieves…. But the Spanish earlv introduced the subject of, you might say, the lost boys. And it’s in Mark Twain and Herman Melville, very strong. But I think today, one of the most common things are these young boys and girls who get lost, who run off. You see them in New York and they really are lost. So it is one of the big American themes.

Aletti: But you rarely treat it in terms of kids in Times Square.

Purdy: I dealt with it in [Purdy’s early novella] 63: Dream Palace with the two boys from West Virginia who were destroyed, really. And in some of the short stories and the plays. But in the end, you’re stuck with yourself and what YOU know.

Aletti: What happened when vou went to Chicago?

Purdy: I was able to go to school. After a short time, the war broke out and I was in such bad shape I just joined the army. I couldn’t find work.

Aletti: How did you live in Chicago?

Purdy: I just lived in rooms. Sometimes I didn’t have a place to stay.

Aletti: Were you able to take care of yourself?

Purdy: Somehow, I don’t know how.

Aletti: Was it an adventure?

Purdy: Yeah! Yes, it was. I guess I didn’t know any better or I would have been frightened.

Aletti: What happened when you went into army?

Purdy: I was about the last person who should have ever been in the army. But I lasted four years, mostly in the South. That’s where I got the material for Eustace Chisholm and the Works (1967).

Aletti: That was one of the books that horrified the critics.

Purdy: They’re easy to horrify! Yes! I knew a lot of Indians in the army; they hated it.

Aletti: So you were stationed mostly in the South?

Purdy: Yes, Mississippi and so forth. I went to Cuba after the army, before Castro, and loved it. I taught English for a vear to 14- and 16-year-olds. Then I went to school in Mexico and taught in Spain. But I was always writing these stories and sending them out, and these magazines just detested them.

Aletti: At what age was this?

Purdy: I was approaching 30 when I was pouring out these stories. But I was writing stories in my twenties and then I lost some of them when I was moving around. But I had about 11 stories. Some of the unpublished stories were privately printed in England. Which was strange, because these stories that had been anathematized by New York publishers and magazines were suddenly extolled so highly that I thought I was crazy, or they were crazy. And they were translated almost immediately. The Italians bought them before the U.S. on the basis of the English reviews.

“Malcolm” was one of the stories I had that was just lying around. I hadn’t finished it though, because I didn’t know how to finish it. “Malcolm” was sort of put on the map by Dorothy Parker in Esquire. The publishers didn’t know quite what to do with it. They’re all so timid, you know, and money-conscious. But Farrar, Straus condescendingly took it. And I think they felt they had a wild animal in the house. They didn’t know what to make of me. I’m always given a funeral when my books are published, a pauper’s funeral. Because they only push what they think is going to bring in the coin. In America, you have to be sort of a dancing bear, an entertainer, a personality.

Aletti: Let’s backtrack a bit and go back to your early writing. What made it occur to you to be a writer?

Purdy: I used to write little things as soon as I could write and my mother would find them and she was quite disturbed. Actually, I think I was mimicking some of the things she said about people and when she saw it in black and white, she couldn’t believe it. She couldn’t believe she said it and that it was being recorded by a . . . devil. [Early on, Purdy also kept notebooks, all lost now, the result of his “gypsy” life.] That’s why I’ve stuck here [in Brooklyn Heights] so long–to have one place to keep things. You can see it’s a mess, I don’t know how to keep order.

Aletti: You’ve said you don’t write with an audience in mind.

Purdy: No, not a big audience . . . I guess I have an audience but not a public. I think being a writer is like being in a war. You’re in battle all the time. Not just with the critics but with yourself. So it’s not a very pleasant life.

Aletti: Jeremy’s Version and The House of the Solitary Maggot were described as parts one and two of a trilogy.

Purdy: That was the publisher’s idea; there was no real trilogy. But they are what I would call continuous novels in that they have similar themes: Jeremy, The Maggot, Mourners Below, On Glory’s Course and now this one, In the Hollow of His Hand. They’re sort of a quintuple, just related novels.

Aletti: How would you describe the theme?

Purdy: It’s really the passionate connection of family members, I think. Their sense of identity comes through the family and, in a way, the town. The parents are really obsessed with their children and the children with their parents.

Aletti: In On Glory’s Course, the power of the town is particularly striking.

Purdy: It’s almost as though it were the main character, with all the narrowness of prejudice and ignorance. But you see all societies are crushing like that. There are no free societies. We all live under scrutiny. But in cities, you don’t have the same sense of that.

Aletti: No, that’s because you can hide. But yet when your characters are in cities, like in Eustace Chisolm, they seem to form these little or groups that have interactions as violent and disapproving as your small towns. When I think of some of the things that happen in your books, like the horrible events of In a Shallow Grave, how can it surprise you that the critics would be appalled?

Purdy: They are appalling, they appall me. I mean, they appall me first. Or I would be a monster. My grandmother told me the story of The Solitary Maggot when I was a little boy. It was a sleety day and she was walking me, so I wouldn’t slip, and just then a buggy came by with an old man with white hair. He had this whip and was whipping the horse. And she said, “That old man’s son was in the silent movies.” And that was the basis, or one of the bases, of that book. I’m supposed to be part Indian. My great-grandmother was part Indian, an eighth, I think, so I have very little left.

Aletti: Does your interest in Indians have any connection to an outsider status?

Purdy: Yes, I think so. I’m always interested in whoever doesn’t belong or conform. I’m considered anti-establishment. That isn’t really true; the establishment never wanted me, and you can’t be anti-something where you’re not even invited.

Aletti: Your new book, In the Hollow of His Hand–where does the title come from?

Purdy: It’s an expression I’d always heard as a child. It meant to me, in this life one is totally insecure, totally at the mercy of fate, circumstance.

Aletti: I’m curious about the book’s growing sense of unreality and dreaminess.

Purdy: Well, he’s left his home, you see, he’s left his roots. I know a lot of people say that’s a defect in the book. The first part is realistic, and the rest isn’t, but he left the realistic part. If you suddenly leave home as a child and are kidnapped by gypsies or hobos, as a child you have no key to this world. It’s all fantastic. And furthermore, it is a fantastic world; I think a child would see all that as unreal. Children see a lot, but they have no key to that. When very young children see sex or see someone being murdered, they step out of something that they know into something they have no understanding of.

Aletti: Chad the book’s lost boy, is taken on long car rides with an Indian named Decatur, leading to a series of odd scenes of confrontation, fascination and revulsion over the discovery that they both have webbed feet. These encounters seem so compulsive.

Purdy: They are. But I think people do that. You see most people never tell you about those things; they’re ashamed. What I do, I guess, is I show what people really do and never tell.M

Most novelists write about what people see and understand and I don’t believe in that reality, I don’t think it’s real. I think it’s fiction. Two of my favorite writers are Hawthorne and Melville because they’re always doing that–they’re showing what really is there, behind the facade. And in so much writing, the facade is the reality.

Aletti: I’m wondering about the compulsive nature of your writing and about your impulse to write.

Purdy: Yes, I think it comes from some deep unhappiness and confusion and terror.

Aletti: Why terror?

Purdy: I just felt I was surrounded by danger.

Aletti: Do you feel writing helped to dispel it?

Purdy: It didn’t dispel it, but it kept me from screaming in the streets.

 

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Book

James Purdy Eustace Chisholm and the Works
Liveright

‘No James Purdy novel has dazzled contemporary writers more than this haunting tale of unrequited love in an indifferent world. A seedy depression-era boarding house in Chicago plays host to “a game of emotional chairs” (The Guardian) in a novel initially condemned for its frank depiction of abortion, homosexuality, and life on the margins of American society. A cast of characters displaced by economic distress congeal around the embittered poet Eustace Chisholm, who acts as a something of a Greek chorus for the doomed and destructive relationship that is instigated when landlord Daniel Haws falls in love with young college student Amos Ratcliffe. Building to a shocking conclusion, Eustace Chisholm and the Works is a dark and gothic look at the strange and terrible power of love amid a “psychic American landscape of deluded innocence, sexual obsession, violence, and isolation” (William Grimes, New York Times).’ — Liveright

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Excerpt

 

 

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p.s. Hey. ** jay, Hey. Trip was good. ‘Story of the Eye’ turned me around too when I read it. It’s way up there. Honored that my stuff is helping to create really good dialogue. What more could the maker of anything want really. I’m still too jet lag-zonked to subject your reading to my state of mind, but sleep’s help is gradually on the way. Excited to. Thanks a lot, man. My fuzziness is be-warmed. Love back! ** Tyler Ookami, Oh my god, that’s horror. The broiling sky, I mean. Awesome that you were a scare actor. Some LA artist friends and I were seriously talking about doing a haunt together there next year, in which case I’ll get to fulfil that particular career goal. Seriously, do Efteling. I think you know it’s my favorite amusement park, and I think you would similarly bliss out there. They just opened a new spooky and, as usual for them, innovative ride, Danse Macabre, and I think Zac and I will use that as an excuse to head up there shortly. I had no idea Kate Bush located a special there, wow. I’ll greedily use that link a bit later. Huh. I think I have to watch that horrible Fuji-Q knock off film, or a bit of it. Too curious. I never get scared in haunted houses, but I got the closest in that attraction. Thanks, jay. Such a rich bunch of paragraphs. Hugs. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Thanks, and ditto. I can’t wait to wake up fully enough to fully appreciate my homecoming. Not that I’m not. Trick-or-treaters in Vienna! Nice! I didn’t take photos of the haunts I hit up, but Zac did, and I’ll have to get him to dropbox them to me. So I can’t illustrate my favorites unless, well, I can find something online. No pix of Cats & Bats Haunt, but it was a fave. Very handmade, built on this kind of cliff in front of a person’s house. At one point you were forced inside a giant cardboard oven and ‘cooked’. Another fave was Backwoods Massacre. Hellizondo Haunt was really nice. Wildwood’s Ghost Town, ditto. On the pro ones, Reign of Terror was amazing. It had 350 rooms and took 45 minutes to walk through. Really incredible. So there’s some. We did about 25 haunts in all. Love making me not want to take a nap, G. ** Bill, Hi. I hope the gig went really well last night. How was it for you? Seven weeks?! Where in the world are you going? Being abroad does not help the election anxiety unfortunately. Yikes. ** Steve, Thanks. Much needed. I think what Zac and I want to do is make an actual haunt. We were talking with some LA artist friends about doing that next year. Maybe we would document doing that, if we do. I’m so sorry about the stuff with your parents. I feel that pain or imagine I can at least. Thank god for Internet Archive’s return. I haven’t heard the new Cure yet, but I’ve read it’s a gloomy one, which sounds promising to me for whom ‘Pornography’ is their highlight. ** _Black_Acrylic, The missing goes both ways, for sure. Great, Thursday, tick tick … The PT double header awaits me or my cogency, I mean. That Italo Disco vermouth looks pretty scary, dude. Be careful. ** Diego Luis Sanromán, Hi, Diego! No, that’s my old, defunct address, Write to me at [email protected]. Thanks. ** Uday, Hey, Uday! There you are! Reflective sounds good under the circumstances. I spent October doing more than being. But now I’m sitting at my desk again where thoughtfulness should be more conducive. Awesome to see you again! ** sam jenks at dif, Hi, sam, if I may call you that. It’s great to meet you, and I’m happy you found this place. Your project sounds really interesting. Connect … sure, how so? I’ll be seeing Thomas Moore any day now. Anyway, happy to help however I can. Everyone, sam jenks at dif has an exciting seeming new project called dif, described as ‘co-producing misfit gay lit and other queer shit​’. Check it out. Thanks! ** Lucas, Hey, buddy. Thanks for staying up late to watch the thing. No, Zac took pix, and I have to get them from him. I was too busy studying them and taking mental notes. I’m still lagged annoyingly, but it seems a little less annoying and in-play every day, so hopefully I’ll be sharp any minute now. I can’t wait to see you here too! ** Justin D, Hey, J. Thanks, pal, and same to you. The trip was very good, productive and mind-blowing in the right balance. Oh, I wonder who took the photo. It’s so crisp and cold here in Paris as it never is in LA. I pulled my scarf out of the drawer and everything. I’ll look for ‘Evil Does Not Exist’. Criterion isn’t available in France, sadly, but surely there’s way. Thanks a lot for the tip. I spent my Halloween on a jet watching in-flight entertainment, and I don’t think anything I saw was remotely recommendable. I would say avoid ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ if it’s not too late. ** Cletus, Hey, hey, Cletus. C. McCarthy is pretty great, no? ‘Blood Meridien’ especially for me. Cher! Pix? Great about the readings. Can you say more about them? I read in NYC at the top of my trip, and it was weirdly great. My Halloween was spent flying from LA to Paris, so no costume for me. One of the flight attendants had a toy jet ‘stuck’ through her head and fake bloody lips. It made people around me uncomfortable, but it made me happy. ** HaRpEr, Hi, H! Oh, that is a cool Bowie costume. Suave and just right combo of understated but unmistakeable. Thanks. How do they get rid of mould? I feel like I should know that. Can they just scrape it off? Is it that simple? I couldn’t get through ‘Dhalgren’, not because I didn’t think it was really good. Length + sci-fi is a tough route for me. ** Jacob, Hey, Jacob. That sounds fun: the haunt. I don’t think I’ve been to a frat haunt. Huh. Like I was sort of saying up above, my favorite haunt moment was when this evil baker forced my friends and me into a giant, walk-in oven and then cooked us, with high heat and steam and the sounds of flesh roasting. Pretty nice. Your tote bag ‘mask’ sounds like a hit in my imagination, for sure. And, yes, Ossian Brown-ish to boot. My favorite costumes … maybe this kid who looked about 13 years old wearing a t-shirt that said, ‘Eat me, pedophiles’. I thought that was daring. I don’t get scared, unfortunately, or not by ‘scary stuff. The oven thing tried hard. One monster in one of the haunts made a friend of mine sit in a chair and then electrocuted her very realistically even though she said it didn’t hurt. That was, well, startling at least. ** Okay. Not long before I left on vacation, I was talking with someone here about the James Purdy novel up there, and I thought I would just go ahead and extend that, if you’re interested. See you tomorrow.

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Conjure Haunted Attraction (Birmingham, Alabama)
Founded by Mambo Baptise, Alan Waugh and Jake Higginbotham, Conjure Haunted Attraction is an upcoming haunted house open year-round. The Conjure Haunted Attraction is an immersive production that seeks to haunt, frighten, and thrill. “We have 50,000 square feet of scare,” Mambo shares. Around every terrifying corner is a new hair-raising scene to revel in or flee from. And you can go at your own pace. “The experience can take anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes, depending on how fast you run,” Mambo jokes. Visitors begin the experience by entering a home, assuming the role of kids playing with an ouija board, and then suffering the consequences. But meddling with the Ouija board comes at a price. Visitors will make their way through room after terrifying room, doomed to suffer the horrifying events of those who died. And the best part? It’s a non-profit benefitting Andrew’s Place, an organization dedicated to helping LGBTQIA+ survivors of domestic abuse.

 

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Ghost Ship (Morey’s Piers, Wildwood)
Ghost Ship is a horror attraction on the Mariner’s Landing Pier at Morey’s Piers amusement park. It is the most recent and only attraction that uses real actors within it, has spectators walk around the attraction and ride in the cart. It is covers 15,000 square feet (1,400 m2) of the pier, and lasts 15 minutes; making one of the biggest and longest running attractions in the park. The ride is intended for kids 10 and up due to its intensity ; such as grotesque medical experiments, blood, radiation scars, facial deformities, and the involvement of a claustrophobia room. While a strict no running policy is enforced, the attraction does have a series of “sissy exits” placed throughout the attraction if the ride becomes too intense.

 

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Hotel Krüeger (Parc d’attractions Tibidabo)
And we went in the Kruger Hotel which was freakin scary! There were a ton of rooms and it had real people dressed up in costume from all the major horror movies, there was freddie, chuckie, the girl from excorsist, hannibal, texas chainsaw man. I actually peed myself from fear.

 

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Hotel Gasten (Liseberg, Gothenburg)
In a small hotel, near the Liseberg Harbour, strange things are going on. Mysterious people seem to be living inside the old building. What they are doing there and why, no one seems to know. The only thing is – that those who check in at the Gasten Ghost Hotel can never be sure that they will ever check out again…

 

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Mukuro-ya (Yomiuri Land, Kanagawa)
This is the attraction that walk in the cursed inn. It seems to appear spirit of actress who died in accident at “Mukuro-ya”Inn. Occasionally it seems to hear her sad voice from phonograph. We were given the mission to stop the phonograph to release a pathetic her soul.We walked the first floor and the second floor of the long corridor in the haunted house of retro atmosphere. The inn was very warm, and the scent of cypress. Mission was successful, but it was disappointing haunted house was not very scary.

 

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Dr. Frankenstein’s Haunted Castle (Indiana Beach)
Dr. Frankenstein’s Haunted Castle was voted the world’s #1 walkthrough attraction in 2006. When it is all said and done, you will have walked through dark hallways, a scary prop around every corner. You will also see colorful and scary skeletons hanging inside of cages. The hanging skeletons, and even chests with skeletal heads that pop out at you. You will also see cages of eerier screaming going all around you. The wall are dark and painted with all types of scary figures, you will hear screams of small girls and the halls will be infest with fake rats. You can actually see rat tails protruding out from underneath the walls. They even have a skeleton band called the “Shock Rattle Band”. This ride will positively make your head spin. This ride has been at the park since 1983 (The original castle ), and as far as I know there have been no incidents or any accidents that were reported just small bumps and bruises.

 

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Spookslot (Efteling, Kaatsheuvel)
Long, long ago, when in times of storm and high water the Maas could still reach the foot of this fortress, the fourth Viscount of Kaatsheuvel Capelle lived in this castle. He collected fairy tales and legends from around the world and … practiced magic. He could make the flowers sing and the walls dance. There was only one obstacle in his life, the wicked witch Visculamia. She lived under lock and key in nearby Druinen. She wanted to take his tales away from him. One day, when the witch was on the prowl disguised as an untempered young maiden, she was caught by the gardener of castle ‘De Efteling. By the three judges of the Duchy she was condemned to the stake in the eastern wing of the palace. With her last breath she spoke a curse in which the Viscount was doomed forever to find his last story …: his daughter, Esmeralda. And every time the water of the Maas rises, the enchanted crow of Visculamia strikes the clock at twelve. Then the corpse of the gardener who betrayed her dangles from the bell cord again. The judges who condemned her, wail from the attic window and in the catacombs the count chases his daughter, without ever finding her… While the flowers sing and the walls dance. The witch’s throws her curses into the sarcophagus where the remains of the Count lie trapped. On the south hill of the yard his daughter will find no peace. And this will continue for many a year, until the song of flowers the owls’ eyes doth close, lulls the evil crow, and the curse is broken ….

 

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Pasaje Del Terror (Blackpool Pleasure Beach)
The Pasaje Del Terror is an interactive and realistic horror experience. Interactive walk through horror show with live actors. The most famous characters from the horror genre come to life within the confides of The Pasaje Del Terror to produce a unique, terrifying venture where the public become …. THE VICTIM!

 

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Vampire Infestation (Six Flags Mexico)

 

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Fantastic Spooky House (China Dinosaurs Park)
Here is ‘walk-through’ footage of the Fantastic Spooky House, at China Dinosaurs Park, Changzhou, China. They really love their horror walk-through attractions in China! This one had the odd actor or two inside the attraction….making it extra fantastic.

 

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Mortem Manor (Kissimmee)
Orlando / Kissimmee FL’s only year-round haunted house with two floors of scares and thrills. Featuring state-of-the-art special effects, animatronics and live actors. If that’s not enough, hear the sounds, smell the scents and feel the movements of being Buried Alive in the Burial Simulator!

 

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Phobia (Mirabilandia, Savio)
Are you ready to experience absolute terror? Explore pure fear and face frightening experiences in a world inhabited by sinister entities. They will scare you beyond all limits, all along your way. You have been warned…

 

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La Maison Rouge: Labyrinthe de la terreur (La Ronde, Montreal)
La Ronde turns the fear factor up a notch by offering a new and haunting attraction. Visitors of the Maison Rouge — Labyrinth of Terror will be terrified at every turn. The sound of the terrifying laughter inside will freeze the blood of those who dare to visit, and send them running for their lives. Minimum height requirements: 1.37 meters or 54 inches. This attraction is not recommended for children under 13 years old.

 

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Ripleys Horror Hospital (Royal Garden, Pattaya)
Experience the horrors of the Haunted House, a place of terror full of disfigured characters, blood soaked corpses and blood smears on the walls. Scary, monstrous sounds emerge from everywhere. Venture into the Haunted House and expect the worst at every turn. Walk through the house surrounded by darkness, when a sudden light flash lights up the place and you see scary hands reaching for you from their dungeons. Walking through the dark corridors of the house you will see the dungeons where blood soaked creatures perish. Scary encounters with zombie like creatures and disfigured corpses await after every corner. In the darkness of the horror house you’ll meet scary figures like a man with a blood covered face carrying an axe, corpses lying in coffins, people locked up in cages and a blood-soaked man with his legs cut off. Get a real scare when walking dead rising out of their coffins attack you. Scary, loud noises come from the darkness. Get chased out of the house by a chainsaw wielding maniac.

 

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Haunted Mayfield Manor (Galveston)
Dr. Mayfield welcomes you to his home where you will meet ghosts and ghouls; you may encounter the strange shadow people that dwell in our attraction. BEWARE! The young doctor is quite insane so his actions can be unpredictable! Visits to the manor are continuous during operating hours. Upgraded tickets allow you to get to the head of the line during busy times. You may buy your tickets online or at our box office at the Manor. Haunted Mayfield Manor is located on the Strand at 23rd Street next door to its sister attraction Pirates! Legends of the Gulf Coast.

 

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Kammokuja (Linnanmäki, Helsinki)
The frightening 3D-adventure will bring you up close and personal with horrors ranging from snakes to Hannibal Lecter. Don’t get lost in the maze! Riders must be at least 120 cm tall. Kammokuja has no wheelchair access. Recommended for children over 12 years of age.

 

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Pirate’s Cove (Waldameer, Erie)
Waldameer park has announced plans to eliminate all traces of urine from the “dark ride” known as the “Pirate’s Cove” by 2017. “This is quite an ambitious project for us” said park spokesman Joey Bagadonuts. “for both time and cost, this project is the equal to the new wave pool. “Not all patrons are in favor though. “For me, it’s removing memories” said longtime park enthusiast Glen McDevers. I first urinated in the Pirate’s cove in 1974 when I was 8 years old on a school picnic”. McDevers, now living in Pittsburgh, remarked “Every summer I bring my family up to Erie and smelling that urine is like stepping in a slighty fetid time machine.”

 

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Horror House (Movieland Studios Italy)
Two years ago, I was lucky enough to experience a haunted house with live actors in Tibidabo. At the time I remember thinking that actors made the attraction much more interesting, although it would be fair to say that the Tibidabo attraction wasn’t particularly frightening; rather, it was a cute attraction suitable for the entire family. Movie Park has gone for the other extreme with the Horror House, building what is without question the most terrifying walk through attraction I have ever experienced anywhere. The park brochure proudly proclaims their success; “In 2004, 33% of our visitors did not even see all of the attraction”. It is not hard to see why. Groups of eight guests at a time enter the house by descending a floor in a lift. The staff have the group forming a human chain with one lucky person leading the way through near darkness. I had strategically managed to locate myself in third place in the chain, with Gordon leading the way under serious protest. He did try to bow out of this role but I would not allow it, as the next person in line would have been eleven year old Luke and this would not have been fair at all, as he was clearly having difficulties even in second place. On more than one occasion he jumped out of his skin, and Gordon complained later that the grip on his shoulders had gotten tighter as the attraction progressed. Many of the scenes within were references to famous movies, such as Nightmare on Elm Street, The Exorcist, Psycho, Friday the 13th, and more. Actors played their part in developing the experience, with some grizzly specimens jumping out to scare the hapless victims just trying to escape. Others, including one covered in blood, chased us through some of the scenes. It is to our credit that the whole group made it to the end, but it was not easy, and some club members of more nervous dispositions elected to sit out the attraction altogether.

 

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Hocus Pocus Hall (Chessington World of Adventures)
Naughty goblins are running riot in Hocus Pocus Hall at Chessington! Put on your 3D specs and brave the haunted happenings in this crazy mansion filled with wacky magic and mischief.

 

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Super Scary Labyrinth of Fear (Fuji-Q, Japan)
A rendering of “Fear” so terrifying that those who experience it are beyond hope of being saved The longest and scariest haunted house in history. All rooms and corridors redesigned! Also with new rooms including “The Quarantine Ward,” “The CT Scan Room,” “The Diagnostic Exam Room,” “The Third Operating Room,” “The New Mortuary,” “The Second Long Corridor,” and “The Bacteria Lab.” With the longest route in history at 900 m and lasting over 60 minutes long! The level of “labyrinthine” twists increased with a complete renewal of the entire route, and you will be gripped with a terror that you’re “never going to get out alive…”

 

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Raven’s Grin Inn (Mount Carroll)
The Ravens Grin is not your typical haunted attraction; it is so much more. At this event, you won’t find the typical things that you commonly see at other October attractions like spinning vortex tunnels, chainsaws, and strobe lights. Over the years, the structure itself, which was built in 1870, has been everything from an Oldsmobile dealership to a brothel. On their trek through the Raven’s Grin, customers wind their way through coffin shaped hallways and underground passages, encountering a unique collection of interesting artwork and displays along the way. There are also a couple of fun slides inside the house, which the Ravens Grin has become famous for. The slide in the “Bad Dreams Bedroom”, which is quite an intense experience, stretches from the top floor of the house, down to the stone-walled wine cellar, 24 feet underground! It is definitely a thrilling ride and it’s worth going to the Ravens Grin just for that experience alone.

 

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Fright Walk (Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk)
Located on the Boardwalk, you can see and hear Fright Walk as you walk up walkway 2 from Beach Street. They have eerie music pulsing, red lights shining, a fog machine at full Pacifica levels, and characters roaming around in front. The Boardwalk lends itself nicely to this atmosphere, as it is a little eerie and desolate at night. It’s times like these that your really get the feeling that they chose the right location for the film Lost Boys. More than once I looked around to see if Kiefer Sutherland was lurking about, or maybe that was just wishful thinking. We entered Fright Walk in our own group and did not run into any other parties inside – which I always enjoy. Fright Walk has a fun-house feel to it as you roam through corridors and rooms, and at one point, halls of full-length mirrors. Apparently, I am very scary to look at, as I scared myself no less than five times by turning a corner and coming face to face with my reflection in the mirror. I’d step back to go the other way, only to be confronted and scared by myself again in another mirror! This is an old, standard fun-house trick, but it shows the old standards really works here. Fright Walk has lots of simple but effective scares and is more animatronic-driven than actor driven. And while the animatronics were nicely done, we would have liked to have seen less of the mechanics of them (as we’ve said about other haunts) and better timing of when they “go off” so we’re not passed them when they do their thing.

 

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The Walking Dead Experience (Parque de Atracciones de Madrid)

 

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The Forbidden Caves (Bobbejaanland, Lichtaart)
Bobbejaanland Theme Park in Lichtaart, Belgium, has just premiered The Forbidden Caves, a high-tech 3D media-based thrill ride created and produced by Super 78 Studios. Only the second “Immersion Tunnel” attraction in the world, The Forbidden Caves takes guests on an action-packed subterranean adventure filled with supernatural creatures. Visitors to the Southeast Asian rainforests of Khyonesia travel deep underground to join “Jasper DuBois’ Amazing Cave Tours.” They soon discover that they are trespassing into an enchanted domain, encountering giant insects, stone statues come to life, and a colossal final “guardian” standing tall over a lava-filled chasm.

 

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Pierce County Asylum (Tacoma)
Of the haunts I’ve been to this is one of the better ones. I don’t get scared so I won’t rate it on my sense of fear. However, I had a couple of teenage boys with me & one of them screamed like a girl almost the entire time. The asylum was elaborately planned out & the rooms were theatre-worthy. Haunted hollow was also really good. There was no excessive strobe use which was great because I get migraines, & the use of animatronics was both amusing & well thought out. The intro to Haunted hollow is one of the best I’ve seen. The detail put in to each room justifies the cost you pay for the tickets.

 

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Spökhuset (Gröna Lund, Stockholm)
Situated in Gröna Lund is the Spökhuset. It is a haunted house and it is definately the scariest I have ever been in. It is very dark so you hardly see a thing. Real people come scare you from behind, and at some point it feels quite terrifying. This place is not really for chickens, since quite often people come out of the house crying!!

 

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Nightmare Chambers (OWA Parks & Resort, Alabama)
Located in Downtown OWA, Nightmare Chambers is the haunted house attraction meant to give you the spooks every time you find the courage. Nightmare Chambers includes four twisted scare zones that change every season to give you chills year-round with bloodcurdling shrieks that will leave the fearless frozen. From its early days in Fairhope, Alabama, and being voted the scariest haunted house in the region, Nightmare Chambers has found its permanent home at OWA Parks & Resort to give you endless frights and screams.

 

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p.s. Hey. Well, I’m back! However, I’m quite jet lagged and very sleep deprived this morning, so my half of our reunion is going to be pretty hazy, but hopefully I’ll be closer to my alert self again by Monday. ** James Bennett, Thanks, James. It was an excellent trip. I hope your October passed similarly. ** jay, Hi. Me too obviously. Oh, hm, the Flatsos … I suppose so, yeah. With a dash of cosplay, pet play, transformationalism, impact play, etc. mixed in. Assuming your birthday has passed, I hope your friends managed to infect you with their enthusiasm. I’m with you. Birthdays are just unpleasant signposts for me. Cool about Horatio. So far so good. Thanks a lot about the reading, from me and on Derek’s behalf. I usually don’t like doing readings, but that one was kind of wild and amazing. Oh, wow, your Sluts intonation! Crazy, thank you so much. I’ll go listen once I’ ve had at least some solid sleep, maybe even tomorrow. Thank you! Everyone, jay has begun a project of reading ‘The Sluts’ aloud — not an easy task — and if you want to listen it, here’s where you can do it. Great to see you! ** Dominik, Hi!!!! Thanks, pal, and awesome to see you, obviously. How was your Halloween assuming you managed to squeeze one in. The haunts were great, but I’ll wait to talk about them when I have actual brainpower. Love hoping you’ll be someone who’s as much into his scraggly little moustache as he is, G. ** Misanthrope, Hi, G. It was great to get to see you, even briefly, and to meet your dude. I hope you had a blast in NYC. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hey, bud! Very nice about Matty, although I suppose that’s old news by now. How’s the writing class going? That’s really great news! The Dodgers won the World Series while I was in LA, and everyone there were losing their minds with joy, and that was pretty to be around. And I’m excited to have two, count ’em two PTs to help me reawaken myself into this French world! Everyone, Whilst I was away, the master of sound _Black_Acrylic launched two episodes of his crucial music-cast Play Therapy for you to catch up on (like me) if you haven’t already dug into them. First, ‘With Play Therapy v2.0, Ben ‘Jack Your Body’ Robinson brings you something for mainly futuristic and way out young people.’ And, secondly, ‘With Play Therapy v2.0, Ben ‘Jack Your Body’ Robinson brings you a creature that combines the technology of a computer, the deceit of a human and the killer instinct of a machine.’  Here. ** Bill, Hi, B. A whole month of slaves. Lots of time to get to know them. I think I might be back in LA again early-ish next year if a certain something pans out, so maybe then. It strangely was pretty temperate while I was there, weather-wise. Got really lucky. I hope you had a super sweet and strange Halloween. That’s funny, Shu Lea Cheang did an LA screening at the same venue where we held the ‘Room Temperature’ cast & crew screening on the next night, but I didn’t get to go because haunted houses called me. ** Justin D, Thanks a lot, Justin! How have you been? How was October for you? ** Chris KELSO, Howdy, Chris. That’s funny, now I’ll have to go look at ‘7th Guest’ again, huh. ‘I Have No Mouth’, no. I’ll see if I can find a remnant. I did really like Cyberdreams’s stuff. Thanks, I’ll to find your email. I got astoundingly behind on email while I was away. Excited to read it. Cool, great to see you, pal. ** Billy, Nice. Thanks, Billy. Yeah, that’s pretty spot on. How are you? What’s up? ** Tyler Ookami, Hi, Tyler. You probably wouldn’t have liked the haunted houses I spent a couple of weeks traversing. Dissected plush toys were a popular device. Happy late 29th. Did you end up scoring the Xiu Xiu tickets? They’re playing here soon, and I guess I’d better get on the ticket thing too. I’ve never been to Tucson, but horrible heat is my first association with it. Oh, wait, no tickets. Urgh, sorry. My friends are very split down the middle about ‘The Substance’, either extreme hate or thumbs very high up. Haven’t seen it (yet). Great about the return of the book club, and obviously high five about the Williams. I don’t know why it’s so funny that a Chappell Roan-alike won that contest, but it is. ** Lucas, Hey, hey Lucas! I missed talking with you too! But you’ll be here in the big P before too long, right? Berlin sounds like total fun. Awesome, you sure deserved that. Uh, NYC was pretty great. The reading went amazingly well. I was shocked. LA was packed with haunted houses, and the ‘RT’ cast & crew screening went really well, and good things seem to finally be happening for the film, which is relieving. Lots of Mexican food, old friends, … pretty solid. So nice to be back ‘in touch’! ** iwishiwasanon, Hi. If I’m meeting you, and I think I am, it’s great to meet you. Thanks a lot for the ‘Pirates’ clip. Very interesting in any case, but even more because I rode the new-fangled version last week during a daylong Disneyland jaunt. How did being Laura Palmer feel? I spent Halloween on a jet flying for 11 hours, so I sadly just dressed as comfortably and boringly as I could. Happy weekend! ** kier, Hi, k! I was in Halloween heaven at the time you wrote, and now I’m in jet lag hell. You pay for your pleasure, I guess. Those photos are fantastic! Wow, car trunk Halloween, that’s so crazy. How is it now that Halloween is defunct? ** Steve, Hi, Steve. Good to see you, buddy. Yes, RIP: Gary, KA, Paul Morrissey. I knew Gary wasn’t healthy, but his death was still a real shock. He was such a big personality (and writer) that I somehow thought he couldn’t be extinguished. I think we did about 25 haunted houses. And we still didn’t get to all the ones we’d hoped to. The film is going better at the moment. We had great cast & crew screening. We’ll see. No parties for me. I kind of hate parties. Did you hit one up? ** Måns BT, Hey, Måns! I missed talking with you too. Consider the void extinguished. Halloween time was excellent, but I’ll wait to note the highlights because my jet lag is making my brain a rock or a cloud mixed with a rock this morning. I must say that girl does sound pretty ace. I’ll use my limited brain power to hope/wish for a happy outcome on that coupledom prospect. I have seen ‘Long Days Journey Into Night’, and totally agree with you. It’s super great. Thank you about ‘Flunker’. *blush* I actually know Bob Hund a little, no doubt due to having been turned onto them by another Swedish friend. I’m so sorry to hear they bailed on the public, and on you in particular. I’m glad that ‘Papaya’ sounds to have occupied your thinking this month, at least. You know full well that imagination-dwelling phase is an important part of filmmaking. Excited for whenever! Ha, square eyes, film-related. I like that. Use that in something. Have a really swell weekend, and I’ll endeavour to be more interesting by the time Monday gets here. ** Thomas Moronic, Hi, T. You’re coming on Monday! I should be at least somewhat cogent by then. Great, hit me up as soon as you’re ready, and let’s hang. Love, me. ** HaRpEr, Hey, HaRpEr, really great to see you! Location is everything, they say. It isn’t, but it sure helps. I’m so happy to hear you loved the Kristof trilogy. So amazing, right? I wish she had written a lot more fiction. Yay! Pix of your Bowie costume if they’re extant and if you feel like it. See you soon! ** Wow, I made it. Seriously, my brain is toast, so I wasn’t sure. Anyway, the blog and I are clinging to Halloween and haunted houses for one more post this weekend before I let it go and move on. See you on Monday!