Halloween season

Well folks it's that time of year again. Time for me to review the venues in the New England area. I've got four places lined up for your reading pleasure. Stay tuned, it all starts next weekend.

God has is really been THAT long

Well folks if anyone still comes here, I guess I should update what's been going on in my life.

Guess the biggest news is that I've had a girlfriend for the past 2 and a half months. This marks the first REAL girlfriend since college for me. It's actually been pretty easy to balance my work life and my social life since Shelly actually works more then me (if you can believe).

So back in February I had a committee meeting covering my behavioral studies. Three hours later, they told me that I could probably graduate by May 2009.

I've co-written a paper that's still in the editing process, but soon it will be published (my first Brown publication on my thesis work). Speaking of papers, I've just been published a second time with our collaborators in China.

I'm also going to my first Science Conference since I've been at Brown in November in DC. Now I just have to get the work done.

I've got a Leadership Alliance Student this summer. This is a program where they let undergrads from across the country come to Brown to learn research. It's been fun, frustrating, and time consuming but it is a much needed distraction from my own failed experiments and writers block.

I'm flying home to AL on Thursday to go to two weddings. Tony Mason's in on Friday night, and Adam Isbell's is on Sat. One high school friend and one college friend. Man I'm gonna have a busy beginning of vacation.

Horrorfest why?

So like last year they are once again doing the 8 movies to die for. Lots of problems I have with it this year. Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that they do it, I'm just a little angry with HOW they're doing it. First there isn't a close location for me this year. Maybe I was spoiled since it was at the theater a couple miles down the road from my place. I have to drive to Lincoln, RI. Not terrible, so I don't mind too much. What I DO mind is that they are only showing the movies from 6pm on. That means no matinée prices. Many of the movies are also only being shown once in the middle of next week. Since last year all 8 movies came out on DVD, I think I'll pass this year on Horrorfest (as much as it pains me). Besides, last year I couldn't get a single person to come to even one movie with me and the in between movie times drove me insane. So I say "boo" to you Horrorfest. Next year make it closer, show the movies more often, and keep them during the day so I can actually afford to go.

Operation: Busted

So I've had some time to stop and reflect on everything that happened this past weekend. Better to write after cooler heads have prevailed.

So last Sat I was supposed to go to Salem for the day and then go to Spookyworld that night since it's on our way home. I planned the trip and then my first set of friends dropped out of the trip. OK no big deal, I still have a bunch of people going. Well by the time everyone is ready to go it was too late to get started. I was very upset, but we agreed to go to Spookyworld later.

We make it to the Expo parking lot after a little traffic going into Boston. I noticed I hadn't pulled in far enough into the parking space, so I get back in my car to pull it up. Boom! the car doesn't start. Dio gets in and tries to get it started....no go. The lights are flickering on inside the car and my gauges are all wonky. I called AAA and they said the tow truck would be there in less then an hour. Seeing as it was Sat night, I knew I was going to have to get it towed back to RI, but I brought a car full of people, so they needed a way back too. Dio called his brother to come and get the rest of the passengers. It had been more then an hour so I called AAA again and they said that the tow would be there in 20 mins. After an hour Dio's brother had arrived and still no tow. I called AAA AGAIN and they said it would be there in 10 mins.

After 3 hours of waiting, we decide to see if we can jump my car. It started, and I drove it around a little to see if it was highway worthy. We decided to caravan back to RI. As I was driving I noticed my headlights and dashboard were flickering. I could feel that the car's electrical system could cut out at any time. We get into not one but TWO traffic pile ups. The second one in Providence closed ALL four lanes. I was SO nervous the whole time. I finally get around the second pile up and my car dies no more then 40 yards from the accident. I manage to somehow get to mildly safe ground (the shoulder between an on ramp and the main highway, so I had cars wizzing by me on both sides).

I call AAA again, and after transferring me to two wrong states I finally get to the RI people. They sent out a tow immediately, and we got dropped off at Dio's house and the tow was going to "dead drop" my car at the shop and drop my key in the overnight slot.

So no Salem and no Spookyworld...also Field of Screams got rained out again on Friday. All in all NOT a good day. Stay tuned for my review of Spookyworld....

Factory of Shit

This weekend we went to Factory of Terror. Let's just jump right into shall we?

Let's start with the line/outside attractions. I was very happy with these things. They had a vampire magician that went around performing tricks. There was also a zombie Slash walking about. He would bang on the Port-a-potties when people were going to the bathroom. It was hilarious. The most fun one can having waiting in line. That only covers the line to buy tickets. After you buy the ticket there is another line you wait in to go through the factory. This room was full of fun, but cheesy Halloween thing. There was an animatronic undead band that puts Chuck E. Cheese to shame. The music outside and inside were both mood setting, which was nice. There was a painting that would disappear and a skeleton would give this scary speech. I tried to take a picture of the talking skeleton, but when it took, it only got the painting....creepy.

Alas, all this set up and no delivery....Once inside, the only feelings I had were disappointment, angry, and annoyance.

First off. I like a theme or some sort of back story for my attractions. Just random shit isn't scary...there should be some sort of flow to these things. There was zero story to this place. There were several themed based rooms. Look we're surrounded by pirate skeletons....now we're in a butcher shop? Wait, now it's a jail? The fuck? This is a factory...why are there pirates in a factory? Ugh....

There were too many actors for this place too. Most didn't jump out at you. Most were just wondering around in silence. They would walk by you and just look at you. NONE of them talked. What's the point? Only a few jumped out at you, but they wouldn't get close to you and they didn't touch you or talk. Maybe they'd scream, but that didn't even happen all the time. They overall just became annoying. No one did anything original. Everyone acted the same way. Also their choice of using only young adults for their costume people was bad.

The spacing of the groups were HORRIBLE. Like the Haunted Forest walk at Trails of Terror, you get broken up into small groups to go through. Wouldn't you know it, we were at the VERY front of the group again.....but this only lasted about 3 mins. We ended up getting bottlenecked for most of the walk. It ended up being back to back people and moving at a snails pace. Nothing was scary at this point, because if someone was going to jump out at us, we'd see it FAR in advance since there were about 30 people in front of us. It also didn't help that there was a teenage boy (probably around 15 or 16) clinging to me the whole time in fear. Yeah that's smart kid, grab onto the gimp limping his way through the factory...I'm sure I can get you to safety REAL fast.

At one point we were in the "hall of nothingness." It was just a LONG hallway with nothing in it. Just a long line of single file guests since it was so narrow. This place too had the spinning vortex room. This must be a common thing. This one was a bit longer and even more disorienting. I'm always a big fan of it. I was also pleased with the music inside the factory...well at a particular place. It was very creepy. It was when you entered a room with a devil/angel skeleton hanging from the ceiling.

I think my biggest gripe though is just how short it was. For $20 I would expect at least two floors for scariness...but I guess it's for the best. I actually thought to myself that I just wanted it to be over...much like the remake of Halloween. Never a good sign. We were able to walk through the Factory, even backed up, in less then 15 mins. Boo...........Boo, boo, boo (This is not scary ghost noises, this is me booing the place).

Onto the stats:

Gore: 2/5 There was very little gore here. It was mainly just actors roaming and skeletons in various positions. Skeletons don't equal gore people...and not even scary.

Cheese: 4/5 I know I said too much cheese can be funny...but only if it's intended. Nothing here seemed at all authentic, but they were TRYING for it to be legit...Kinda like Snakes on a Plane. Would have been much better if they hadn't taken themselves so seriously. High cheese marks, but this is not a good thing.

Actors: 1/5 Bitch please. I crap scarier things then AND of these people here. At one point I scared one of the actresses. I stared her down until SHE ran away in fear. Unacceptable. No talking, and no jumping out. Also the costumes were shit. Why would the Crow be scary? He was a good guy. Go back to actor pool.

Gimp Friendliness 2/5 Well I knew it wouldn't be all that gimp friendly since I knew I'd be "walking" through the factory. I was pleased that they had hand railings on all the small stairways. Earns it an extra point.

Overall: 2/5 Thinking back on it after a couple days just makes me more angry. Waste of time and money. There's nothing scary there. All the cool stuff is BEFORE you enter. Stay away from this place. There are plenty of better places. I sum it up with one word: Boo.

Rained out

It rained all night last night so we had to scrap our plans of Field of Screams....maybe next Friday. But worry not, because Factory of Terror is tonight...and since it's inside...we're going rain or shine.

Stay Tuned

I'm not going to one but TWO attractions this weekend.

For those that don't know I busted my right foot this week, so I'll be adding a new category in my review: gimp friendliness. Trails of Terror would have failed this, since there was a Haunted Forest Walk.

I'm looking for costume ideas that incorporate limping.