California Gold: Dark Harbor Halloween on the Queen Mary, Long Beach

The RMS Queen Mary at Halloween.

The ship is old. It survived World War II. It once accidentally sank one of her own escort ships, slicing through the light cruiser HMS Curacoa off the chilly Irish coast with a loss of 239 lives. Those spirits still linger, I'm sure. It must be haunted, right? A creepy halloween maze attended by screaming Angelinos is just the cherry on top.

My wife and I met with our friends Richard and Maritza in Long Beach where the Queen Mary is anchored. The lot leading up to the ship has been taken over with carnival rides, churro hockers, hot dog stands, and roaming zombies. A female corpse with white eyes and peeling flesh rubs against me, snarling like an angry dog. I try not laugh. My wife and Maritza are freaked out, squirming and rubbing their hands in gleeful disgust.

Long Beach across the bay.

The Dark Harbor Halloween event is held every year and takes full advantage of the gothic and sinister feeling this large ship possesses. There are several different mazes that explore various parts of the ship, some in the lower decks and close quarters of the engine room. These are fascinating
parts of the ship that folks don't always get a chance to see up close. Moving through the dark, ever-tightening hallways, the jittery noises and squealing cries of mental patients fill the cold air. Body parts hang from meat hooks. Characters from the Saw films and the American Horror Story TV series make their appearance, scaring the folks a few feet ahead of me. How can terror create such joy? How is the release of nervous energy converted into such a release of joy?

The wife is having fun.

Another haunted maze outside the ship is set up like a haunted plantation on a Louisiana bayou. Voodoo zombies peer in from every cob-web covered window. The cries of tortured victims rise up from the basement. The Serpent and the Rainbow is one of my favorite horror movies. Walking through this haunted house makes me feel like I was living out a scene from that flick. That's one of the beauties of these walk-along haunted mazes. Unlike a ride, walking through a live-action haunted set is like living out a real experience. You move at your own pace. You can look wherever you want. But beware. There's someone waiting right around the next corner to jump out and scare the living crawdads out of you. But it's safe, right? These folks won't actually hurt me, right? They're just actors. Aren't they?

Decorative splendor.

A witch nuzzles up close to us.

Walking on board.

So happy. So evil. Image from the Queen Mary website.

That looks painful. Image from the Queen Mary website.

The Welcoming Committee. Image from the Queen Mary website.

The mad carnies have taken over! Image from the Queen Mary website.