Halloween Horror Metaphors can be misleading

Ah, the horror of Halloween metaphors! Intended for amusement, they sometimes lead us astray! When discussing subject matter of a fantastical nature, one expects a certain leeway with figurative language; it’s certainly more fun to write “Halloween Horror Nights opens its cemetery gates” or
“Knotts Scary Farm summons the ghosts of the old west” than it is to write “Major theme park begins Halloween season.” Certainly no one could take literally such phrasing as:

• The Queen Mary drops anchor in Dark Harbor. (Get it? It’s a ship!)
• Check into Motel 6 Feet Under. (You “check in” because it’s a motel!)
• Book passage to Boney Island. (It’s an island, so you “book passage” – ha-ha!)
• Perdition Home liquidates, transfers assets to The Flesh Yard (Um, wait – what? Perdition Home’s going out of business?)

Apparently, that last metaphor was a bit of a stretch. It was a headline to a brief article noting that the Perdition Home yard haunt had indicated that it would present only a yard display this Halloween; meanwhile, the professional spin-off, Pumpkin Patch Haunt: The Flesh Yard, was receiving most of the attention.  In our perhaps too desperate attempt to formulate a clever headline, we hit on the idea that Perdition Home, being a house, is a piece of property with assets, and by cutting back on its Halloween’s presentation while promoting the Flesh Yard, the haunt was transferring its “assets” to a new business.

Okay, it doesn’t sound quite so clever now. But nothing in the article suggested that Perdition Home had literally “liquidated,” and we did not move the attraction’s listing to the Graveyard of Lost Halloween Haunts (the page for defunct haunts). All we meant to convey was that Perdition Home would not would not be presenting a walk-through this year, while efforts were focused on the Flesh Yard. Even that, however, turns out not be true. Since our article posted on October 4, Perdition Home has announced (via its Facebook page) that it will hold a smaller “mini” walk-through on Halloween Night from 7pm to 11pm. We apologize if our over-zealous attempt to sound clever led our readers into thinking that Perdition Home was going out of business.