Benjamin Tan
Image credit: Darren Flinders
It should come as no surprise that even the piece of land you are standing on now is likely to have a history. After all, the Earth has followed the hands of time for ages and ages, with each chapter adding yet another layer on top of the other.
If you were to watch a time lapse of the entirety of the Earth’s history, you would find the constant act of building up and tearing down; of birth and decay; of lives saved and bloodshed. Dig deep enough, and you might just find a little story behind each object, although some are better left undisturbed.
In the spirit of Halloween, draw the musky curtains of time and stare undaunted into the chilly histories of these places around the world.
Abandoned theme parks – Japan’s Takakonuma Greenland
Image credit: Troels Dejgaard Hansen
Imagine walking into Universal Studios Singapore one gloomy afternoon only to find the entire place devoid of life. A perpetual layer of fog seems to envelop the premise in an eternal state of mystery. Buildings all around lay dormant and crumbling; rust consuming all metals in sight. For many of these abandoned theme parks, their demises were inevitable.
Once popular destinations, sleek new ones opened by international organisations like Disney held an appeal too strong to turn down. Bit by bit, faces were turned, and where life once converged, it now stands desolate and barren. Dirt and grime are the order of the day, interspersed by flakes of rotting paint and wood. Thrill-seekers from all walks of life are drawn to the almost-mythical sight — a fascinating link to the heydays from decades ago.
If you were to ever step foot into the grounds, it might be best to say a little prayer; not every abandoned park died a natural death. Think back to the murmurs of mysterious deaths, of Japan’s Takakonuma Greenland and its abrupt closure in 1975; the murmurs tell you a number of children died on the rides. As you navigate through a domain seemingly abandoned even by God, keep your ears pricked for unusual sounds — the soft crying of an infant; the creaking of hinges where the wind never flows by; at least that is what some paranormal enthusiasts warn.
But one thing is for sure: never stare too long into the translucent cabins of its Ferris wheel; you do not want to catch a glimpse of a small silhouette flitting about inside.
Asylums – Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum
Image credit: Matt Hecht
In a country like ours with a cleanly run psychiatric facility, the Institute of Mental Health, it is hard to attach a sinister connotation behind an industry that is driven to heal. Abroad, it is another story. In the United States of America, psychiatric asylums are now a thing of the past, buried by chilling stories of disturbing experiments that were performed on helpless patients. Misconduct, spates of violence, and numerous unspeakable horrors ultimately sealed the fate of the ill-fated industry, but it should come as no surprise that the many patients who were checked in with their own demons ultimately left them there.
The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia is thought to be one of the most haunted asylums in the United States. From the outside, it resembles a grand mansion, and such was the scale of the atrocities that were committed within its walls; full frontal lobotomies, torture, and primal viciousness amongst patients made up the social disease that ultimately left thousands dead; most of them buried on-site. Add that to the fact that even the infamous Charles Manson once took residence there, and you get a distressing picture of a very troubled place.
Fear manifests in many ways — loud jump scares that we have grown accustomed to, or the still, almost inaudible squeak of a bloodied gurney; you might have missed it but for the pin-drop silence of the asylum.
Aokigahara Suicide Forest
Image credit: eluminium
Aptly known as Jukai, or Sea of Trees, Aokigahara deserves its own category for the sheer density of premature deaths and the melancholy-infused fear that is unlikely to be felt anywhere else. It is startling that while excited tourists flock to pay their respects to Mount Fuji, few acknowledge the hundred or so bodies that are found each year literally under their noses, in the endless forest by the base of the mountain.
You will notice that the trees seem to sag and bend under the enormous weight of the emotions carried by dejected individuals as they trudge on, looking for a suitable spot to take their lives. Take a walk there, and you may initially be frightened by the tales of restless spirits that haunt the forest, but look around you, and you may find the scattered belongings of a person that no longer exists; those were the things he wanted or needed right until the end. Fear turns into sorrow, as you make out the bits and pieces of the stories left behind, and the stories that could have been.
