The day started as any other day, and our travels took us to Hollywood California and a stay at the Prestigious Hollywood Towers Hotel. We enjoyed a scenic drive along the coast, visited a couple of historic sites and arrived at one of the most historic hotels in the country. It was still daylight when we arrived and the hotel was indeed as sight to see… but the darkness of night fell upon us rather quickly and a bit unexpectedly.
Reminiscent of the 1930’s influence in design, in some ways simple yet oddly and interestingly bold in the details that embellished every possible space to the point of educing sensory overload. It was like stepping back in time. It was a crystal clear evening and even the seemingly presence of blurry guests from the past walking about, didn’t raise any suspicions… an oversight that will prove to be… well… lets just say… unheeded warning signs are not a good thing to simply pass off as happenstance or an optical illusion.
Mesmerizing… it gave you an odd feeling making you feel you were partly in the present but drifting into the past. An eerie but interesting feeling as we enjoyed all the things and furnishings from yesteryears. The sense of the present was increasingly slipped away into something we had never felt before except for perhaps in dreams… a twilight zone where the present gave way to the past… as reality slipped slowly into something a bit more troubling and scary.
Visions and perceptions changing into what some may call a nightmare state. Unnatural sights, sounds, and smells of things not normal to this earth. Than we saw the ghost spirits of hotel guests from the past.
We began to look for a way out… the elevator was our only escape… the only way back down to freedom.
Here’s an elevator... going down anyone ?
The elevator doors closed with a slam and a metal clang
that made you think that you’d be locked in forever.
The elevator dropped in a freefall…
heading for the bottom of the shaft…
doors open to the front of the hotel as you fall…
so you can not only feel the fall…
but also so see it… terrifying!
We thought we had safely reached the bottom… than the elevator raised us back to the top and quickly dropped us again… the sheer terror was repeated over and over without mercy… reality was suspended in this zone of terror… and it seemed as though it will never end. Finally, just before you completely loose your mind the elevator stopped at the bottom floor… the doors opened… and you are back to reality and the hotel lobby. It appears as if nothing has ever happened… but we knew differently. Although everything appeared normal… we realized that we were once again in a scary place… yet another gift shop… another never ending cycle that continued through out the rest of the day. Not caring whether it was real or imagined… we left the hotel, escaping a near death experience that seemed all too real enough… and we vowed to never ever get any closer to the Hollywood Towers Hotel than the sidewalk outside. We were not sure if this is even a safe distance… but surely never planned to venture any closer. Every time we pass the Hotel we can still hear the screams of the unsuspecting guests that unbeknownst to them… will have their lives changed forever… In The Twilight Zone!
Beware… lurking inside those innocent looking walls is an experience like none other… taking you to another place and time… where your safe return may not be a certainty. Beware… but if you must enter… do so at your own risk, knowing that you have been forewarned.
