Haunts: 2001
Halloween Night:
Guest Reactions
Throughout
the night, several groups of trick-or-treaters came through the haunt. Some even drove up
specifically for our haunt. It appeared that the signs I had placed around the neighborhood
had worked.
The response we received was overwhelmingly positive. In addition to several complimentary
comments (Usually from the parents or older guests), there were a few guest reactions that
particularly stood out.
- Early in the evening, we gained almost a cult following from some of our first guests. A couple groups of trick-or-treaters,
after going through the haunt a few times themselves, started going around "recruiting" other nearby
trick-or-treaters to go through.
- Several of the younger trick-or-treaters took some convincing from their parents (or other trick-or-treaters - See above) before
they would enter the haunt. I guess the place looked pretty intimidating from the front.
- One very young boy took some serious convincing before he would go in. After a while, he
finally went through, and he came out with the greatest look of pride, as if he'd just
accomplished the greatest feat ever. "That wasn't SCARY! That was FUN!" he exclaimed, and
ran through three more times.
- I was surpised at how fast some people bolted through the haunt (This, in direct violation of our
signs, mind you). While most of the
guests seemed to be interested in actually looking at the props and effects, some people
looked as though they thought of our haunt as an inconvenience or detour and wanted to get through as quickly
as possible.
- Several comments were directed toward or about Pepper's Ghost:
- We found, after the first few guests, that some people passed Pepper's Ghost without
ever even looking through the door to see the effect. To remedy this, one of us stood directly
in front of the doorway to draw guests' attention in the right direction.
- One group of about 7th grade boys found it amusing to talk directly to our Pepper's
Ghost in the form of whistling or general statements to the effect of "You're hot!"
- One girl, trying to convince her younger brother to go through exclaimed: "It's not
scary at all! Except for this one freaky girl sitting on the toilet!"
At this point, a very real problem with our Pepper's Ghost set-up was brought to light. We
decided to close the bathroom door a little bit more to eliminate any confusion.
- One family emerged talking among themselves trying to figure out how Pepper's Ghost was
done. "It must be some sort of a mirror or something."
- Midway through the evening, I started lying in the coffin while waiting for guests to
come, when I would "come to life" and lead them through the haunt. Not being a big fan of
startling effects in haunted houses, this was usually pretty mild. Usually.
One nice mom trick-or-treating with her quite young children noticed me lying in the coffin and decided to see if I was "real."
She did this, of course, by shining her flashlight directly into my eyes. I was sure that
she would realize without trouble that I was, in fact, real. This, because I had really taken
no measures toward making myself appear fake. I'm not even sure if I had my hood on or not.
Even so, I determined, after a split second of indecision, that the best course of action at this
point would be to just lie still until all attention was not focused on me. After about a
solid MINUTE of this lady standing there looking me over with her freaking flashlight and chattering to
her kids, it became apparent that she really thought I was just a really well made prop.
Now it was a thing of principle. I had been staring into this blinding brightness
for so long at that point that I couldn't just let it go. I continued to lie there, unmoving,
unblinking, and barely breathing until the lady became uninterested and began to walk
by.
I don't think, in all my life, I have ever seen someone startle that badly. As
I casually jumped up to lead them through the haunt, she screached, nearly falling over
backwards. I did all that I could to prevent myself from bursting out in laughter; her
kids were not quite as disciplined in that matter.
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