Halloween
Halloween was fun!
I left work very early. I was not feeling very well so I rested a bit before setting up.
I got everything set with time to spare, so I kept adding things. Like skull candle holders in the trees, extra skeletons, and such.
I even manged to get the flying crank ghost set up. It was rickety and had to be fixed twice, but it worked. :)
After that I got into my mad science costume.
The first trick or treaters showed up around 7pm. Which was still light out.
"It is not even creepy" was the comment of the little kid as he walked up.
"Well, it isn't dark yet" was my reply. But he was right. I got the fog going which helped. But it needed something.
I realized that people are so used to creepy music in TV and movies, that they need the music to tell them it is "time to be scared now". I tried to set up some creepy sounds, but the CD I found was just a bunch of 10 second clips. I have a few creepy CD's but was not going to go look for them at that point. (I dug them out on Sunday)
I would ask people to help me with my electric chair. Getting them to sit in it and having the kids push the big red button. The liked it and thought it was cool, but not very scary.
The kids wanted to know where the "bush" was, and when something was going to jump out at them.
The "bush" last year was me in my gili suit. One parent even asked me where they were. I told them they had not gotten here yet. *shrug*
I did manage to get a few cool responses to the chair. On kid swore he was shocked. And one mom sat it it and jumped when the buzzer and vibes went off.
Chris and Julie came over after work. So as soon as they got there I improvised.
I put on a old Frankenstein Monster mask I had and sat in the chair like a dummy.
Chris would ask the kids for help and have them push the Big Red Button. The chair would go off, I would shake, then lurch up, stagger around, then try to strangle Chris.
He would fight me off, forcing me back to the chair, and when the chair stopped I would go slack.
People loved this. The first group even applauded!
The whole thing was improvised, but a lot of fun. Especially listing to Chris and Julie's off the cuff banter about sub standard parts and such. Heh.
After about 9pm we called it quits and when over to Tad and Trish's to hang out.
So next year - I need at least one monster to pop out at people as well as someone in the gili suit. I also need a creepy soundtrack. I am going to put together the soundtrack now and build a sound system into whatever prop(s) I make for next year.