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Halloween 2008
Nov. 2nd, 2008 05:04 amAnother year of horror in Wakefield. This year, visitors were ushered into a very small room (in groups of 2 or 3), where the host was waiting for them. They were told that they were going on a short tour to look for candy. The host would say what kind of candy they were going to look for, close the door, and then the room moved. Scrabbling noises and banging may or may not come from the walls as this happened, depending on how old the kids were and how scary we thought we could make things. Once the room stopped moving, the host opened the door to reveal a guillotine* with a severed hand in a basket, holding one piece of candy. "Is anyone brave enough to take it?" Regardless of whether a kid would actually reach under the blade and take it, the door was closed and the quest continued. The room moved again, and this time the door was opened to reveal a skeleton in a coffin with an empty candy wrapper in its hand. "Rats, she's eaten it already!" The door was closed, and the room moved again. When the door opened next it revealed plain white curtains. "Hmm, that's odd." Just when they were going to close the door and try somewhere else, the wolfman jumped out. After fending him off and getting the door shut, we moved yet again, and this time they finally found a bowl of candy. Then it's time to shut the door and move once last time to return the room to the exit. Depending on whether we thought the kids could handle it, the wolfman would have moved to lurk next to the door, and jump out at them again.
Behind the scenes, two or three of us are moving the giant box on wheels that is the room. Since we wanted to skip the scariest bits if the kids were too young, each destination was coded to a bit of speech the host gave. It went pretty well, and people seemed to think it was cool (even kids who claimed it wasn't scary enough).
Things were not, however, perfect. Due to some miscalculations of height and distances, as well as just plain trying to maneuver a heavy box without being able to verbally communicate with the other box wranglers, we suffered some minor injuries (among box wranglers, not visitors thank goodness), one broken lightbulb, one accidental unplugging of the light in the box, ceiling tiles coming loose, and a bit of the box crashing into the various props. Plus I was nearly crushed against walls or other solid objects several times. My arms hurt.
Also, there was one run that I somehow ended up stranded at the front of the box as it was pushed back up against the front door just before the box was going to open and let the people out. Left with nowhere else to go, I ducked out the front door myself before the box opened, to the great confusion of the people waiting outside for the rest of their group.
Another amusing anecdote for the evening was the guy who got a call on his cellphone while he was in the box. We've moving him around to the next destination, and I can here him in there talking. "I'm up the street at the haunted house. It's awesome!"
Once again we had people show up who were veterans of previous years, including people who made a special trip for it. My uncles have been doing this for so long that people who have been through it when they were kids are now bringing their kids to go through it. It's crazy.
* The blade is actual metal, but is dull. It would be a "functional" guillotine except that the blade has been screwed in place for the evening. My uncle explained that the easiest way to make a guillotine that looks real is to make a real guillotine. = )
Behind the scenes, two or three of us are moving the giant box on wheels that is the room. Since we wanted to skip the scariest bits if the kids were too young, each destination was coded to a bit of speech the host gave. It went pretty well, and people seemed to think it was cool (even kids who claimed it wasn't scary enough).
Things were not, however, perfect. Due to some miscalculations of height and distances, as well as just plain trying to maneuver a heavy box without being able to verbally communicate with the other box wranglers, we suffered some minor injuries (among box wranglers, not visitors thank goodness), one broken lightbulb, one accidental unplugging of the light in the box, ceiling tiles coming loose, and a bit of the box crashing into the various props. Plus I was nearly crushed against walls or other solid objects several times. My arms hurt.
Also, there was one run that I somehow ended up stranded at the front of the box as it was pushed back up against the front door just before the box was going to open and let the people out. Left with nowhere else to go, I ducked out the front door myself before the box opened, to the great confusion of the people waiting outside for the rest of their group.
Another amusing anecdote for the evening was the guy who got a call on his cellphone while he was in the box. We've moving him around to the next destination, and I can here him in there talking. "I'm up the street at the haunted house. It's awesome!"
Once again we had people show up who were veterans of previous years, including people who made a special trip for it. My uncles have been doing this for so long that people who have been through it when they were kids are now bringing their kids to go through it. It's crazy.
* The blade is actual metal, but is dull. It would be a "functional" guillotine except that the blade has been screwed in place for the evening. My uncle explained that the easiest way to make a guillotine that looks real is to make a real guillotine. = )
