(If you're on the H-list, you may have read this already.)
What a great time! My son and I worked a charity haunt on Sunday night, and had an incredible time. We were acclaimed as the premiere scarers in the bunch; we even scared the other actors.
We were the only actors who brought their own costumes and who were given the run of the haunt; walking in I felt like a professional athlete helping out a Triple A ball club.
When they gave us all a 30-minute break and the other actors took off their masks, I continued to wear mine and turned my back to them in order to get a drink of water without them seeing my face. This helped me stay in character, but it also meant that the actors who were afraid of me never saw me except as an evil clown. I spoke only to the haunt organizer and my son, communicating through gestures to the rest of them, so they didn't have any idea of my age or gender, though at 6'3" they probably had a clue.
The haunt was set up with 18 different scenes with various dark corners that my son and I skulked in. He designed his own costume (I'll post photos later) and his sliding technique (like the sliders at Knott's Scary Farm) was great; he terrified a lot of people. In addition to being dressed as an evil clown, I also have an evil clown puppet that I carry(similar to this one:)
http://www.fantasytoyland.com/mor-ta308.html
One of the advantages of the puppet was being able to raise it in the air so that it could loom over the victims. My technique was to slip up behind someone (usually female) on the fringe of the group while they were concentrating on another part of the haunt and stand there breathing heavily. When they finally turned around they saw two evil clowns mere inches from them. As soon as they screamed and tried to run away I either followed them or turned on other members of the group until I found someone who really panicked when I approached them.
My favorite was a couple of ladies in the very last group of the night who I managed to scare 6 times; three of those were after they exited the maze. As soon as they passed a certain point, I sprinted back through the maze out the entrance and waited outside the exit so that I could torment them further. The last time the blonde dropped to the ground and curled up in a fetal position. When her child started crying I decided to back off. Muwaahaahaa!
My son has a party next Saturday night (mostly girls, he says, so he doesn't want to miss it) but I'll be heading back to the haunt and its dark little corners. This is the most fun you can have with your clothes on!
Scott Renfield
Well, add me to the list of people who are bummed out about their Halloween plans for this year. This was to be our 3rd year with the Renfield & Son Evil Circus maze in the garage; I had people lined up to the street pretty much from 5-9 last year, with a couple hundred TOTs in attendance. My 16-year-old son and 4 of his friends were evil clowns, and we were all looking forward to screams and pee-talities again.
Unfortunately, Tuesday is the night that the high school band (of which they are all members) has its weekly evening practice. That Friday is the football game and Saturday is a major band ompetition event, and the director announced yesterday that anyone who misses practice on Halloween will not be allowed to attend the other events. So, it looks like it's going to be me and my shadow this year. My wife suggested
doing more with the cemetery, but it's pretty packed. I suppose that I can come up with some additional props for it, but I'm definitely not approaching the season with my usual joie de morte.
My son and I are enjoying working at the Spirit store together, but between missing Haunt X, the Knott's trip (no time available between Scouts and band), and spending most of Halloween separated from my kid, it pretty much sucks. Maybe I'll work on redesigning the yard and adding some sfx and animation when I get home
tonight. Sorry for the complaints but I just needed to vent.
