# Halloween stories 2008



## GothicCandle (Mar 26, 2007)

Well we always have those stories from the day and night of Halloween. What went wrong, what went right. Well Halloween isn't even over yet and I have a bit of a story.

A group of 6 or 7 teenage boys pass by my haunt. One says to another
"oooo scary! A fake pumpkin."

Grrr I hope they don't come tonight to get candy, but i bet they will. The little trouble makers. These are the type of boys who would come to my haunt and break stuff.


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## HauntedHacienda (Sep 16, 2008)

murphy's law tonight. NO ToT'ing for us. All the decorations malfuntoned at once!
I am ticked off PISSED!


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## halinar (Sep 11, 2008)

I have two great quotes from tonight. One was from a wee lass who woulnd't even come up my drive way. "Mommy, I'm scared, lets go home"
Of course I went down to the street and gave her some candy. The best part was as they were walking past the grave yard she saw my girlfriend's scooby doo pumpkin and perked right up "Mommy! Look! Scooby!" so I guess she wasn't too traumatized

Another was from a pre teen type: "My dad doesn't do anything this cool for Halloween". Score! Sure, I felt old but still cool and old.


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## Night Owl (Feb 28, 2008)

My Halloween night was out-freaking-standing! I gave out about 300 pieces of candy for sure, met a lot of new neighbors, impressed my husband's boss and family, and I'm now on my 4th glass of wine.:googly: Life is _*good*_, ya'll. Now, on to tomorrow night's party with the so called "adults". As for me, I'm feeling like a kid again. Yay Halloween!!!


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## GothicCandle (Mar 26, 2007)

Tonight went great! My cauldron worked perfectly! Last year I had trouble with it. Mrs.Fitz sorta...broke. Her neck went from nice and straight to a little tilted till her head was flopped completely to one side. It looked okay though, and the fan kept working so she moved side to side. Thanks to duct tape her head hung there as if she was beheaded and toters didn't know she was broken. Aww my feet hurt from not having a chance to sit down since 8 am(its now 10pm) But Ahhh! We got 106 toters!!!!!!! Last year we got 74!!!

halloween quotes and storys

Little boy: *mumble*
Me: What?
Little boy: *Mumble*
Me: What?
Little boys mother: (to me)He said 'your a clown.' (to him) I guess she forgot.
lol


Me: *turns on four animatronics*
Friend: Woah!!! Everything moves!!!!!
lol


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## Aelwyn (Jul 7, 2008)

Great night!  Lots of wee ToTers, lots of compliments on my minimalist set up. Lots of compliments on my costume from parents (must've been the fully boned corset).

Had little ones up until 8:30pm (when we had to leave for the Costume Ball we were going to), which is rare around here (guess 'cause it was so warm out). Kids LOVED the glow bracelets and eyeball gum we gave out.

Then we had TONS of fun at the Costume Ball.  Still have my party next weekend, too. Can't wait!


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## Spanky (Oct 8, 2007)

My brand new green laser vortex (that worked last night, by the way) broke. Ir was a shame to because for the first time in years we had a windless night, about 60 degrees. Otherwise it was great, the fog rolled through the cemetary, I scared some TOTs, got lots of compliments and heard a few "thats the scariest house in town". 
My 8 year old got in on it too, she sat on the porch handing out candy in her angel costume,(ironic) all the while beeming to the TOTs about all the great props her Dad made. Well, I was one of those props, dressed as a ghoul sitting really still (as still as possible with a couple of monster energy drinks in me). She would reel 'em in and I would give the scare.  

Fun.


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## Spookie (Aug 26, 2008)

Biggest surprise of the night for me was the popularity of glow bracelets. I mentioned in another post that I had bought them along with candy to give out. Well my cutest story was the bell rang and it was a small boy, with his dad hanging out the in background. Dad said he loved the decorations BTW and his son was too timid to approach the house because of the spooky nature of my decorations but when he saw other ToTers leaving the house with glow bracelets he told his dad he wanted one and braved the spooky stuff to get the bracelet!

I don't have kids and so have been clueless as to what kids enjoy these days. I never thought candy would be a second to anything else.


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## slightlymad (May 25, 2006)

Well it was a good night over all everything worked and I even had enough help that i could roam the neighbor hood. The best part for us was the folks who remembered evem the kids. We didnt put out any shock items no MIB no girls jumping from coffins but everyone remembered years past and were constantly looking over their shoulder. Even the time worked well it was 6-8 so most of the night was in darkness.


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## BudMan (Mar 6, 2007)

Great night, loads of compliments. Wife says she made 500 bags of candy, they're all gone and went into the reserves. I'm sure we had some return TOTs and I know my cousins kids took a few each, but plenty of little kids.
After dark, I got dressed and "hid" amongst the props to scare the older ones, what a BLAST!!!! After the scare, usually got the rockstar treatment witha bunch of pictures. Was a little disappointed with the late turnout though, woulda thought a Friday night would be a late one. Started bringing stuff in around 10:30. One thing on the list for next year, make my damn fence, they were all over the property for pictures and with all the wires it makes me nervous, not to mention them touching EVERYTHING. But, on a good note, word is definately spreading. People are actually coming from other towns!


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## Haunted Bayou (Feb 16, 2007)

THE BAD: My Donna the Dead quit working, my witch worked if I beat her in the chest but her eyes don't light-up any longer
THE GOOD: ....people liked them anyway.

THE GOOD: Bought extra candy so I wouldn't run out
THE BAD: ..... I have a lot of left over.
THE GOOD: Didn't run out.

THE GOOD: Took me all day to set-up and for the first time was dressed and ready.
THE BAD: I am sore in every part of my body..feels like the flu
THE GOOD: Totally worth it.

AWESOME: My husband took off work to help, which is why I was ready for the first time!
AWESOME: A teenager in full costume came in the garage, "This kicks ass!". I got lots of compliments from the teens this year. They tend to be the most critical so I guess I did good.


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## SCARCOPHAGUS (Sep 14, 2008)

Nothing went wrong, save for the fact that we had very few TOTs after 8PM. But before that I had lines of people at times.

Well, the Jim Beam was gone by 8:30, so that was the only problem 

Didn't count TOTs, but did count the ones that wouldn't come up to the porch to get the candy. 26 of them that, and 10 of them screamed to go home. My 'safety guy' was busy at points

The neighbor lady came down too 'I just had to see the house that all the parents were saying scared them'. Not the kids, the parents. Oh, yeah. Some complained I was too scary I guess. Oh well, toughen up a bit!

My toe pincher coffin with a corpsed blucky poking out was well recieved, as was the blucky chained to the gates and also the blucky I had impaled on a wooden spike in the cemetary. I also think this was the first time many had seen a FCG, because it was commented on to no end. 

The Gemmy witch and the Spasm prop were strategically set up so that you couldn't walk past my house without triggering one of the two, if not both, and that was just pure Halloween magic most of the time.

I had live actors ( the bassist in my band, and his wife, and her little sister ) shambling around the cemetary as a zombie, and once the TOTs thinned out he proceeded to chase random passers by up and down the street, he got a few screams, and a few 'Im gonna knock you out if you don't leave me alone'. Best thing of the night was when my neighbors St. Bernard got out and ran him down. His way of protecting himself? He threw his wig at it  A 180 lb dog stopped dead in his tracks by a black wig? It worked.

Since it was me and my wife's anniversary, and also one of my good buddy's birthday, we partied on the porch until around 12:30. My singer is my safety guy for the little ones, and by 10PM he had a few too many, so my bassist decided a little UFC action was in order and they had a wrestling match in the yard. THe bassist won hands down 

We had a stray cat follow my wife and kids home from ToT'ing from 3 blocks away, and the stupid thing hung out on our porch, and wouldn't go away, until I had to get my Rottie out to convince it that it was time to go somewhere else. 


Breakdown was done in 30 mins with some of our friends helping. House is all picked up. Now the joyless task of taking it all down awaits. Screw it, it stays up one more day 


I watch the original Halloween and Halloween 2, every Halloween, and only on Halloween, and I ended up passing out in the middle of the first movie, so there is a tradition that I didn't get to live up to. 

How I love Halloween, and how depressed am I that it's gone for another year?


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## Haunt Master (Nov 2, 2005)

The only problem I had was my small fogger quit working. It worked great the night before. I guess it got stage fright. The number of TOT,s was disappointing, maybe 15-20. The next neighborhood over from me was packed bumper to bumper. But the ones that did come by told me yard was better than anything the other neighborhood. One dad that brought his kids by said that mine was the best of any in town.

I was asked if I would run my yard one more night so I guess I get to have fun one more night before the great take-down begins.


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## spideranne (Jul 17, 2006)

Haunted Bayou said:


> THE BAD: I am sore in every part of my body..feels like the flu
> THE GOOD: Totally worth it.


I hear you! I'm so sore this morning.

This was the year of malfunctions for me. The fogger that was working fine, died, so no fog this year and of course there was not much wind this year. The FCG broke loose her elbow joint causing enough of an unbalance that the cheesecloth somehow got stuck in the crank, so she ended up being just static. And my stirring witch cauldron never stirred, which is just because I ran out of time to really test it and decided it was safer to just leave her static. No one but me cared of course, still got complements about everything.
The funniest moment was when the mother of a toddler noticed the spazm and said, "Oh, is that the one that shakes, my son is scared of him. Lets take him over there and get it on camera." And sure enough the kid freaked out while mom and dad taped the whole thing.


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## dionicia (Aug 4, 2007)

I had way too much fog this year. We had 5 foggers (one in the coffin, one in the witches cauldron, one in the pumpkin patch, one in the hellpit, and one next to the coffin). I could barely see so I turned them all to 5 second spew and them maxed out their intervals. Helped later in the night. 

My witch broke her thumbs about a half hour before we closed for the night. 

Aside from that, it went really well.


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## Wildcat (Nov 3, 2007)

Overall went great.
Set-up and make up all done with an hour to spare.
Not as many little ones as last year but everyone loved the Angel of death.
Best quotes were.
"Scream.........." then the sound of little feat as the 3yr old tot left mom and dad in the middle of my yard. I turned on a white light so she could see it wasn't real. Then "Mommy, go home? Gots nightmares." She got extra candy.

"Dad you how come you never make cool stuff like this?"

After I got done tearing down I had to take my 4 month old to the hospital (she's okay). All the nurses and doctors came through our room to have a look. Some even took pictures with me.


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## NickG (Sep 12, 2006)

one of our very first tots was a little princess around 4 years old... her mom carried her up the driveway and into the garage to get her candy, and back out again... she was terrified and screaming "no, no! no!" the whole time. Now, I know there is some debate as to if forced entry is ok, but in truth - she was over-reacting, it wasn't very scary.

I got the usual "it's awesome - gets better every year!" and many thanks from adults for the hard work.


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## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

Last night was, hands-down, the best Halloween I've had in the last 10 or 15 years (several of those years I didn't even have a Halloween). Mooch and Bill's haunt is the best home haunt I've ever been through, period. It's freaking huge -- they build an enclosure against the house in the back, and the maze leads into the 2-car garage and back out... the rooms are small but damn there's a LOT of them! Mooch comes up with all the ideas and designs; her husband Bill is the carpenter. She says "Oh, I want to have/do this and that" and he's like, "Ok," and constructs it. Not a bad arrangement; the place looks pro.


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## Tyler (Jul 17, 2008)

Heres a fuuny one, one guy said, "Wow, if they do this much for Halloween, I cant wait to see Christmas", I think hes gonna be a little disapointed. Also, somone somehow pulled an extinsion cord, making us lose all power, which freaked a few kids out, that was pretty cool, haha. Overall it was a fantastic night!


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## HELLRIDER304 (Sep 28, 2008)

Hi all. After a tough couple months battling bad weather & many prop mulfunctions, last night went off great. We had around 50 TOT's. I was expecting a few more than that it being Friday night and all but oh well. The only minor thing was that the brand new,just out of the box fogger for the cauldron quit toward the end of the evening. I took it apart this morning, it was just clogged ( I knew better than to use old fluid). Hope to have some pics soon.


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## DoctorShadow (Sep 18, 2008)

I had a GREAT night! I handed out over 1300 pieces of candy. I have figured this to add up to 350 to 400 TOTs!!! 

This was by far the BEST Halloween I have ever had. I got many great compliments and people took a lot pictures. I also scared a few people too. One woman jumped back in the car and left. Great night!


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## ithurt (Jun 23, 2008)

the good : people down the street were talking about the great pumpkin, after seeing my scare crow, Mr Tickles!
the bad : rained all night


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## Fiend4Halloween (Aug 28, 2008)

Everything went great, a bit odd though. I had a lot of car & human traffic, at times, more adults than children. People came up saying how my haunt stood out from so far away, how amazed they were at the props and setup, and that they've come from across town to go through my haunted house. After several people finding me and asking about if I'm running a haunted house, I said "no, it's just my home haunt. I decorated and am handing out candy, but you can give me $5 and I'll scare the hell 'outta ya'!" Guess people had described my haunt as a haunted house, which others misinterpreted as a fright attraction, so they came in packs! Oh well, everyone loved the haunt, lots of pics taken, lots of new people met, and a great time discussing Halloween and props......I'm still on my Halloween high, I love it !!


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## Black Cat (Aug 20, 2005)

Most embarrassing thing was when a lady came up to me and asked me where I got my victorian looking doll carriage. I knew I was snagged at that point so I said I got it at Curbies..... She knew right away that I had gotten it from her house on garbage night. She loved that I used it in the haunt. She even told me she has lots more victorian and old doll stuff that she's getting rid off. She said when she does the clean out she'll just drop it off in my driveway instead of at her curb. Woo Hoo I got curbies coming right to my door step.

Weird thing that happened was a group of 15 all kids except for Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma was in a wheelchair with one leg fully extended out, Trick or Treat bag on her lap and holding a Dunkin Donuts coffee cup in one hand. The Kids mostly teens went through the haunt and came out breathless and screaming. I handed each one a chip bag and sent them on there way. Each kid one by one came back to ask me for a treat for Grandma. AH no, only costumed tots get treats. There response was Grandma is dressed up in a wheelchair with her leg up. Ah sorry my response is still no, at which point I promptly closed the tote I was using for treats. 

Gave out less chips and juice boxes this year as the kids came out running after the scares and just ran right past the treat station and out to safe territory. 

Nov. 1st walking through the haunt picking up garbage left behind by the toters and parents as well.......................Beer bottles 1/2 full, bag of quarters, flashlight, pink and black feathers, squashed candy bars, and a baggie full of medication.


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

"baggie full of medication"!!?? I need to get some of THOSE TOTers! Momma could USE some "medication" right now....

I had a group of adults lined up, and one asked when they could go in...same thing: they thought it was a walk through haunted house!


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## HauntCast (Jul 25, 2008)

Best quotes which I caught on video "I love your scary house, you rock!" & "It gets scarier every year".
I also heard a guy say "this guy is sitting back in his living room laughing his A%* off", to which I popped out of my kitchen door and said "no my kitchen, but yes I am laughing my A$% off" . I happened to have a beer in my hand and so did they and we all tinked glasses.

The only thing that went wrong is that the wires to my grave jumper came undone and I had to splice the wires back together. It was only down for 5 minutes. And some punk dumper the candy bowl into his bag and I chased him out of my yard. It was the end of the night and I still had 5 bags of candy, so it didn't matter.


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## GothicCandle (Mar 26, 2007)

forgot about this story...

A boy, eleven or so comes up the drive way. I'm sitting there holding the candy. I say hello but he ignores me. He goes up the walk way and ignores my mom who is standing there and ignores all my props. He then begins knocking on the door! I say to him
"Ummm hello! We live here." He then says "Oh." and comes back down the walk way onto the driveway get his candy. Ignores all my props and leaves.


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## hedg12 (Jul 6, 2008)

My neighbor's 3 year old daughter walked right up to my grave popper, calmly watched it for about 3 or 4 cycles, and then ran screaming back to her dad. I guess it took her a bit to decide that it was scary!


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## Spartan005 (Mar 13, 2007)

Well this actually happened the day after halloween (we opened a day longer to raise more $) but I went to the spirit store to check out there sales. I wound up getting to severed arms, a full overhead leatherface mask and an animated frankenstein prop that retailed for $250 all for just $110 with tax. 

When it came time to open I dressed up as leatherface and borrowed my neighbors reciprocating saw and practically stalked these two 12 or 13 year old girls standing on my sidewalk. I stared them down for about a minute before taking one small step forward. They immediately stepped back as I stepped forward again. Finally I full out sprinted after them, blasting the saw at the same time. 

I think I ran 7 houses down from where I started and I even made one girls shoes fall off in the process lol. that turned into my job for basically the rest of the night and it was awesome


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## Trix (Oct 6, 2008)

I have 2 favourites for the night. The first one is a little girl who really didn't want to come in..she ran out of the yard screaming and unfortunately fell in a mud puddle. She was wrecked for the night...kind of her mom's fault for basically dragging her in when she didn't want to come. 

But the best was this little guy dressed as Jason. He was probably about 5 or 6 and when I jumped out of the coffin with the chainsaw he just stopped, looked at me and said "I can't die" and walked away. It was hilarious.


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## blacklightmike (Nov 2, 2008)

All of my mechanical props worked flawlessly through the past week, through unseasonably low temps and freezing rain, even some hail and frost... it warmed up on Thursday when the sun came back out, and by Friday, the temps were in the low 60's for the holiday.

So, naturally, the mechanicals started acting up. The nodding head on my grave grabber pulled it's cable loose, and my sinister wolfman behind the bushes wasn't reaching out with his claws as far as he had, so off I went on into the graveyard to make repairs, which, of course, didn't take. I shrugged it off after an hour of explaining to passersby why I was lurking about amongst my props.

For the most part, it still all looked okay, except for poor wolfie... his reaching arms limited by slacked wires, he did a little full body shimmy instead of an attack. No one complained, though, and there were plenty of compliments to offset these minor issues.

One young lad, though, came and was fixated on the wolf, and a look of terror filled his face, as happens occasionally when one sees something that strikes that magic, scary chord in one's heart. I came up to him, and squatting down to his eye level, said "Don't worry about him... look! He must be afraid of you! He's shaking!" His eyes darted over to mine, and a sheepish grin escaped his face as he turned to walk back to mom. 

Diffusion through mechanical negligence all worked out in the end.

Of course, there was the 70 year old Italian lady who was so enamored with my handiwork that I think she was ready to kidnap me and take me home, but that is another story for another day.

-Mike


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## Spooklights (Jul 4, 2006)

Priceless Event of the Night; Two older women came up to the porch to compliment me on the decorations. They didn't notice my hubby standing off to the side in his black clothing and skull mask. He snuck up behind them and when they turned around and saw him they were screaming like school girls. Chalk one up for Hubby. (they were laughing afterward; said it was the first time in a long time that anybody tried to scare them.)
Also, a teenage girl stopped by, I guess she was around 16 or 17. She said she just came by to say 'hi' because she used to come by every year for trick or treat, and wanted to see if we still decorated. I was glad she remembered us, even though it did make me feel a little bit old.


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

I forgot to mention:
we TOTreated at a neighbor's great yard haunt. He gets a ton of people as he is on a better street. When we got there, the sidewalk was impassable due to the crowds of people watching, and others coming & going from the porch. The owner was running around chasing teens with a chainsaw & Leatherface mask...it was great. My 11 year old didn't even want to go NEAR the whole place...but my 4 1/2 year old wasn't fazed a bit. She wriggled her hand out of mine (!!.. there was no way I could follow her, it was so crowded), and as I watched like a hawk, she snaked her way through the crowds and stomped up the stairs, got her treat and was done. She wasn't scared a bit. I was laughing & asked her why she wasn't scared to go up there, and she said "That's not scary, Mom. I just wanted to get some candy!". 

Well, my 11 year old wasn't about to be bested by her little sister, so she tryed to screw up the fortitude to go up for candy...she got jostled in the crowd, got pissed and stomped back, candyless & scowling...too funny.


d5


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## Great White (Jan 18, 2006)

Our night was a success! We ended up setting up a 20x20 tent that the kids went through, that led to the garage. I divided the tent and decorated accordingly. Being that we did this all in one day, I really didn't have a working plan on setting up. It still worked out well. Next year I'll have a better idea on how to set it up. Anyway, we had around 225 kids.
One of the simplest props was a dishwasher box, painted, that my sisterinlaw and I flew out of when kids went by. I used the old disctraction technique of having them look at something else, and then I'd jump out. It was classic. We had kids, women and old men running for their lives!! On a down note, I had my friend bring her camcorder. She couldn't get the "night mode" to work so I have no video of the night. That sucked. I need to invest in a camcorder. We had Jello-o shots and many drinks. Afterwards, we took a group and walked the other haunt a few houses down. Very cool. At 10pm I cut the haunted music, and transformed the garage into a karaoke party. We sang until 130am. The weather was perfect. 65/45.


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## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

My two contributions to the haunt I was at were my RC zombie and some sounds for a few rooms. The costume was an afterthought... an existing grey wool cloak with about 8 packs of different-shaded creepy cloth torn up and stitched to it, with my face behind a blackout veil under the hood... and amazingly enough it scared the hell out of a lot of people. I guess it's how you carry yourself. Anyway, the crawler was a hit. I had some fun with that.

I'd walk up to the queue line from around back carrying the torso prop and set it down and lovingly pat its head like it was a prized pet. Then I'd walk about 15 feet away and stand still. People would be looking at the prop and ignore me, not seeing me extending the antenna of the remote under my cloak  . Eventually someone would go up to take a closer look and then one arm would move and people would sorta freak. Then the other. Just a quick slight motion here and there... and then it would crawl at them. People were amazed. One girl in her 20s was entranced by it... she'd go up to it and walk past, trying to "trigger" it (they thought it was some sort of motion control or something), and it would rotate, following her... when she went back to the line it would hesitantly take a few crawls after her like it liked her... but when she'd come forward and try to pet it, it would get all shy and suddenly crawl backwards away from her. I'm telling ya, I heard so many theories of how it could act like that, and no one even suggested that *I* was controlling it!! Oh yeah, and of course he got a lot of "Here boy, here boy!" and whistles. Best line of the night: "Do they have a dog under there?" I'm glad I had that black cloth covering my face because I was silently laughing my a$$ off. Good times.


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