# What's your best ToT story?



## Wyvern_Tamer (Sep 27, 2010)

A couple years ago we had a middle school aged boy walk through our haunt and make a big deal about how he wasn't scared and mocking some of the decorations. All night my mom and my aunt were acting the part of evil, all-knowing witches and talking in creepy voices and the like to creep out the ToTs. As the boy was making his brave spiel my mom slunk over to him and in her creepiest voice asked, "Are you sure we didn't scare you, Micheal?" The boy went pale and his friends were asking him how she knew his name. My aunt even joined in and with a background in theater, she played along great. He just stared at them, got his candy and left. 

What Michael didn't know, was that my mom worked at the middle school that he attended and being the food service manager there she knew a lot of the kids names and faces while they don't know her's. Needless to say that was the funniest thing I had ever seen.

What about you guys? Any epic ToT stories you can share?


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## Pumpkin5 (Aug 8, 2010)

*j*

:jol: Last year we had great fun scaring the trick or treaters. I finally convinced my husband to dress up as a werewolf and he had the complete outfit. He had the two piece mask that he can eat and talk while wearing, the wolf hands that go all the way up his arms, the furry feet and the fur shirt that he wears under a shredded flannel shirt. I black out his eyes so no flesh is showing and he looks great. Well on Halloween night I pull out all my full sized props and have them in various places on our front porch and in the yard. Well we had this group of 5 teenage girls come up to the front door and they are all kind of screaming and ahhing and oohing over all the decorations and my husband is standing perfectly still with his arm propped against one of my skeleton faced reapers. The girls are all laughing and pointing and one of them points at the werewolf and asks if he is real or fake. And I look at her in my creepiest witch voice and say, "They are all REAL my pretty, and sometimes they move" and with that my husband jumps and growls and the girls turn to run and two of them fall over each other and it was like a three stooges movie with them trying to get up and falling all over themselves. I don't think I have ever laughed that hard, and they were good sports about it and actually got an extra candy bar for the show! It was hilarious. This year I have a whole "Wolf Pack" coming over as well as the usual 4 or 5 witches and assorted other ghouls. I think I'll film it this year....watch out You tube!


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## niblique71 (Dec 2, 2009)

There is always this huge gaggle of kids from the cluster of homes up the block. Last year, one Power Ranger kid walked ahead of the group anxious to get his candy. I triggered my pneumatic lunger. This kid jumped about 3' high turning as he did with his legs already moving just like a bugs bunny cartoon. He litterrally hit the ground running back to the group. The cute part was his younger sister came uyp the driveway... got a little scared but made it through the gauntlett up to the candy area. She immediately turned to her parents and said "See mom.... I can do it... I made it... See mom???). It was SOOOOOO Cute and funny. Her Brother finally came up about 10 minutes later, Grabbed his candy and ran back down... TOOOOO Funny!!!


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## nunyabidness (Oct 30, 2008)

*Got the Dad*

Last year I was done up just as a basic Zombie-type, nothing special, but I do have a pretty good yard setup and between the lighting, props, fog and music it is a pretty creepy yard to come up to. No one else on the street even tries, so that makes it stand out even more. I had a Latino family come up, three little kids, oldest maybe around six or seven, so I wasn't going to do anything big to them. I was just sitting on the porch, waiting, but none of them would come up. The Dad said something in Spanish, (I don't speak it, but I am assuming it was something to the effect of "It's just a dummy, go on up to the door").  That wasn't happening, kids were not budging, so the Dad strolls up to show them. So, of course, now I had to play the part and just froze up solid, actually limp so the Dad would still think I was a dummy. He gets up next to me and turns around to tell the kids that it's ok, he's actually kind of infront of me so he couldn't see me when he turned around. I simply stood up, no screaming or grabbing or anything. He kinda blocked the families view of me, I think, because none of them made any indication they saw me, or they really wanted to see Dad get it. He turned back around towards me and stood there for a full two or three seconds staring at me, then literally jumped straight up into the air like you see in the Scooby Doo cartoons, arms and legs out to the side and everything. I jumped a little myself, cause he startled me and I have been punched before during a Halloween scare, but then I got to laughing my ass off over the way that he jumped. Of course when he jumped his kids lost it and were running for the street. I had to give their candy to their Mom, Dad wouldn't come back up to the porch.


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## Acid PopTart (Oct 29, 2007)

It's so much fun to read these stories! Thanks to all for sharing! It's so funny to see kids brag and then get scared or how the youngest child braves the guantlet and her older siblings can't make it! And scaring parents is fabulous.

I have two stories, both from the same night. Before I bought a house, we use to go to my parent's and take over their front yard with a display. Nothing too elaborate mind you. But on our street, we were "the house". That year I created a fake open grave that we had a foam body (from my time at art school) in, staked and bloody. We had the open grave lit with lanterns and fog, and a pile of dirt/dead leaves beside the grave as if it was freshly dug. My brother was sort of the grave keeper, my other brother was in one of those clown costumes that made me afraid of clowns and I was.... well normal me. Seriously. Just all gothed up in my red vinyl Morticia dress, long black hair, heavy make up.

The set up was rather simple, it was the execution that made it play so beautifully. My brother would do the still statue thing, my grave keeper brother would sort of play spy and/or hide, and I would be hiding....... in the pile of leaves beside the grave. My mom would give out candy and give us indication of approaching TOTs, especially those you could hear bragging how nothing scared them. I got several braggers as they were staring into the open grave and I pop up out of the pile of dirt and debris, one nearly fell *into* the grave!

One particular kid was trying to show his friend that it was all good, all of us were statues and we were doing a good job of proving that. Until his friend turned his back on my clown brother to show it was all fake and turned back around to meet the clown in a different position and screamed and ran off.

But the best was a very loud mouth teen, pretty intent on ruining it all and talking about how *nothing* scared him. How everything was fake and he knew us "statues" were real people and tried to get us to move, which me and my one brother just refused to move or talk or anything. So he took his candy and left. As he was leaving the driveway and snickering, my brother couldn't see much in that huge scary clown mask so I quietly whispered "let's get him" and we started to advance down the driveway quietly in a zombie like fashion..... his friends could see us behind him and started to scream, the teen finally turns around and is face to face with me and I say, "_What's a matter poppet? Cat got your tongue?_" in probably a horrid English accent which my mates will smack me for. Anyhoo, he took off and we kept on him.... up the street..... he was throwing candy at us. It pretty much made our night.


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## NytDreams (Sep 10, 2009)

I think our best time was last year when a dad went through with his young son. Our set-up has a walkway up the middle of the front yard, then goes along the front of the house to the backyard where all heck breaks loose. Well, this dad took his little boy all the way through to the exit at the driveway. We have one particularly delightful teen actor who really scares people and he was hiding in the shadows along the driveway side of the house.
This actor followed behind the dad and his kid for a few feet, real close, until dad noticed him and RAN out into the street...leaving his kid behind! The poor kid was alone in the driveway, not even sure what was going on...thankfully he just walked along and caught up with the oh-so-brave dad. Some parenting skills there! 

Other than that, we had one teen girl who loudly proclaimed that she'd peed herself after going through. Like I'd announce something like that...but hey, at least we know we scared her.


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## BioHazardCustoms (Aug 5, 2009)

Three years ago, I was working at a local charity haunt a few miles from my house. They have celebrity guests come through almost every weekend. I worked the clown room or as a night stalker(camo-walled room and we wear military issue ghillie suits that blend into the walls.) There are three instances I remember quite well.

First was Tyler Mane. Guy's a great actor, and IMO made a good Michael Myers, before Rob Zombie took it too far with H2. On the night in question, I was working on the floor level as a clown, and I used to old, "actor imitating an animatronic" tactic for the most part. He stopped our security guy right in front of me, and was asking where they bought this awesome clown animatronic. Then I reached out and shook his hand. I thought he was gonna pass out! He told me to come up and shake his hand after we closed for the night, that he had something for me. At the end of the night, when he came in to meet the cast, I walked up and shook his hand. He gave me a signed Michael Myers mask that still holds a place of honor in my mask cabinet.(That sounds like something a serial killer would have in his living room)

Second was Michael Bailey Smith. Great guy, was as nice as could be. I had heard of him, but didn't know if I was a fan or not before this. This night, I was also a clown. I pestered this guy all the way through our room, and he never paid me any attention. After the clown room, you enter a dark corridor with a pop-out scare at the end. I kept messing with him all the way down the hall, up until about 6 or 7 feet from the end. He turned backwards to ask me if I wanted to come with him, and the pop-out got him. A great bit of misdirection, if you ask me.

Third, and possibly my favorite was the one and only Robert Englund. This night I was in the night stalker room. I had heard over the radio that he was having fun with the other rooms. this room was right before what we called last seen(Last Scene) so I knew we had to get him. I hid right next to the door. I'm talking close enough to beep his nose when he enters the room. He walks in and gives me a hug. I still don't know how he saw me, but I give him credit for throwing me off balance. I didn't let him beat me, though. At the far end of the room was a wall that's about 6 feet high or so. As he rounded the end of it, I ran and jumped so that I would hit it high enough to "fold" over the top. I made him duck and scream, so I count it as a win. Only cracked two ribs in the attempt. LOL, fun times.


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## Haunted Spider (Sep 6, 2010)

As this is my first year out of an apartment, I don't have a good TOT story from my home. 

When I was younger though, about 12 I think, I went to my grandparents home which was just down from a University. I cut out a pumpkin from the bottom and wore it on my head and stuffed straw out of my sleeves and pant legs. Then I just sat next to the candy bowl. I had a group of two guys and two girls from the college come by. The guys swore I was real and made the girl who wasn't afraid come up. She used a small flashlight to look in my mask but I had a full stocking hood on so it just looked back. She then tapped on my knee and I didn't move. After declaring to her friends I wasn't real, she turned around to grab some candy and I jumped at her. She fell backwards on the porch and one of her guy friends who was braving the steps fell off them. I think that is what got me hooked on Halloween. 

A few years after that, in my college days, I worked at a haunt for Make a Wish. We painted a hallway checkered and made the end look like it went on forever. Simple art trick but with a strobe light, you couldn't tell until you got close. 
We had a group of girls coming into the hallway. Right before you go into the hall, an actor took an air chisel to a steel drum which makes an awful racket. The girls ran into the hallway. My door was right at the hallway entrance, I swung it up and screamed. The girls took off running. One didn't stop. She slammed into the wall at the other end thinking the hallway kept going. She actually took the door off the hinges that was dead center of the wall, painted over. One of the best scares I have ever seen. I wish I had that one on video.


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## Hanke's_Haunt (Oct 14, 2013)

We had a friend who dressed as a clown with a hatchet in our old yard haunt. He would lay up against the base of a tree like he was a dummy and wait patiently for his chosen victim to walk by. One boy dressed in a football uniform, complete with cleats, kept saying that "this place isn't so scary" and acting cocky - until he walked by the clown, who jumped out and started chopping the sidewalk around his cleats with his hatchet. This kid was trying to run away so fast, that he was skidding out with his cleats on the walkway. It was a crack up and really made our night.


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## RLukard (Sep 18, 2010)

My best story was when I had a display in dining room. In my old trailer house we had the dining room at the front of the house, so I put up dim lighting and cobwebs. One year the front door closed by itself, maybe because it was so old. There were two little girls, maybe 4 and 3, whose eyes were really wide as I stepped back three feet, and the door slowly closed by itself. I will never forget the looks on their faces. Another year, a six year old girl covered her eyes the whole time and said she wasn't scared. Various kids gasped as my skeleton glove came out of the door and opened it. I had another door next to the front door and I would open it about a couple of inches, and have green light come out of it. I think it was 2009 a kid was curious as to what was behind the door and saw me in my skull mask and jumped.


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## Fright Boy (Oct 1, 2014)

I have a few really good ones I could share, but this might be my favorite.
A few years ago I had bought one of those animated heads in a globe and built a plinth for it to sit on; I had only put this out for the first time the year before. This year a 4yo goes up to it and is just staring at it. He turns back to his Mom and points at the prop. The Mom says "Oohhh, so that's what he's been talking about." I looked confusingly at her because they had only just gotten there. She tells me that for the past year he would randomly ask them if that man in the ball was ok and they said they had no clue what he was talking about. She said he would bring it up at various times, like riding in the car in the middle of July. I thought it was awesome that something in my haunt could make such an impression on someone so young. 
Here is "that man in the ball."


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## Dreadmakr (Jun 20, 2018)

My haunt has a spider theme. I have two spirit Halloween jumping spiders (one brown, one black). I have something like two dozen other spiders of various sizes, and several spider webs scatter around the display. About two years ago, I hung a large spider from a tree branch directly over the side walk. It was rigged on a line so that when I tripped a release, it would drop down to just above head height, with several of it's legs reaching even lower. 
Early that Halloween, a group of four or five teenage boys were walking home after school, right past our house. I heard them making jokes about the display, and how it would never scare them. You know how teenage boys can be.
Anyway, I decided to prove them wrong. I waited until they were almost under the spider hanging in the tree, and let it drop. They all screamed like little girls. One of them ran across the street.in terror. several other ran past in a blurr. But my favorite was the one that dove for the grass and tried o crawl away.
I laughed my head off at them. Once they figure out what happened, they also began laughing at each other.
Every time I thought of it for the rest of the evening, I would start to laugh again.
I scared other TOTs that Halloween. But none were as pleasing as scaring those big brave teenage boys.


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## Dreadmakr (Jun 20, 2018)

I just remember the first time I decided to do something special for Halloween. I was nineteen I think. 
I put on an old graduation gown I had, powdered my face and hair with baby powder, and drew some age lines on my face. I pulled an old beat up chair I used at my work bench, and sat it just inside the door. I had purchased a haunt sound effects record, and had it playing on the stereo, and I put a strobe light on the floor, pointing up at me in the chair with the candy bowl.
When I heard the TOTs coming, I would sit very still, with my head hung down. Most kids and parents thought I was some kind of Halloween prop. 
As the kids got close enough, I would slowly raise my head, and put on a toothy grin.
I gave away very little candy that year. It seems that for some unknown reason the little TOTs kept running away, back to their parents, screaming and crying. I loved it.


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## Fiend4Halloween (Aug 28, 2008)

I was plugging in my last animatronic (Dr. Giggles) prop to finish the mad scientist area and my haunt it ready to start. I noticed an older couple standing at the curve looking at my home and motioned them to come over. The woman held up her cellphone and gestured to take photos. I found that they spoke no English but were from Russia visiting their family and walked around the neighborhood having not really experienced Halloween before. They walked around, got scared by sensor props, fog machines, music, lights, etc. and after, gave it a thumbs up and while holding their phone, said "Facebook Russia". and I got excited to know I'd be on Russian FB since they video/photographed my haunt!! Before leaving, the woman went to her car and brought me a HUGE chocolate bar that looked like Hershey's but it was in Russian. She explained it was the Hershey version but Russian style, from Russia (btw, it was gross and tasted like coffee!) but a great gesture and gift, I still have the wrapper. I taught her and her husband to say Trick or Treat and had them reach in my coffin for some American candy which they loved. It was a great experience.


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