Wild Nights at the Haunt

I must warn you, this post is long. I'm just rambling on and on about the haunted house over the course of the past two weekends describing the happenings, experiences and more :)

I thought our opening weekend at the Dungeon of Darkness went really well and would be hard to top. Turns out we had over 500 people go through that first weekend which is a great number. Although I don't know our exact numbers for this weekend, I do know it was a lot more. We had people lined up all the way out the door both nights! I must say that the front room holds a good 100+ people so I can't even imagine what it looked like up there with everyone. To be honest, many of us thought it would be a slow weekend because of Pekin Highs homecoming parade, celebration, game and dance. Not so much. I am pretty anxious to see what the numbers were for the weekend though.

But what made these WILD nights at the haunt you may ask? Well, for starters Friday evening I arrived in costume with a throbbing headache. I took something for it, but when you are lacking sleep, your body thinks it wants to get a cold, and you have to be in character for five hours screaming, it isn't a good combo. I don't believe I have ever vomited because of a head ache before, but Friday night was the first. I held off for a good two hours, but with about 20 minutes left for the night I had to get a replacement. I hated to do it, but it was either that or let loose in someone's face. As bad as this may sound, we had a bunch of cocky punk kids come through that night and I must say it would have been funny if I had done something like that. A lot of the others actors made that same comment to me after wards. So at least I know it wasn't just Matt and I who were annoyed.

Moving on to Saturday night. Just to warn you I will go off on a couple tangents. Saturday evening had people out the door within the first hour of being opened instead of the usual crowd around 10:00. Needless to say we were so busy, that no one got a break for the whole five hours. It is hard on the actors, but good for the business. When you know the haunt's proceeds are going to the Boys and Girls Club, it makes it worth it. Besides time goes by faster when there is a constant flow. I was feeling better, but decided not to do a bunch of screaming. Matt made me look like he had stitched my lips shut. Fearing that we wouldn't have a good enough scare we asked another woman (was all done up to take my place thinking I wasn't going to be there because of the night before) to lay on the stretcher, hurt and begging for help. The three of us worked well together. I still scared the crap out of people when I jumped out from the shadows, Matt still added fear and humor to the act with his Skinner character's multiple personality and "I'm gonna kill you" among other comments, and Pam did an amazing job reaching out for help as people headed out the exit.

We didn't have too many gawkers or annoying folks come through like on Friday. However, there were a lot of people who brought their little kids that night. I am not talking about kids that are 6 years or older I am talking 2 and 3 year olds. I do not understand why parents subject their small children to a haunted house of this nature. When you have to carry your child while they cry their eyes out and bury their face into your shoulder trying to hide from the scary people, you shouldn't bring them. Not to mention the parents don't get the scare, because most actors refuse to play their part. Personally, I don't jump out of my dark corner. I sit there with a disgusted look on my face, which they can't see because it's dark and I am covered in makeup. It's a pet peeve of mine.

On a more positive note, most of the people who came through the haunt on Saturday were pretty good. Although, there were some who didn't even make it through. One of our friends who plays Micheal Meyers and will not come out of character for anything (had 3 Pekin policemen draw their guns on him first weekend, never once came out of character or say one word), got sucker punched in the throat by some little punk teenage girl. He wasn't even near her. She ran up from the side. Without saying a word he grabbed a "supervisor" and pointed at the girl. You know something is wrong if he came out of character enough to do that. Needless to say, the girl was kicked out and I believe her friends chose to leave too. There were a couple groups of drunk people as well that were escorted out. The clever way of getting them out is by asking them to come with you. "Come here guys. I want to show you something." Well that something is the front of the building. It is not only for our protection but also for the enjoyment of the viewers as a whole. Right around midnight a group of four came in. Two were so intoxicated that they wobbled straight into the bathroom. They were not allowed to go through, however, the more sober ones were. The police were called because no one wanted them driving. Not only for their own safety, but for all of us that were going to be leaving soon.

The things you see and experience while helping at a haunted house are quite interesting. Sometimes scary, other times frustrating, but all in all the experience as a whole is a lot of fun. When you scare someone really good, it makes the whole night for you. Grown men who scream and race out of the room are my favorite. They usually are the ones that act so macho and mouth off. Teenage girls are easy scares. The one scare that is my personal favorite thus far, would be the teenage boy who came in and went straight for the body bag on the stretcher. He didn't see me in the dark corner since he had zeroed in on the stretcher. He no more that got his hands on the body bag when I jumped out and did my thing. He literally flew across the floor about 8+ feet or more and landed on his hands and knees in front of Matt's butcher table. "Holy Sh**!" came out of his mouth as he took about 20 seconds to catch his breath and regain his composure. His parents just looked at him and laughed. Later we found out he had been touching props in every room. It is upsetting because we put so much hard work into building and creating each room. I guess my scare was payback :) That was the first weekend and I must say I can still see the look on his face. It still brings a smile to my face every time I think about it.

No pictures this entry. Going to have to wait until next weekend. Matt and I photographed ourselves and our room, but I still need pics of the others. Steak 'n Shake next Saturday after the haunt is wrapped up in full costumes. Matt and I are going to gross everyone out like last year. Good Times!!!! :) Till then. . .