The Pumpkin Carver: Halloween 2018

Happy Halloween!!! The haunt was successful last night with loads of help and lots of trick or treaters. We got 154 trick or treaters--not the lowest or the highest, but respectable. Michael and Natalie dressed up as hazmat government guy and demogorgon, respectively. Michael managed to creep them out coming in by scanning them with a real geiger counter (sans batteries, but still), then Natalie would freak them out as they exited, having been hidden behind the forest tapestry while they came in. For the littler ones, there was just a wave from the scary demogorgon.

On the inside of the porch, I was sitting with a tangled ball of lights and a bowl of candy. Sam and Mondo were inside, working the alphabet lights and the tangled ball of lights that were on a foot pedal switch and could be flickered. One of them was also sitting behind the wall ready to stretch their hands through. It got even better when Mondo grabbed one of the skulls laying about and pushed that through. The jaw was closed, and then as the fabric pushed against it, opened up, which was hella creepy. At first a lot of the kids didn't notice the wall, so we figured out a routine where I reacted to the wall and pointing or asking the kids 'did you see that?!?' and then staring at the wall. It was a good routine that managed to get them to notice the wall and then whoever was behind it would obligingly push a hand or skull through. Lots of freaked out kids. And lots of adults came as well--those were the ones that lingered and noticed all the little details from the series--a lot of the kids knew the basics, but not all the details. Although there were quite a few kids who did. The bulk of the kids hit us up before 8--after that we held out for a few stragglers, but by 9 we hadn't seen anyone for a good 15 minutes and our toes were freezing, so we decided to close up shop.

Memorable moments:

The group of adults that hung out and noticed every little detail, complimenting the work and attention paid to everything. They (apparently) come every year to check out what I put up that year.
The girl dressed as Pennywise from IT--nailed the costume--creepiest thing I saw all night. Very sweet girl though who was very complimentary about the haunt.
The last band of teenage girls who were very good screamers and who also loved Stranger Things, so were way excited about the props.
Peeking out through the wall and seeing Natalie mock chase Michael in her demogorgon suit.
Natalie doing a dance in the demogorgon suit.
One boy who was convinced that the wall had robots behind it until the lights started flickering and the skull turned towards him.
The group (who knew what stranger things was) that I managed to keep a straight face for when the lights started creepily flickering and I scared/whispered "RUN!"...and then they did...straight into the arms of Natalie as demogorgon...and then oh the screaming! They almost all forgot to get a treat, lol!