arien

[Disclaimer: There will be pictures posted, but stories must be told first. If you're unable to restrain yourself, feel free to scroll down]

To all of you who thought Halloween was over, I feel sorry for you. Halloween, dear sir or mam, is a state of mind, not a just a holiday. It is the second largest celebrated season with good reason: it's fucking awesome.

I tend to live and breathe this stuff through most of my life. I work to make the season better when it's usually the furthest thing on everyone else's mind. I've been in the haunted house industry in one way or another since I was five years old. So yes, it might take me away from other fun projects like this one from time to time... but I get to make some amazing things.

I know you all haven't heard from me for about a month. It has been exhausting but fun, as usual. I worked nightly at Eleventh Hour Haunted House in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. My character got enough attention to get a bit of a fan base going. You would be surprised how many people tried to take me home with them!

But I wanted to take a little break from my busy schedule of trying to finally put together my Halloween party for this Saturday. We had a little haunt swap with Statesville Haunted Prison in Crest Hill, Illinois that I find worth sharing. A group from the cast of Statesville came to visit us on the eve of Halloween. I didn't know any of them before, and I was the main line entertainment. So I treated them as normal customers and worked on making them uncomfortable. But I soon picked up that these were not a normal group (as if there is any such thing as normal at Halloween). They warned me that I wouldn't scary them, so I innocently asked why I would want to do such a thing. Haunted houses are for fun after all, right?

Well, they very quickly warmed up to me, tried to steal me for their own haunt, take me home with them to play, and of course try to make me break character. But not even when the very tall boy offered a hug inside his sweatshirt jacket to keep me a little warmer in the 30 degree weather did I falter (although I was very appreciative of the warmth!!). They very much approved and continued to give thumbs up for the whole house.

Eleventh Hour had so much fun with their visit that they decided to return the favor. We all went out the Friday after Halloween to have our own tour of Statesville. We had a total of 22 people in our group that night.



Yes I had to take two pictures... and I'm pretty sure I'm missing people.



Their house is a bit larger than ours, so there were VERY many actors roaming the lines before we went in.



And most of these people know each other for various reasons. All of them knew we were from Eleventh Hour. That means the normal rules ended up not applying to us. The "don't touch the monsters and the monsters wont touch you" rule was thrown out the window almost immediately. I think I came in contact with three different peoples spit that night... (good think I love this stuff)



But they kept their act going no matter what kind of fun we had. I give them props. I have respect for people who stay in character like I do. It was very difficult to take pictures, but I think that ended up making them all the better.



Every once in a while I got a pose.



Realistically, I think there are about 2000 pictures of me as a doll maker floating around the web right now because my character was so slow that I just posed for pictures constantly. I accidentally found my picture while searching google images for reference in illustrating the Eleventh Hour shirt design.



Anywho, this here is a picture with Fluffy. He is one of the best actors you'll find in a haunt around Chicago. This is not only my opinion. He was a cowinner of best actor and actress voted by customers on Chicago Halloween Guide. He had a little of everything. And he was able to creep you out, scare you, make you laugh, and make you want to hug and/or dance with him all in the same five minutes. Again, props.



We eventually got into the actual house, which means sadly there are no fun pictures like this.



But I must say, this was the most fun I had as a customer of a haunt because I ended up still becoming a part of the show. This wonderful actor is the same guy that let me warm up under his sweatshirt. He was acting in the "shower room" wearing nothing but a large diaper and a robe. Don't worry, he made it look good. And he had you sing along with him in the showers, in his own creepy and hilarious way. When I got to the front I ran up to him smiling and said, "I'm the doll maker!" Well, that's all he needed because he opened up his robe, wrapped it around me, picked me up and threw me against the wall to "attack" me. I was already playing the "I'm so scared of haunted houses that I scream and run every chance I get" character as I was going through. Yes, I get to see more of people's acting that way. No, I do not actually get scared in haunted houses. You would have to work really hard for that one. Either way, when he picked me up, I started screaming and became a part of the act. Actually I think I freaked out some of the other customers. Tee hee... But it was fucking awesome and totally made my night. This picture is from the end of the night since I couldn't take one in the moment:



So I went through the whole haunt eventually and came out alive in the end. Took a picture with Teddy to show my excitement.



Of course, I was compiling information in my head on what I would change, what was good, what was distracting, what was repetitive, how I could make it better, what that all means for when I'm working on more haunt sets, etc. But that doesn't mean I don't have a wonderful time. It just means I like it enough to want it to always be better.

Awesomely enough, they allowed us a little backstage tour after closing. Well, I guess you could call it "above stage" since they have access to all the rooms from a specially built second floor.



And we got to see the cast area with costumes and makeup and the mass horde of people all finishing up for the night.



All I can say is, amazing night: I'm certainly liking my new group of friends and coworkers.




I hope you all enjoyed your Halloween season and that at least some of you are keeping it going as long as possible. I have to get back to decorating now. So far my bathroom is quite infested with spiders...