Happy Halloween!

[cdfisk]

Happy Halloween everybody! http://www.octoberlounge.com/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif How&#39;s everybody going to celebrate the big day? I went to a couple haunts yesterday night because I have to work today, but they were cool. I can well imagine the lines for the Asylum will be even longer today, but I hope to go there next season.

[moodeous]

http://www.octoberlounge.com/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif

YAY HALLOWEEN! I&#39;m looking forward to a whirlwind day of fun which began by dressing my dog "in drag" and taking him to dog daycare to be laughed at by all the other dogs! Tonight we&#39;ll dress up and hand out some candy before running off to the local pub quiz in costume. YAY HALLOWEEEEEEEN!

And you know what I completely forgot to tell everyone? I do!

It&#39;s that I went to Boulder HS Haunt on Saturday and completely neglected to mention that its REALLY GREAT! I bet they&#39;ll have long lines tonight on their closing night, but if you&#39;re in Boulder and have $6 to support theater and see a cool house check it out. They open at 6 (or did on Saturday) and are located on Arapahoe and like 14th I think.

Anyway quick review. This haunt starts out really well, builds to some really cool scenes, keeps the "INFECTED" theme throughout and stepped up their sets from last year. However, its kind of short compared to the pro haunts in the area. Either way I was impressed. When we came out and talked to the student who put it together I told him I thought it looked a lot like this years Brutal Planet in spaces and he revealed that he&#39;d worked for them a couple years back doing set design. Ultimately Boulder High is a lot of fun, a great group of talented young people to support and definitely worth $6 for a quick fun scare in Boulder!

Have a happy one!

[Luv2BScared]

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m90/kskrop/IMG_8624.jpg


This is what I was doing....

These are from my front yard tonight. There were kids too scared to come into my yard to get candy!!

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m90/kskrop/IMG_8633.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m90/kskrop/IMG_8632.jpg

[ghia71]

OGM!!! THAT IS AWESOME!!!!!!

[Luv2BScared]

Thanks....it&#39;s so hard to get decent pics at night..it&#39;s a whole cemetery, fog, bones, skulls, ghosts, etc..My son was sitting in the fog with his head down holding he candy bowl. When kids would come up to get candy, he would pick up his head, and he was wearing this freaky mask, and scare the crap out of them! I had to turn the lights on several times so kids would come in the yard.....hehehehehehee

[Scarica]

Like Luv2BScared says...it&#39;s hard to get decent pictures...either too dark or the flash makes everything WAY too bright.

I decided to do something for our "guests" at about 1 o&#39;clock on Halloween. Here&#39;s me "not doing much" for the event...it&#39;s a QuickTime video: http://www.digi-wizard.com/theloft/Media/HweenPorch07.MOV.

Unfortunately, we didn&#39;t have a single trick-or-treater show up! Our house is kind of secluded...and I guess they couldn&#39;t see our spotlight or hear our scary music playing!!! If you turn the audio up, you might be able to hear my "swamp" mix in the background.

[Luv2BScared]

That&#39;s so cool Scarica!!! And I see you put your new laser to work too!!

[Scarica]

Thanks! The laser was the one thing that didn&#39;t fit the general "gothic" theme...but it was the new toy so we had to put it in there...it has a setting that it changes to the beat of the music, too! For fun, we&#39;ve been shining it out on the tennis courts behind our house...I wonder what people driving down the busy street next to the courts are thinking when they see that!

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Question: Anyone know what parts of the country are big into Halloween? I feel like Colorado is NOT the most happening place when it comes to really getting into it...with the exception of the TONS of haunts we have here, of course! I&#39;m looking for the place where the streets are packed with kids trick-or-treating and adults having costume parties and the sights and sounds of Halloween fill the air! I grew up in Salem, New Hampshire, so Halloween was a HUGE deal there (the town even had a citizen accused of being a witch back in the famous Witch Trails in the 1600s)...I&#39;m looking for that kind of place...we&#39;ve decided to go somewhere else for Halloween next year. So, besides Salem, Mass., where&#39;s a good Halloween destination?

Thanks for the great season!

[Luv2BScared]

Anoka, Minnesota claims to be the halloween capital of the world. They have halloween parades, and celebrate in a big way.

[djironic]

I&#39;m a little late to the party, but... ;-)

Scarica - I was in New York for two weeks this October, and I definitely got the feeling that Halloween is taken a lot more seriously there. Almost every neighborhood bar, restaurant, retail shop, etc. in NYC was decorated for Halloween, and you could see a lot of preparations for the upcoming Halloween parade in Greenwich Village. Even Rockefeller Center was decorated with straw bales, scarecrows, and pumpkins. Very fun for a Halloween lover! Long Island had dozens of pumpkin patches, corn mazes, and rudimentary "haunts" - driving through that area you would find one about every mile or so. Never seen anything like it! Of course, we also visited Headless Horseman, which was very well-done and was more like a whole Halloween Festival than just a haunt.

Incidentally, scariest experience I&#39;ve ever had was venturing into the "Dungeon" (basement) of The Slaughtered Lamb pub in Greenwich Village. It looks like a very real, very old dungeon, with tables scattered throughout. The whole place is lit solely with candles and red lights, and skeletons were everywhere within stone cells. The creep factor was very authentic, especially as we were the only ones in the place. As I was exploring, I turned a corner and found a pool table. On the bench next to the table was a hat and jacket (maybe some other clothes, too) and on the floor a pair of shoes. All looked like they had just been left there by someone (they certainly didn&#39;t look like part of the design), and that got my mind really wondering what happened to the individual who should be wearing that stuff. Those thoughts were enough for me, and we high-tailed it back upstairs. I really felt like I had wandered into the lair of some sick and twisted killer!

I never get scared at Halloween, even at pro haunts, so that was a serious first. If only I could figure out how to make a haunt as scary as that pub!

[Luv2BScared]

That sounds AWESOME!! That&#39;s always the type of thing that gets me going...an authentic set, and them something random like the clothes you described that really makes you wonder what has gone on in there..
Was Headless Horseman really as good as everyone says, or just a pro haunt done on a larger scale?

[djironic]

Headless Horseman was a lot like some of the haunts we have, only done on a much larger scale. The hayride was the most impressive part - they had some serious sets built along the route! Very impressive. Plus, just being in the countryside of New York, going through open fields, then thick forests, then up and down hills and ravines, all at night - that was spooky right there. The hayride also stuck closely to a storyline, with only ocassional departures (such as the mandatory Headless Horseman), and the sets included whole building fronts in some places. Lots of fun.

The "houses" (there were three of them) also tried to portray story lines, with moderate success. They were good houses, but still on par with the best that Denver offers. The last house (vampire manor or something) was extremely impressive from the outside. It did it&#39;s best to look like a southern-style haunted mansion (on a small scale, of course), and the exterior was at least as interesting as anything inside. The interiors did have some interesting detail (and a great mirror-maze), but nothing that really stood out to me.

Mostly, it was just having so much in one place - the hayride, three houses, a haunted corn maze, The Beast (inflatable haunt), and then a whole central area with concessions, shops, displays, shows, and wandering characters, all very well presented. Their Halloween store had the largest and most creative collection of Halloween art and collectibles I&#39;ve ever seen - I would have done serious damage to my credit cards if I thought there was a way I could get it all in my luggage! It was great to just be somewhere that was that devoted to Halloween festivities...

As far as a haunt, though, it still doesn&#39;t top the all-time best - Brutal Planet, pre-Elitch&#39;s, circa 1996. Man, do I ever miss that one... *sniff*

[Luv2BScared]

Sounds like there was lot&#39;s going on there, and lot&#39;s of eye candy...it also seems like the sets were really authentic in places.
How was "The Beast"? I have not seen an inflatable haunt prop....I know there are a couple in Greeley, but I just couldn&#39;t get time to get up there...

[Chris]

DJ,

Agreed, Halloween isn&#39;t celebrated out here as much as back east. I&#39;m from upstate NY originally, can remember as a kid trick or treating and filling an old pillow case in no time at all. Kinda makes me sad that my kids won&#39;t experience it the same way.

Also agree on the Brutal Planet by the colliseum, definitely my favorite back then.

Chris

[djironic]

Glad to see someone else remembers the old Brutal Planet. However, upon thinking more about it, I almost wish I HADN&#39;T seen the original Brutal Planet - it has ruined all other haunts for me. I, unfortunately, keep making comparisons (yes, I know - stop living in the past!), but nothing today even comes close. The prefectly recreated atmosphere, the unbelievable production values, the innovative scares, the pre-haunt pscyh up - that place was as close to perfect as it gets, at least for my money.

On a completely unrelated note, did anyone else feel jarringly assaulted when they heard all of the Christmas carols being piped in everywhere the day after Halloween? Really pisses me off (and, honestly, scares me way more than anything I saw prior to Halloween). I was trying to bask in the afterglow of another Halloween gone by, catch my breath, savor, reflect. But all the rest of the world wants to do is get me to buy into Christmas immediately. Give me a couple days, already! Plus, it&#39;s still 70 degrees outside. Give it a rest! Geesh...


End of rant...for now...

[Luv2BScared]

When I was a kid growing up here, we made a HAUL on Halloween! Pillowcases were the order of the night!! I think people are too scared to go past their block anymore....it&#39;s a shame.

I saw Christmas stuff coming out before Halloween even got here...what a mess! It&#39;s just not right!