Happy Samhain

Last night, Rick and I decided to go to Universal’s “Halloween Horror Nights.” I’ve been to many haunted houses in my day—some real, some theatrical, some as a part of the cast. Universal knows how to do a haunted house. “Of course they do,” replied Rick when I noted this half-way through a jog between two such attractions (on opposite sides of the park). “They do make movies with lots of special effects.”

I’ll grant that. And they certainly had a good crew picked out for the sexy-wild-demon-things on stilts. What amazing body-paint (if that’s what it was). I didn’t get close enough to touch their skin. Besides, I doubt they would appreciate me pawing at their legs to see if it was a body stocking. No matter, the overall effect was fantastic.

Rick explained to me that they had a cast call for this, and the folks who did it are actually hired for the entire run of the event, which lasts through Halloween, I believe. I think they made good choices.

And the sets for the houses and the outdoor effects were just as incredible. Green laser lights cut through the fog from the smoke machines; music ranging from haunting background theme music to wailing, head-banging rock; wherever a queue formed up for the entrance to a house, the folks in line were entertained by footage from numerous (Universal) horror flicks. Not being a large fan of horror, some of these required me to turn my head and go back to looking at trees, stars, and other guests. Yes, I know. I’m not a large fan of horror, yet I drool at the thought of tromping around for 6 hours through a park dedicated to horror, and doing this after working an 8-hour shift at McD’s.

Was I tired today? You bet your tail feathers I was! But it was very much worth it.

So what were my top creepy spots? (Weak stomach? Skip past the *’s.)
** The teddy bear room is definitely in the group. There’s something infinitely creepy about a child’s room with out-of-tune “Jack-in-the-box” music playing and growling sounds coming from some unknown location. Oh, and don’t forget the random clacking of some door or window in another room.
** Most of the houses led us through mazes made more fearsome by dangling fabric, packing blankets, strips of plastic, “blood-stained” gauze. All of these were creepy to me. Very creepy.
** But none of those danglers compared to the body collector house. The whole point of this house seemed to be to cause people to vomit. Not that I did that, nor did I see a live person do it (but there was that cool dummy vomiting in a trashcan). But I thought I might when I reached up to move one of the large plastic bags hanging from the ceiling out of my way. The bag wasn’t what creeped me out. It was the inside. They had done a very good job of making the bags feel like they contained the softened remains of what once had been human beings—bones, tissue, everything. Ew. People who know me, know that I’m not a very girly-girl. But icky is icky and that is that. And that was icky.

Rick finally got to get a good chuckle at me because I was finally REALLY creeped out instead of being fascinated by the make-up or the props or the set… Well, I’m glad he enjoyed it. That’s ok. He was creeped out by the alien house. And he’d done it before. So there.

And now, I’ve completed my tale of mystery and intrigue (I have no idea where that came from. I’m tired. I said that already.), and I am going to watch a non-creepy movie on the couch with a blanket and my favorite two fur-bellies, hoping to stay awake past the opening credits.

Happy Samhain!