In 2007, I was again pregnant, but only 4 months or so along, so I was just past the sick phase and into the relatively vigorous phase. It was too much fun doing an elaborate haunt, and I didn't want to skimp, so I went all out again.
This year, I decided on a "Ghostbusters" theme. I decorated my house like a hotel that had been infested with too many ghosts. Guests arrived to see a big sign over the door that read: "Hotel D'arc: Service with a Smile" accompanied by a grinning, fiendish bellboy (I doctored some clipart for the picture).
|
|
|
In the gable window above the door, I set up a ghostly effect. In years past, I've found that simply using the black light bulbs in a regular light fixture just doesn't work. So, this year I splurged and bought a real blacklight. I hung my old high school graduation gown (it is white) over a skeleton, lit it with the blacklight, then turned a portable fan on it so it would move. I think it turned out to be a pretty good effect.
Of course, Ghostbusters music was playing on the porch as Trick or Treaters arrived.
|
I greeted guests dressed as a ghostbuster. I wore my husband's work overalls with Ghostbusters symbols pinned to it. Since I was pregnant, I couldn't zip up the overalls, so I told guests I'd been eating too many doughnuts. Then, I enlisted the kids' help as Ghostbusters to catch all the ghosts infecting the hotel.
I gave each child a backpack I'd constructed out of boxes, duct tape, and laser pointers (the kind teachers use in their classroom). I was also wearing a backpack, but instead of a laser pointer I had a bubble gun.
|
|
 |
I had invested in some changing hollographic pictures that I hung on the wall along with the Dr. D'arc photo from the year before (with eyes that move), and a paper mache head I constructed to look like it was a ghost emerging from a wall (that was my intent, anyway). I told the kids to shoot any ghosts they saw, then I hollered as I noticed the "ghost" pictures on the wall. We all shot our guns at the pictures, but as mine started to spout bubbles, I acted outraged that it wasn't working right. The kids got a kick out of that.
|
On a CD, I had recorded some crashing sounds from a Ghostbusters cartoon, and I played this on the sly as the kids were shooting at the ghost head in the "dining room."
I told them that a ghost was upstairs, so I led them to an elevator. This was a closet we have for tables and chairs. I emptied it out, fashioned an elevator button out of clay, hung a floor indicator (printed on paper) above the door, and recorded elevator sound effects on a CD.
I told them to ride the elevator up and come out when they heard the bell indicating they were at the next floor; I would take the stairs and come in the back way, and we would surround the ghost.
After I closed the door, I pulled a curtain across the hall, so it would look like they were in a new place when they came out, then I went into the next room and got ready. |
|
|
In the next room, a bedroom, I had the projector set up. I had edited scenes of Slimer from the Ghostbusters cartoon. Originally, I considered using the live-action movie, but found it was too scary for little kids. I thought the cartoon would work better. I hung semi-transparent fabric across the room onto which I projected Slimer, then I got behind the fabric and got ready. I think guests could see me as they came out of the "elevator" and entered the room.
I told them to start shooting at Slimer. Of course, their lasers also got me, so I yelped and hollered and made a hullaballoo. Then, the cartoon Slimer got angry. "Oh no!" I yelled, "He's mad! Quick, run for it!" I leapt through the fabric and herded them back to the elevator. I closed the door, then made stomping sounds like I was running down the stairs. |
After waiting a moment, I yanked open the door and got the back packs off the kids. I told them they would have to crawl out the ventilation pipe to escape Slimer's wrath. Then, I led them to a "tunnel" made of a big cardboard box. "Here he comes!" I hollered as they crawled into it.
As they went through the box (that was positioned in a doorway, so they crawled onto my back patio), I sprayed canned air down through holes in the box and hollered that they'd been slimed.
When they emerged on the other side, I pretended to wipe the slime off them. I apologized that they'd gotten messy, then gave them a treat bag with candy and a small amount of "slime"--a homemade recipe involving glue and green food coloring--to take home. |
|
|
