Thread: The doctor is in

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Hey everyone,
I hope you all had a great Halloween. I wanted to show one of our new scenes we set up for Halloween 2008. We did a doctor scene.

We used a disposable plastic suit over a PVC and chicken wire body for the doctor. The doctor's forceps are holding a silicone ear. There is a silicone nose in a glass by the patients head. The IV holder is PVC painted silver. The patient is just a chicken wire body. We used cut arm prop for the patient's arm and cut leg props for the patient's legs. One is in a bucket under the folding table. Then we ran tubes in and out of the sheet over the patient. And of course we added the bloody "beware" sign on the sheet. I think it looked really nice. It kept some of the TOTs out of my garage.

Background information - my home haunt is not into gore. We have humorous scenes mixed in with things like this. I was wondering if this was going toward the gore side. Most of the TOTs and parents liked it this year but I was wondering about the rest of you on the forum.

I am awaiting the verdict from the forum if the scene is a keeper or a bust.

Hope thats not your idea of healt care reform!

By no means am I an expert but here are my thoughts. My opinions are ONLY that mind you and I may have very different ideas of what you want the scene to be, what its priority is to your haunt (and therefore how much effort and $ you want to dedicate to it). My scene style may be not what you like so I recognize that my ideas are not the "THE" right way but just a way to do it.

Firstly, I think patient/doctor scenes always have the potential to be scary to anyone because we all go to the doctor and we all were probably scared about it as kids. However, if the rest of your haunt is medieval haunt thne this will stick out like a sore thumb and lose its impact (of course, change it to torture table and you are back in business). So, assuming it fits with your overall haunt here are things I would do if I wanted to improve it and had the time and money....

The mask on the Doctor looks like Gandalf instead of crazy insane Doctor so if you can upgrade the mask, I would. I am unaffiliated with them, but love Death Studios masks, maybe

Death Studios

would work for you if you want more mad scientist look. Or if you just want pyscho killer then:

Death Studios

Put a surgeon's mask on him to cover his lower face and a surgeon's cap on his head and you are in good shape.

I would change out his gloves and use just traditional regular latex like a real doctor would use instead of purple.

The body frame is a little boxy and his shoulders look a little too broad, I would check out

Zombietronix - Biped Proportion Calculator (Human. Creature. Monster. Other.)

to get spot-on measurements and modify the dummy frame as needed.

If you can swing it, I would put motion in his right arm. Evenjust make it move down to the patient and back up again. If you put a strobe light on that then it would look pretty cool with just a simple arm rotation.

I would then lose the orange rope lights and the "beware" in blood and go with more blood splatter. And then maybe put red fluid in the IV container - doesn't make sense really but more blood is always good. Put in some screaming sound effects and you are ready to scare.

If none of the above appeal to you or you just don't want to put more time into, I would put a strobe light on it and screaming sound effects. A strobe light on a blank wall with a good screaming track would scare 50% of the kids my neighborhood I think so throwing in bloody doctor and patient should get the the other 50%.

I think it's a great start!! Since it's at your house and not a haunt, it's great that it's not real gory. You don't want to be scaring off the little ones.

One cheap and easy upgrade would be to cover the plastic table with aluminum foil.....give it more of the cold metal table look.

I like the idea of a moving arm....or even a twitching foot.

I agree to lose the orange rope lights and go for a strobe light

I think it is great as well, not over the top gory but still very creepy.
It seems you did it on a nice budget too!

my first post

i think its a good start and has potential with some minor modifications.
if your trying to set an image in peoples minds of "live amputation" i can think of a few quick and cheap additions to the scene to get that vision across. first i would loose the forceps and ear and go for something larger and more visible depending on the scare factor your looking for it could be a limb or internal organs in 1 hand and a saw on the other, either way it needs more blood. adding a shelf or many shelfs with body parts in clearly labeled jars would help get the vision across. i liked some other suggestions already posted and agree a face mask over the doctor mask, screaming, and strobe would help along with a foil covered table.

I liked it. I think some of the suggestions above are good ones. I would change out the doctor's face and agree it looks like a wizard instead.

If you could find something that would vibrate that you could put under the body to make it rise and fall that would be cool. I kind of like that better than body parts thrashing, but movement would be a big plus no matter how you do it.

Also more of an operating scene, morgue or laboratory scenery would be great. Maybe a name tag "Dr. Death" could be a little detail.

If you wanted to do sound, moaning or screaming or a doctor's paging system would be nice.

i think you did a great job , i like the nice beware blood touch

The set-up is really good for the effect you are trying to create. But, I can't stop thinking that many people would not like it. If this is something that little ToTs are going to see than I don't think this is appropriate.

I'm glad you wanted to get some honest feedback because this is something I've been wondering about: I am relatively new to haunting (4 years) and I'm noticing a trend that haunting is taking and it seems to be leaving the style (the classic spooky-style) I prefer behind.

I'm not saying that this new style is bad, but I don't understand it. The new style, is referred to as torture porn or splatter film style. I first heard it used to refer to the torture scenes in the TV show 24 but I really think it's from the new style of horror films. (Saw, Hostel, etc.)

Here's a segment from Wikipedia about it: Splatter film - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Splatter films, according to film critic Michael Arnzen, "self-consciously revel in the special effects of gore as an artform." Where typical horror films deal with fear of the unknown, the supernatural, the dark, and so on, the impetus for fear in a splatter film comes from physical destruction of the body. There is also an emphasis on visuals, style and technique, including hyperactive camerawork.

Where most horror films have a tendency to re-establish the social and moral order with good triumphing over evil, splatter films thrive on a lack of plot and order. Arnzen argues that "the spectacle of violence replaces any pretentions to narrative structure, because gore is the only part of the film that is reliably consistent." These films also feature fragmented narratives and direction, including "manic montages full of subject camera movement...cross-cuttings from hunted to hunter, and ominous juxtapositions and contrasts." As a result, not only are the characters fragmented, so is the audience.

Now, I admit I'm a fan of the old narrative style but I am intrigued at how this new style of torture porn appeals to people. I know I'm missing the reason and I hope someone could explain it to me.

But, back to my point. I'm afraid that old fuddy-duddies like me wouldn't like it and also this is inappropriate for the little ones.

I love the Universal Horror Films. I tried to get my kids to watch them with me.

They were bored.

My view is that they have such a high standard for effects because of the movies they see (Star Wars, Iron Man, etc). The Wolfman looked like a stuffed animal to them. The new Hulk CGI was far scarier than any of the old Universal films characters in terms of the actual visual.

Now, they are too young for splatter films so I have found 80's horror edited for television is about right for them. The real gore is cut out because its on TV but the characters aren't cartoony to them. The Thing with Kurt Russel was great fun with them.

For our haunt, we run two different areas - one for small kids and one for older. Its still not a gorefest and won't be until my kids are a few years older.