Thread: Scaring someone stiff!

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This is by far one of the funniest moments I remember being an actor at my local haunt, it all started with a guy in a group being a total jerk.
He was coming through my scene with his friends screaming at the top of his lungs that our haunt sucked and he could do a better job doing our job than we were doing. He appearently was doing this more than half way through the haunt, if I had been in his group I would've been pissed off with him for ruining my night!
I was standing behind a curtain in my scene, which is medical scenes by the way. I purposely didn't come out and do anything because I was developing some bigger scares for this guy. Instead I let the other guy who was working the scene with me have at the guy. The guy just looked at him and laughed.
All over the haunt there's all kinds of false walls that are really doors, and narrow hallways going everywhere, I took one of these hallways and beat his group to the end of my scene where medical turns into jail cells. When I got there guess who I found already hiding behind the wall to try and scare his group? None other than the jerk himself! He raced ahead of his group so he could try to "out do" the actors.
I just waited behind the door he was standing just short of. I waited until I heard his group, not making a sound. He had no clue I was ever behind him... until it was too late!
His group started to round the corner, he had the worst timing I've ever seen from anyone attempting to scare people! He jumped out too soon and the people in his group said stuff like Nice try. He was still facing his group when I came out and stood behind him.
They saw me and did a very good job of pretending nothing was happening. He started to turn around and probably run off again, but he stopped dead in his tracks! Before he even realized what was going on I lundged forward at him at screamed as loud as I could GOTCHA!!!
He froze right where he stood, and even under the strobe lights I could tell he went pale!
His friends started laughing their butts off at him calling him a sissy and I was trying hard not to laugh at his reaction! He just stood there for a few seconds not moving a muscle, just an expression on his face that clearly said "You just scared the living crap outta me!" He unfroze finally and continued on with his group, a few of them still laughing. I never heard another word out of him. I can hear up to 4 scenes away from mine, I never heard anything else!
I had spooked the unspookable!


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Jennifer Jensen- "Executive VP"- the 1999 remake of House on Haunted Hill-
"Someone or something just tried to drown me in a vat full of blood the size of a Buick!"

Now that, is awsome!

The most fun of the haunting is scaring someone who is acting like a Macho man or simply an A-Hole.
Scaring and /or embarrassing him infront of his friends might spur him on to vandalise the house before he leaves as retribution (in his small , basic ,reptillian mind), but it usually is worth this risk for the sheer pleasure of the "Kill" involved!!
Since my house has been open for tours almost every night of the year for going on 19 years now, I have probably had more of this type of opportunity and fun, personally, than anyone else . Now you know why I work so hard and long doing this , for these very mentioned "Rewards!" hahaaha! (Insert evil laugh here~)
Whether the customer is an 8 year old boy or a 28 year old man-wanna be, I think most of this loud, "You can't scare me!" behavior usually comes from them trying to mask their own fear or they are telling themselves by doing this that they should not be afraid.
I have had guys come here all alone for a very personal tour, on a bet with someone else(involving money) and yet I would scare them (that they would admit to0 at least three times, sometimes owing another person $10.oo per /incident! (I never "bet" anyone about anything)
One of the goofiest, strangest customers when it comes this sort of thing was a guy who asked me if this was my house?
"Yes."
"Well, this place really sucks, it's not scary, I want my money back."
To which I told him that if he continued on with the tour he would get scared (since we weren't quite to that point yet)
Infront of his friends he absolutely refused to take another step, yet still wanted money back and wanted to leave the house?
Of course he was not getting any money back from me!
I did walk him out though.
When I returned to finish the tour for the rest of them, they were appalled by him and his behavior, I still have not ever figured him out?
Maybe he was terrified, maybe he didn't feel comfortable using my bathroom and that's what he really needed?

Being a dorr man when I worked attractions I was faced with all sorts of people. I to this day hold the record for the number of people in a night to affraid to enter after I was done with them. As for the "jerks"? I go for them. I will make them look so retarded that the group, including the sig other, will hate them. I picked this one "muscle head in a tight shirt" out who was trying to shut me up. I let him go off with nothing more then a very observant look on my face like I actually cared what he said. When he was done I simply asked how he wipes himself when he goes to the potty. Well he was quiet from there on.

Another time I picked out this one lady who was talking back and told her to go through by herself. Well she was abit scared to even walk past me. hehe

As for my record, I have 24 people to affraid to enter. Mind you I was standing out front of the attraction. They would complain to my boss that they did not get to go through. His reply (which is a CLASSIC) "I am sorry but you have to understand that you paid to be scared. I think you got your money's worth". All they can do was walk away knowing he was right.

Although it would be fun to scare people from even entering the house, I would be missing the opportunity to get them numerous times more once they are inside and the big steel bar slams down across the door behind them.
My house and tour are so different from the usual fare that I have scared people who have owned and operated haunted houses for many years.
"Unpredictability" does it for these people. Uncommon props(I made) and uncommon rooms and a stortyline that just so happens to be true of a house that was built 134 years ago and has had a very interesting past, some of them still making themselves known, to certain people during certain times of the year.
The funny thing is is that I have often been given the "credit" for these neat special effects, but I don't know how to do the things such as they have witnessed, nor maybe any living person has such talent and knowledge?
I have day-dreamed about the ultimate nasty-scasry costume I could greet them wearing that would be the show-ender, scaring them totally away from my place, after they all ready had paid me for their ticket, of course!
Maybe "someday"?

Gym, Understand that I am not a person who will jump out and scream and say boo for a scare. In my routine of checking for any objects and bottles and such BEFORE they enter I would give them rules. That alone would freak them out. Things like falling through floors and such. So if they are to chicken to get past me then they will never survve what is next.

I worked for a number of years with the Varity Club, who ran a house each year. In those
years I too came across those who decided to be a jerk, and try to ruin it for other people. Lets just call him Dude, as he stood in line with his group, shouting how the people coming out were just wussies, and there of course was no way in the world, he could be scared. He insulted our ticket lady, even the gal in the conncession area. in this haunt we had a large area that had live trees and was set up as a battlefield where we had skeletons impaled on wooden stakes, as well as some corsped bodies. There were 2 special wood
stakes that had live actors, (if you want the designs for this, just ask, its an awsome effect)
who remained still untill people wandered thru the field to get to the other side, This room was all done inside, so the fog machinges were doing their thing, the sound effects were working well, and we were all sick of this "Dude" and his never ending complaining. We also had back hallways and passages to move actors around and medical personel if needed. Dude took the lead into the field, and poked and prodded at the skeletons and corspes that were impailed. All the while complaining about how lousy the house was. He
walked right up to one of the real actors, turned and was talking loudly to his group when the actor screamed and reached for "Dude". The effect being that the actor truley looked like he was impailed. "Dude", hit the floor, trying to crawl backwards, and finally ended up back against the far wall. He refused to go on, we literally had to bring in the medics(posted outside) and turn on the work lights so they could get him out thru the passageways, His group cheered, he was shaken up so bad all he could say was sh%$, sh%$, sh%$. He came back the next night and apologized...

Very hysterical! Loved reading this.
I had a group who were coming here every week from 35 miles away(I'm open all year) They must have smoked too many brain cells because about all they could manage to ever say was :"Hey Dude, hey dude."
So my helper and I referred to them as the "Hey Dudes".
One time as they were finishing the tour the one young idiot jumped up on the hood of my car! (with his feet not his butt)
I told him to get off the car, he said, "Hey Dude can I drive your car?"
This was an extremely personal thing for him to have requested, so responding "in-kind" and radically enough to make my point, I said, "Would you care if I had sex with your sister?" There were only guys in this group, I had no clue if this "Hey Dude" even had a sister, I just wanted to impress my point upon him.
He got aggitated, about a week later one of the other "Hey Dudes" told me that he had a sister , she was about 18 and had been giving the family alot of consternation threatening to move out and live on her own, so my off-hand remark did find and strike a "nerve", he got my point.
I don't make a practise of saying rude or nasty things to my patrons but only as a last resort and when they have already been indulging in language and behavior of a certain demeanor that really doesn't please or impress anyone, especially me, and guess what? It's my house and business so I say what "goes" here, always keeping in mind what is needed for the comon good of the entire audience who paid to hear my show, not some utterences from a disruptive wanna-be.
I do feel sorry for other haunted house operators and owners who are just open during "the Season", because this is about the only time I ever have any of these kinds of problem-people come in here, the majority of the rest of the year is generally "lovely" and the patrons GREAT!

I love this website. I only wish I didn't work 8 hours a day so I could spend more time viewing this site (although, I must say, I'm down to working about 5 hours because I keep sneaking peeks here).

Anyway, we run a haunted house in a small town of about 1,200 people. Several years ago, we had a group of teenage boys come in (16-18 yoa) who didn't make a peep when they went through, unless it was to comment on how lame it was. However, they decided to pay to go through a second time. I decided to move a bit from where I was and stand behind a mattress which was designed to be a buffer for those people who get too scared they bang into the walls. Anyway, I waited for 2 or the 4 to get by and jumped out and yelled. One boy went down to the floor, the other trampled across the top of him and knocked the other 2 down on his way out (I was towards the very end). Once they were all out front, they started giving the 2 that were scare a hard time, stayed a few minutes, and then left for their car.

Once to their car, they continued to jab at the 2 that were scared. The two getting in the front nearly wet themselves though when our "chainsaw" guy jumped up in the backseat. I've never seen 2 boys move so fast! It was hilarious. Needless to say, all 4 boys have been back and they've never left their car unlocked again!

I decorate the front yard.. and stay out on the sidewalk talking to the parents and neighbors... I have 2 large city trash cans one on each side of the driveway... I keep a remote to activate one in my pocket and leave the other control for the folks passing out the candy to use...

4 years ago there was a grannie walking down the sidewalk ... she was one of the old blue haired ladies... I let her pass the can I had control of ... my daughter saw her near the other can and activated the prop... the lid poped up with a gorilla mask attached to it... the flood light came on and the air horn honked... the grannie jumped way higher than I thought she could... her arms flew out to her sides.. and her purse went landed in the street... I could see the lawsuit comming... I helped her reclaim all the stuff from her purse and made sure she was okay... then she stood across the street for a couple of hours directing kids to go by the trash can... what a good sport... ever year since she brings someone for us to scare with the trash can...

we get several folks who drop off their kids and wait in the car till they get all the candy they can from us... a smallish kid about 9 or 10 got so scared by the trash can he ran back to mommie in the car... mommie drove over and asked what happened... so I hit the remote and the trach can did it's thing... just then the lil kid reached over and locked the car door... which goes to show ya a locked car door will keep out the boggie man....

last year while standing on the sideway with maybe 25 other folks a young girl maybe 16 or 17 years old got the candy then she turned to walked across the street... I called out to her and mentioned the neighbors were giving out choclate bars... hoping to get her to go near the trash cans... she stoped in the middle of the street and said " NO way... you made me wet my pants last year" you should have heard the group of folks that heard her say that.. I think I hurt myself laughing....

hehehehe