Why – An Unorthodox Halloween

The question.

Ah. New years. Everyone back to work.

I try to keep things pretty light on here, but many people that know me in my professional life know I’m a firm believer in Festivus when it comes to broader society.

There’s always been something about Christmas in the wider sense that has always bothered me. (obviously Halloween is my favorite) And I do enjoy Christmas with the family. However, Christmas as a season really, really gets on my nerves.

Getting in my car this morning reminded me why, as we are left with one last blast of that Christmas cheer.

The question.

Holidays seem to largely revolve around questions.

For all the talk of the Christmas spirit, and peace on earth, good will toward men…what question always gets asked leading up to Christmas?

“What do you want?”

Yes, there are those that this is not the meaning to Christmas, but it is THE QUESTION we are asked ad nauseam. From the TV, to the co-worker, to the random person you get chatting with. It is THE conversation piece that dominates the season.

So it is this, the first working day of the year, we get that question slightly rephrased. “So, what did you GET?”

First thing, blasting out the radio. And the answers range from cute and humble to some attempt to display superiority in gift receipt, like any competition.

There are a lot of things that flow through the Christmas season that tend to wear on me, making my joy of the season lessened. Perhaps none more so than this question.

Halloween has it’s own question, however.

“What do you want TO BE?”

I find this one infinitely more interesting than the one asked at Christmas.

Reflecting on 2014…

I’ve been wondering how to word this for a LONG time. You may have noticed my activity has been rather diminished over 2014.

As you might expect, Halloween 2014 for us really began in 2013. Actually late September of 2013. However, 2014 was a different kind of beginning than is typical for us. We were not making plans and figuring out what to build for the following year. 2014 began when we were informed in September I would possibly be losing my job in January.

We already had the vacation planned for Disneyland last year, and we went and enjoyed as best we could, but everything was just a bit muted. As December approached, that possibility soon became a certainty, and thus in January, I found myself unemployed for the first time in my life.

It’s hard to express the changes this wrought mentally and emotionally. I didn’t speak about it here, as even posting to this blog made me feel somewhat guilty keeping such a frivolous hobby. I was bound and determined to somehow keep Halloween alive. I couldn’t really justify it logically. I had no idea how it would even be possible. I just knew that it had become a part of who I am.

Little projects I managed to pull together for no cost both helped and hurt. Sure, building coffins kept me busy, active, and gave some sense of accomplishment, but at the same time, they reminded me it all might be for nothing, that I was unemployed.

I soon found myself switching to REALLY old hobbies, ones pre-dating Halloween. I could take pictures free these days, and it let me rediscover my love of bugs.

And, through that, a love of gardening, and of cooking. As summer stretched on, and various disappointments reared their heads (something eating my corn…something not me), it became clear Halloween was soon going to be in jeopardy as well, and I gave up on a camera upgrade I had been hoping for, instead using that squirreled away money to begin buying treats for Halloween, and hoping to be able to keep the party going.

September brought a massive roller coaster ride with job opportunities appearing, and disappearing, and pumpkin harvest looking great…and then a lot rotting earlier than usual. But, it was nice to be back at Frightmares for Halloween.

On the verge of needing to let go of some aspects of our Party, things I can clung to with almost irrational zeal, I finally found employment again at the first of October. By some miracle, it even allowed me a schedule by where I would be able to be off for our planned party and Halloween night. However, putting the yard together was going to present a challenge.

One final setback struck in a personal manner when my Father in law died in mid October. Somehow, our yard that featured bodies and coffins suddenly seemed to be something less than tasteful. Still, it was a part of me, somewhere deep inside.

As the day drew near, family, friends, neighbors all pitched in to make this come together this year. My boys were responsible for entire projects in the yard. Neighbors helped build. Additional pumpkins were donated to fill in for the rotted ones. Family and neighbors come to help with cleaning out the pumpkins. Several offers were fielded to help ensure the party was able to continue.

I started the year knowing how much this means to me. I’ve learned through this year how much it means to a larger community.

As one little boy pulled on my leg Friday night, and asked “mister scary” (me) if he could have another magic light (glow stick) this year, as it had kept him safe last year, I realized what a rare and precious gift this is. For one night, that light is magic, and it DOES keep the monsters away. I’ve made that story real for that child, but just as much, he has made it real for ME.

Now, time to start working on 2015.

It’s the little things.

You know, I used to believe in hiding this kind of thing. Building in secret. Holding back. Then we started going big…I remember it was the totems we first built out in the driveway. Neighbors stopped and asked. By now, most of them know about my strange tendencies toward Halloween.

I get plenty of “what is that”. “How are you doing that?” And the odd “Where did you get that idea?”

I try to take the time to answer as best I can.

This afternoon, we were finishing up the waterproofing of the Chimera. Off in the distance, a “turn here”.

“Over there!”

“See, doesn’t that look SCARY!?!”

I looked up in time to see a car driving by. Too slow to recognize…but that made my day.

From 2011 buildup

Through the evening several others stopped to chat. “what’s that”

From 2011 buildup

I’ve come to realize I have no good answer for “what’s that?” on this one.

From 2011 buildup

Setting up by firelight, we had another group walk by. “Whoa, look at the Halloween thing! Are you going to be using that this year?”

Yeah. They know me. The little things…

From 2011 buildup

Ignorance is bliss.

I’ve been designing Halloween since I was 8 years old.

Along the way has been a long and storied history of researching different styles and means of going about that.

It started long ago, I don’t remember just how young I was, but mom found some documentaries on how commercials were made. And, she promptly made us watch them. Attempting to drill into us not to believe what you see, or ask for every toy out there…

I watched them SEVERAL times. I WISH I still HAD that documentary somewhere. It opened the door in my mind. The heck with the intended message, it opened the doors of HOW one goes about creating those illusions!

And, as I sit here tonight watching the Pitchmen marathon (RIP Billy), I realize I’m going to miss this show. It was as close to those old documentaries as there is on TV. All the behind the scenes stuff, all the magic…And what’s more, for the eventual creation of the snake oil salesman, you HAVE to have Billy Mays in mind for the character.

From those first documentaries, it was Raiders of the Lost Ark, reading and watching everything I could on how they went about actually making the effects. Making those bugs do what they did. At one time, I actually wanted to be a bug wrangler…(not that there’s much market for that these days when they just CGI everything) And again with Arachniphobia.

As I’ve grown older, and more sophisticated in my ability to actually make these things I’ve only been researching, my understanding of all of this has only expanded to where now, I no longer see as others see.

I was watching America’s Got Talent the other night, and this magician was on. I recognised the contraption from the very get go, having built a model of a similar one before determining it would be too costly to make a full size one for Halloween. The judges were amazed, I could only chuckle.

Haunted houses, and the like are no different. I’m more interested in seeing how they do everything that sometimes the experience is lost.

A curious thing this year, though. Going into the year with our season passes at Lagoon, I enjoyed Dracula’s Castle more. However, now having been on both it and the Terroride about 50 times this year (they are among Talia’s favorites), I’ve come to REALLY appreciate the Terroride.

While Dracula’s Castle is filled with BIG props and animatronics, the Terroride is filled with TONS of SMALL things. All things us home haunt folks can build. A simple head turn, and people jump. A head turn…back to my roots…

Why? Part 2.

To be sure, there are others out there like me.

Those who thrill at the thoughts of bringing fear to the wee ones.

We congregate in dark corners of the internet, discussing ways to turn those light-up deer into something usefull, like a werewolf. The monster list and other such sites give rise a host of nightmarish potential to those with like minds.

It is the “why” from this group that is more difficult to comprehend.

When I try to describe my goals of providing a (relatively) well lit haunt in which everything is in plain sight, none of this hiding in the dark attempting to scare the kids, and no elaborate illusions trying to re-create the Haunted Mansion. I get a confounded look and a befuddled “why”?

There are several influences on that decision.

First and foremost was my change of attitude reguarding scares all together. Brought on primarily from the time I spent working at a spook alley specifically targeting 3-10 year olds. But at the same time meant to be SCARY to them. Previously I’ld only seen such things with cute characters from fairy tales in costume for this age group. But, here was a spook alley with the philosophy that the kids were “clinging to the parents legs, but not up all night with nightmares”.

We held guided tours for groups of kids through this spook alley, and each room had a story to it. This stuck with me, and while I’m not quite to the point of being able to portray the story at my own house, the plans are there, and that level of scare is the target.

The second came out of nowhere. I was watching some top 100 list of scary shows, and they were interviewing John Carpenter about his influences in making “The Thing”. He was recounting a discussion he had with George Lucas about the formula for movie monsters. Lucas was telling him how you never want to show the monster fully until the end. Just show bits and pieces. Then Carpenter goes on to recount Lucas saying (paraphrasing) “BUT, if you could just put it out there, and do it REALLY WELL, people would never forget it.”

It was that moment I knew I wanted people to SEE things. No more hiding behind the cover of darkness. And, it was to be scary to the wee ones, but ‘cool’ to the older ones. It’s a fine balancing act, and often my wife has to kill one of my ideas as being overboard, but it’s worth it.

Even still, old habits die hard. And there were elements I would use that held fast to the ole darkness tricks to pull off an illusion or two with a strobe.

It was my second year doing this. Things were starting to take shape. I had a strobe lighting a dummy, giving the illusion it was moving as you approached. I would wander through and around everything as normal. By chance, I happened to be up front when a family came up. They had with them a little girl, about 11-12, and I heard her remark that this was another house she could not approach because of the strobe. I offered to turn it off, but she didn’t want to “ruin it for my sister”. I promised her then and there I would not only fix it, but make it better for her the following year.

It was this following year, the 3rd in the house, the first I actually thought things looked nice. I heard them coming from down the street, as this girl excitedly was telling her mom “but he said he would fix it!!!”. And her mom consoling the girl that ‘maybe he forgot’.

I didn’t. I have never seen anyone enjoy the yard more. Her mom told me the girl had given up on halloween up till she had seen my countdown sign go up. From that moment, she had only talked about a halloween house she could actually go through. A first time she could “really celebrate halloween”.

This past year, word spread of the ‘safe’ halloween house, and we had the girl’s entire school come by Halloween night.

Why? They ask.

Why not?