ResearchReal Halloween Scares
Amidst all the goody-two-shoes articles of good, clean, wholesome Holiday fun, we thought that just once we'd put up one article of ideas on how to scare the daylights out of people. Because what else is Halloween for? Here's a handful of inexpensive ideas for making your fellow human's blood run cold - if only for a moment.
"Invisible" thread. Get this at any magic shop, and have the salesman take you behind the counter for a five minute tutorial on how to use it. This thread comes in a spool that will last you a lifetime for about three bucks. The thread really is incredibly fine black thread, un-see-able in any condition except up close on a white background. You'll need a piece of tape to mark each end of the strand you'll be using, but what you fasten it to is up to you. Suspend light objects in the air and just leave them there. Manipulate objects from a distance. I once convinced a coworker that I could move the pens in my inkwell with my powerful mind. More of a weird-out that a scare - until you combine it with a realistic novelty spider or snake.
Stuffed dummy: This year, we have a giant spool of rope. The rope is as thick as my arm; suitable for lynching a yeti. The trees have also dumped pounds of leaves on our driveway. Obviously, the only thing to do was to get some old clothes out of the garage, duct-tape them together, stuff the clothes with raked-up leaves, tie a noose with the rope, and throw the rope over a branch. The effect is incredibly realistic, especially after we outfitted the head with a latex mask and a wig. If we don't get at least one cop to stop by to investigate, we will feel we haven't tried hard enough.
A Rubbermaid trash can: The big 60-gallon kind that you can fit into. Cut out the bottom, so you can fit inside and be a trashcan with feet. Walk it to the end of your driveway and sit down. Keep the lid on. Why? To pop out at screaming trick-or-treaters, of course! Costume optional. Nobody looks twice at a trash can, you can wait until they're real close. You could sneak up on James Bond this way.
A laser-pointer: Take any novelty pointer and remove the decorative filter so you just have a dot. Now take it with you on Halloween night. Two ways this works: first, a person who discovers a red dot on them will look in every direction but can't tell where it's coming from. Second, a tiny red dot just happens to be what the business end of a laser-sighted rifle looks like. Never do this to somebody who has any chance of actually packing a gun.
Simulate poking out your eye: Take one restaurant dairy creamer packet, the kind that's a miniature dixie cup sealed with foil. Tape a nickel to the bottom of the creamer packet. Pierce the top of the creamer packet with a fork, producing an explosion of white fluid. Now put it another such rig in your fist and jab the fork into your fist to get the white squirt. Now, when you feel confident enough in your technique that you won't really put out your eye, do it with your fist in front of your face. Great for late-night diner entertainment.
"Cannibal" foods: Not very original, but every year our culinary technology gets a little better, and a brief online search for Halloween recipes will turn up all kinds of recipes for food shaped like bits and pieces of human flesh, such as the breadstick finger. You can serve these at the party if you want to, but I find that these are much more effective out of context, in a place where you weren't looking for food in the first place. Like the sidewalk. Near a trash dumpster. In the seat of a car.
But you wouldn't be reading this if you didn't have a devious imagination. So I'll leave it to you to think of something.