Friday, October 29, 2010
Halloween Weekend at Frightmare Manor
As I've been telling you, this month has been a frightful one.
This Halloween weekend is likely to be a time of hard work and constant screams as we ramp it all up for the crowds - which have grown and grown and will be huuuuuuuuge this weekend. The performers and the staff at Frightmare Manor work very long hours to make you shiver, shake and scream.
Last night was pretty good too - two ambulances carted would-be challengers away. Yep, ambulances. Seems a couple of folks took the money-back challenge and well, just got overwhelmed. No one was really hurt, panic just took them over and they called the ambulance - and there is good reason folks have to sign a waiver to take the challenge. Sometimes folks might just encounter something they cannot endure or overcome. It happens. But it sure is entertaining to see the faces of people buying tickets when ambulances are on the scene, heh heh.
Look, no one wants you to get hurt at our attraction - but we do want to scare you silly. What happens in the Frightmare Challenge? It changes from night to night, and only a precious few staffers know what you might have to do ... or see ... or taste ... Oh my.
It's funny how audiences respond to fear - for instance, last night, a group of young girls, aged about 15 to 18 years old, came through the Manor house, and they got about one-third of the way through when one of them hit my room and totally locked up and could not move and just stood there and screamed and screamed and screamed. One of her friends said "She's having a complete panic attack and we have to get her out of here!!"
I quickly ushered the group out a safe doorway and out of the house ... but her friends wanted back in to finish the tour, so back they came. After they passed my room, I wondered what had happened to their "friend", and looked outside and saw her all alone, abandoned by her friends, just sitting on the ground all wide-eyed and shaking. Some friends they were. After a moment or so, a Frightmare staffer took her under his wing to help calm her down, since her friends had just dumped her.
(What's in my room? It's just me. And some darkness. And you might witness a little of my madness ..... Just be warned that we take screams as applause, thankyouverymuch)
Frightmare Manor is overwhelming for some, while others giggle and laugh madly, thoroughly enjoying the seriously spooky scares and screams which fill the house. Some people act bored - I know they are not. Some run through, eyes half closed, everyone hanging onto each other with death grips. Sometimes, a big old boy will hurl his girlfriend/wife ahead of them like sacrificial lambs.
Last week - and this one too - we've had visitors from out of state, traveling for hours to see our haunted attraction in beautiful downtown Talbott, Tennessee. Sometimes, especially late in the evenings, the lines get pretty long. I like those folks at lot - they are willing to wait their turn just so we can scare them.
As for folks like me who work at Frightmare, we are scary year round I suppose, at least, I know I am. Heh heh. But only once a year do we get a chance to share the scare. Once the season is over, we'll slink back to our hidey-holes, watch a lot of horror movies, plan new ways to scare people .... and look for ways to make Halloween unforgettable.
Do you have what it takes to meet us?
(NOTE: We're open Friday, Saturday and Halloween Sunday from 7pm til 1 am. And we're also open next Friday and Saturday too!)
i'm going to cry! i don't want to go back into the cold, damp ground!
ReplyDeletepeople have stood in lines for two to three hours and they still don't expect me to come up right in front of them! we are planning an after party, will let you know details as soon as they develop.
foreverbehindu,
shadow