Possible ideas

[Samhain]

Ok, I have an idea for haunt.
Well, really haunt probably isn't the right word to use.. more theme more my halloween party but hey.
Because I live in an old converted textile mill, I wanted something spooky and fitting with the place. I've decided on a story about a little girl who worked in the mill at the turn of the 20th C. She died here and now haunts the place, too confused and scared to ever leave or find peace.
I have an image in my mind of a little girl, dressed all in white, holding a doll or a teddy, crying, she's dirty and tired and confused. But she isn't alone. Stood just behind her is a tall, shadowy figure, dressed in a black robe, one skeletal hand resting firmly on her shoulder. No features are visible but it is obvious that this is an evil being. He is responsible for the girls eternal unrest........

I think I may have thought of my first prop!
I'll sketch up a few ideas and try and post them here as and when they are finished. Let me know what you think. Idea's and criticisms are welcome!

[TwistedDementia]

Any pics of your place to help with the visual?

[Samhain]

this is the building itself, can't find any pics my appartment
http://media.rightmove.co.uk/63k/62926/62926_16_IMG_01.jpg

[Samhain]

view from the other side
http://media.rightmove.co.uk/17k/16988/16988_551567_IMG_00.jpg

[TwistedDementia]

OMG! the fun you can have in there!!!!
If you can get those sketches put up for us, I'm sure we'll get the wheels turning for you best we can.

[DeathTouch]

Believe it or not, if a child was working the mill, she might have been wearing a gunny sack for cloths. People were poor in those days. I very doubt if they were wearing white. They wouldn't of had a doll in those days, and if they did it was home made. Ragdoll.

You could almost have a story that many children were killed because they didn't work fast enough and were whipped to death. You could have a spindle moving with a ghostly child running it.

[Samhain]

I was thinking a rag doll, nothing expensive, just a childish figure. The only reason I see her wearing white is just to show she's a pure pressence, sort of angelic, meh, we'll see how it turns out I guess
Thanks for the input guys! I'm working on a sketch at the mo, nothing fancy but still

[Samhain]

finished the sketch, scanned it, all detail lost completely.......
so, I've played with GIMP for a bit and conjured this:
http://a21.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/44/m_5b6a5595e0485f752750cd158b5b556c.jpg

wish I could get a larger version of it, but myspace is playing up and won't let me... grr!

[Sickie Ickie]

wow Quite desturbing.

[Samhain]

aha, it let me do the big pic woo!
http://a21.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/44/l_5b6a5595e0485f752750cd158b5b556c.jpg

[TwistedDementia]

OR.... the story could be that the owner and his daughter (with the teddy bear and white dress) was killed in the factory by mistreated angry workers that worked for the owner and now the little girl is looking to get revenge!!!

They don't call me Twisted for nothin... MUAHAHAHA!

[TwistedDementia]

AND... the dark figure next to her could be the angle of death helpin her on her quest for souls!

[Samhain]

Ooo evil children, I like that Twisted. Kids are creepy anyway, so it's not even like it requires much imagination.
And I'm super happy because I've just found out I CAN buy pvc piping from a place not too far from my house. Yay!!
My first prop is looking highly possible, woot!

[Revenant]

As Katy Towel is fond of reminding us, Childrin R Skary. The spirits of kids thing could be the whole foundation. This makes me think of Stephen King's "Kingdom Hospital" (I never saw Lars von Trier's "The Kingdom", on which it was based), that dealt with a ghostly child haunting the grounds that formerly held a Civil War era textile mill where a huge number of child sweatshop workers died in a fire. This mill you speak of could be such a place.

Jerk the emotions around. The scenes could alternate between sympathetic -- lost, forlorn children reaching out for help and protection from the mean slave drivers -- to horrific, with the overseers being brutally dispatched with the sort of heartless blind rage that could only come from the tantrum of a child with inhuman powers. Maybe even haunt the place with vengeance-driven demons that respond to the innocents' desire for retribution. Here's a beautiful bit of example of that: http://skary.net/movies/littlegirl.html
(CAUTION: Have Kleenex handy when you watch this one!)

It would be disturbing and probably controversial. I don't know how powerful the Political Correctness gestapo is in the UK, but if you can keep from getting shut down you could convert that controversy into cold heart -- eh, I mean cold hard -- cash. And provide some real chills.

[Lilly]

Maybe have some sound bytes of children crying and whispering in the background or screams or all
somebody barking orders at them in a warped voice like.
footstep noises or footsteps in a dusty hall.
a little kids shoe laying lonely somewhere
pieces of hair strewn about from being pulled out
okay this may or may not be something you would do but
a room where they kept the bodies of the kids they killed all stacked on top of each other..this is where you could have some of the whispering sound bytes also,
something to make like a shadow(s) moving across room

[Samhain]

thanks for all the idea's guys! Last night I started to make a papermache head that I want to use somehow.
And thanks for the link to that wonderful little film Rev, I may have a new fave website now!!
Oh and in answer to your query about Political Correctness over here: in this country, we called window cleaners "transparent wall maintenance engineers"....

[Revenant]

Man, the whole concept's been spinning away in my head... growing...

Industrial revolution slaveshops usually had workers of all ages and sizes, so I can see kids being a big part of it without necessarily limiting the theme. The tormented workers could be a mix of adults, children, and near-death elders all cringing under the whip...

Stories have a beginning, middle, and end, right? I see... the beginning section as a few scenes of the cruelties inflicted upon the poor workers. The moneyholders feasting at well stocked tables in their lavish chambers, the guard dogs eating from silver bowls on trays while the dirty young sack-clad servant girl gnaws on the occaisional bone tossed to her... Then, in the middle section, a few uprisings perhaps, a foreman getting boiled or eviscerated... and the Secret Meetings: Groups of beaten workers and children being secretly counseled by that Old Woman; that spooky crone that never folds under company threat, who laughs under the lash, the one that the overseers are just slightly afraid of, the one rumored to practice (shudder) unspeakable crafts...

And then, the secret ceremonies... the workers with the arcane markings drawn on them, the chanting, the uniformed slavedrivers being sacrificed in profane rituals... then the demons appearing and all hell breaks loose. Maybe culminating in a massive demon erupting and destroying all and everyone (Mr. Creazel?)...

Oh well. Just mentally free-falling here. My imagination was totally running with this while I was eating supper last night. Hey! Now that I think of it, at the time I was at a fish & chips place! How freakin' appropriate is that! Eerie...