[Michigal]

Have you ever been scared by your own props or haunt?
I remember the first year I went on a massive monster building spree, and would put my guys outside the sliding glass door in the basement as I finished. Every time I turned around and caught a glimpse I would jump.
But the best one (or worst) that happened was one night coming home from work, I stopped and called my husband to see if (A) he was home (he was planning on going out somewhere) and (B) if he wanted me to bring him home some Chinese for supper. This was pre-cell phone, so I stopped at a pay phone. No answer. Went to the next pay phone, still no answer, so I figured he went out.
Coming up to my house, I saw the wind had knocked the scarecrow and corn stalks over, so I pulled off the road (the display is along the road, about 200 feet from my house, with woods in between). Whle I was straightening the corn stalks, I thought I saw movement out of the corner of my eyes. I looked around, saw nothing, shrugged and continued with the repair work. Once more I felt movement, and turned around and looked. There stood my husband (who was NOT home in my mind) with a flashlight on his head. I screamed, and couldn't stop. A full five minutes later I was still screaming. Good thing we don't have any neighbors, or the cops would have come.
He still teases me about that. He could be a silent stalker, he's so quiet when he walks.

Anybody else have a scary experience with their haunt?

 

[Hella]

lol Michigal that is a great story and I am sure at the time you did not think it was very funny, but man that is good...lol
I used to have a grim reaper (he got bent in half by the wind last year so I have to make a new one this year.) that stood in my yard near the front porch. at the time I was working 2nd shift so it is late when I would get home, and every freaking day I would see him standing in the yard and wonder why there was someone outside in my yard at 2 am in the morning and I would start feaking out about it as I drove down the street. This would happen to my neighbors as well..lol they have both told me they would get an unexpected scare each time they backed out of their garage. :devil: He would also freak my kids out at night when they would look out the window.

 

[krough]

Certainly. I have been scared by my own props many times.
The ring girl on the front porch being the worst, She was right outside the window and at night we would just get a glimpse of her standing out there staring off in the distance. Or walking up the yard to the house you would catch a glimpse of her standing there staring. I always wanted to bring her in the house and put her in the bathroom in the middle of the night, I somehow think my wife would not appreciate that though. Imagine her getting up in the night walking into the bathroom and that thing standing in there. LOL
My basement is very packed with props, sometimes Ill be down there working at 12 or 2 am, and a few times I have stood there looking around and get the shivers. And to top it off Im deathly afraid of the dark. I was down there working one night and my mother had came to stay with us for a weekend. When she went to bed she shut off the stairwell light to the basement, I got finished working and reached up and turned off the shop lights, took 2 steps and realized that the basement was pitch black, and I froze. Not a pleasant experience. LOL

 

[grapegrl]

One year, I made life-size silhouettes out of black poster board to put in the windows. Upstairs, I had a howling wolf's head and downstairs, I engineered a creepy Nosteratu-like shadowy figure that looked like it was leaning slightly to peep out the window. I didn't take them down right after Hallowe'en night. The next day, I came home from work and was coming up the front steps going through the mail. The creepy silhouette in the downstairs window caught the corner of my eye and scared the crap out of me because it looked just like someone was in the house looking out! I jumped and I think that I dropped the mail...it took a couple of seconds for it to register that it was just that dumb poster board cut out. It was definitely one of those "I hope nobody saw that" moments!

 

[trishaanne]

Last year I made a paper mache corpse torso and put a wig on her while I was working on something else. Every time I walked past the dining room I jumped because I'm the only one home during the day and I kep forgetting she was in there. And this year, with the Santa I redid, he got us TWICE already. First time was when I plugged him in to see how he worked along with the music I have for him. Hubby and I went out to dinner and came back home after dark. I forgot it was still plugged in and set for motion activated! Hubby walked up the steps, turned on the lights and the thing started dancing and moving! Then I moved him down to the landing right inside my front door. I knew he was there, I put him there, but when I walked in the door the first time and caught him out of the corner of my eye I jumped. Last weekend when hubby tried to give me a surprise party, he had all the kids come pver to set up while we were out. My daughter walked in the front door and it scared her so much that she started screaming. One of my neighbors actually came to check and see if she was OK! LOL. She said that she called us every name in the book and almost kicked it down the second flight of steps LOL.

 

[CastleNottingham]

This has happened to me more times than I can count. I've even had corpses crack me in the head while I'm working on them - usually when I've tied up there arms and the wires holding them let loose. It is quite startling to get whacked by a boney hand in the back of the head while you're bent over applying latex to a bucky's feet.

 

[Blackwidow]

It is quite startling to get whacked by a boney hand in the back of the head while you're bent over applying latex to a bucky's feet.

LOL...the bucky's fingers usually get snagged in my ponytail when I'm trying to corpse them. I wish they'd only pull out the gray hairs and leave the others alone

 

[roadkill]

I think my best scare thus far has been my beloved SWMBO.

We have a 7' tall reaper posed and stationed by the front door. This past year we had a horrible storm come through just hours before TOTing. Sadly my reaper was literally snapped in two but he had stood his ground for a few weeks so we were "used" to him being there.

On Halloween night the son of a neighbor asked if he could hang out at my house - scare the TOTs and pass out candy. He had been an occasional helper with projects through the summer as well.

"Sure! Be glad to have some help". And we quickly concocted the idea of him being stationed outside the front of the haunt (burlap entry in the front garden) and follow one group to the door. THEN he would station himself at the door (after getting a good scare) and wait by the door for the next group and follow them out.

Worked great!

Until SWMBO was passing out candy and stepped directly in front of my impromptu actor.

He really was just trying to be polite and get her to move aside so he could follow the group just leaving the door. Unfortunately for SWMBO he was standing exactly where the reaper had stood.

She took no notice of my helper.

Until he tapped her on the shoulder.

She let forth with a blood-curdling scream - followed by a few choice expletives (which were GREAT for the dad and his very young TOTer). and then screamed some more - followed by apoligies for the new language she had just taught this man's son.

I was rolling with laughter and wiping tears from my eyes for almost an hour.

 

[gypsichic]

and here I thought I was the only one that this sorta thing happened to........lol

last year i had stuffed a dummy, used a piece of stuffed burlap for the head - no face mind you...........and stood it against the post at the edge of our porch steps

the entire month of Oct.........I'd look out the front door, open the front door or drive up ..........that blasted thing startled me more times than I can count!

simple yet very effective

 

[Dr Morbius]

I'm carving letters in my tombstone for the contest...and Wilfred my 20 dollar prop entry keeps staring at me....I am starting to hate that face of his. Always taunting me to do things I don't want to do..Telling me to "Get the knife".....Ok, he doesn't do any of that stuff, but his stare does creep me out!

 

[Technical Terror]

I had a flying crank ghost hanging in my shop. I go out there late at night to think and burn a marlboro now and again. I am very familiar with my shop so I can get around without turning on the lights. So, here I am sitting in the dark smoking a cig and my teenage son who had hid in the shop waiting on me, plugs in the darn power cord. The freaking eyes light up and I can see her through the moonlight coming in the windows. I about crapped a turd right there. He thought that was so funny seeing me, the ghosts creator, get the crap scared out of me by my own creation.
By the way, anyone want to rent a teenage boy with a pretty good sense of humor?
Just kidding.

 

[MrsMyers666]

LOL These are all great!!!

I always put Michael Myers in the front window. I have a life-size cardboard cut out (so he stands over 6 feet) and I put the mask and clothes on the cutout. Well late at night if I want to go downstairs and get a drink or something and all the lights are off there's a shadow of a large man and with the moon light you can just see a face. Of course the bottom of the stairs faces the room Michael stands in so that always makes my heart skip a beat, plus the fact the room he's in alone is creepy. There's a painting in there and I swear the eyes are red sometimes. Plus our dogs (old and new) always stare into that room like they see someone when nothing is there. I used to have Michael in my bedroom window....not too smart on my part waking up and a man is standing right next to your bed.

 

[Technical Terror]

Hey Jamie,
Havn't spoke to ya in awhile. How's the lovely lady from the windy city?

 

[darryl]

My worst was last year. I made a pneumatic prop that popped out of a half coffin. It is completely animated and has a PIR switch on it. I had unplugged the air line but forgot about the in-line reserve tank. Anyway you know where this is going.
Surrounded in my garage by props, lights off except for the black light, checking out the movement of my FCG to make adjustments to the length of the lines. I'm already kind of freaked. I back up to take a look and think about the ghost. Here comes this frickin' dead guy with a plastic bag wrapped around his head one eye lookin' at me, flying out of a coffin, red lights flip on and I mean I had him dialed in so you had to be right on him before he jumped. He comes up from about three feet to seven. I think my heart stopped for quite a while. Came up with a few new words to describe him too.
I always figure if my own props spook me in my shop then I'm doing good.

 

[Slarti]

YES! My god, I figured I was the only dork that ever happened to…. I can’t deny I’m relieved to see other people have that issue too!

Mostly I’d freak myself out when I first started building more realistic, involved stuff, and I’d watch a zombie movie or something and then would walk by the spare room where the corpses were hanging to dry and would imagine I saw one move.

Last summer, I got both myself and my husband. I had a corpse out on the deck, sitting in one of the chairs while I worked on its face. The next day after work, in the dark, I let the dogs out and stood on the deck while they pottied. I turned around to go back inside and jumped three feet at the thing sitting in one of the deck chairs looking at me. I had totally forgotten it was there!

Later that summer, I had a different corpse in the living room while I worked on syncing its voice to its mouth movements. This one is dressed, attached to a folding chair and has hair, a hat and everything. One of the dogs was barking in the middle of the night and my husband got up to look outside. He walked in the living room, saw the corpse and screamed bloody murder.

To this day if I’m in a certain mood when I’m in the garage, which is packed with props, faux painted like a dungeon and dark, I’ll swear some of those things are following me with their eyes and creep myself out. I know it’s silly, since I made 90 percent of them, but then I get this flashback to childhood nightmares of my toys coming to life and turning on me. Gah!

Plus, the dogs absolutely hate everything I make. The younger one will walk by a prop a hundred times and then suddenly notice it and flip out.

 

[TearyThunder]

I was finally "got" a few months back with one of my props I have a small spare bedroom so I turned it into the storage room. I can't close the door since the cemetary fence has to go in along side it (The room is a tiny 8ftx 8ft.) Anyways I just slid the werewolf prop I made just inside the doorway so that I could get down the hall.

Later that night I was watching tv and finishing up taking care of some work stuff when I heard a crash in the bedroom/storage room. I knew it was one of my cats so I got up to see what they knocked over. I had totally forgot about the WWolf standing right inside the room. I flipped on the light and standing in front of me was this 6+ft tall WWolf. I fell backwards into the hallway and screamed.

Needless to say once I regained my composure I found out it was a blucky that one of the cats had knocked over.

Teary