Halloween Prank :D

[Mytical]

I would love to do this one Hallows Eve. Would need Marmalady's help though. First carve a mask from a pumpkin (this is important). Then put on suspenders (with a button shirt under it)..after stuffing them with hay or straw..basically going for the scarecrow look. Straw hat, straw for hair, the whole get up. Then the pumpkin mask..which should look like a Jackolantern is sitting on top (so the first thought, unless closes inspection is there isn't a person under there). Make the stuffing thick..so it looks like the whole body is stuffed also.

Next I would need Marmalady dressed up as an elderly lady (grey hair, wrinkles, knitting glasses, and at least acting like she was knitting..sitting in a rocking chair). As people come up, she would go into 'old lady mode' talking about her 'poor departed husband, who dearly loved Halloween, and how she could feel his presence 'this time of year'. Which would be my cue to spring up, scareing the bejesus out of everybody. Muhahahaha.

[AnaKhouri]

You'd have to be careful though, a few years back there was a video going around of a man who pretended to be a dummy, then jumped up to scare trick-or-treaters...the video showed one adult who was with a trick-or-treater jumping and then punching the man in the face in startlement.

[Mytical]

*laughs* Yeah..danger comes with the territory though. *chuckles*

[Andara Bledin]

The crew I used to hang with actually did that one year.

One of our number was a thin wiry guy who had done the whole scarecrow look for his costume, and it looked awesome.

So, we've been having our party at another friend's house and were hanging out on the porch chatting and giving out candy. Our scarecrow friend decided to flop down on the porch and lie around like a prop. He managed to not get kicked by anybody, but I think the shrieks of frightened kids when he grabbed their ankles might have freaked out a couple of the neighbors.

^-.-^

[Jay 2K Winger]

I'm sure I've mentioned this on CS.com before, but I'll post it again.

There were a couple of years where the weather was agreeable enough that I handed out the candy at home to the trick-or-treaters.

What I did was I wore all black-- black pants, shoes, long-sleeved black shirt, black gloves, and wore a black "faceless" hooded cloak over all of this.

And I stood on the front step. And did not move.

...until the kiddies walked up, whereupon I would turn and pick up the basket of candy-- scaring the bejeezus out of more than one kid who had been assured by their parents "It's just a statue."

I helped the spookiness factor by not speaking. I'd simply hold up two fingers to each kid ("you can have any two"), then just watch them leave.

The second year, it was just cold enough out that you could see your breath in the light, so that made me look scarier, with steaming breath coming out of the faceless hood. I did speak a few times-- always in a deep, spooky voice-- and I'd wave bye-bye to some of the kids.

More than one person was scared to see me as they'd cut across our yard from next door, and look up to find themselves face-to-no-face with a six-foot-two specter.

[RayvenQ]

You'd have to be careful though, a few years back there was a video going around of a man who pretended to be a dummy, then jumped up to scare trick-or-treaters...the video showed one adult who was with a trick-or-treater jumping and then punching the man in the face in startlement.

Or, carve the pumpkin, and cut the bottom out of it too, voila, not onlu is it a mask, it's also a helmet, and the thickness of the pumpkin should soften any erstwhile punches you may recieve.

[Andara Bledin]

We did the hidden spectre routine, too.

The last house I lived in had been built with a detached garage that someone had decided to attach by making a small dining room out of what had been a pantry area. The created a little alcove between the garage and the house which existed because the kitchen arrangement kept them from making the wall flush with the edge of the garage.

We have a few friends over and are having a bit of fun handing out candy. I'm out sitting on the trunk of my car in a lot of black, with a black wig and playing with a rather large (and very much unsharpened) dagger. My boyfriend near the front door dressed in a classic Dracula ensemble and being generally ghoulish in a jovial way. A friend had borrowed the boyfriend's dark cloak, which completely concealed him from view, and had stepped back into the alcove, making him nearly invisible, since we had replaced the bulb with a black light, and the street lamp was on the other side of the garage, making it even more shadowy.

My post at the end of the driveway was to call up to the house to let them know when the kids were old enough to scare, and when it was best to let them go unmolested. The ones that we didn't scare were referred to as "tiny morsels" or "hors d'oeuvres" or the like. The ones that were iffy were called "snacks" or "barely enough to eat" and similar. While kids that got the full treatment "looked good enough to eat" and "would last a couple of meals at least."

The parents thought it was hilarious.

We had more than a few teens who categorically refused to get anywhere near our front door. They were usually razzed horribly by their younger siblings who we made a point of not scaring so that if the teen managed to scrape up the nerve, we'd still be set to make them scream.

^-.-^

[MoonCat]

My brother's BF in high school dressed up like that one year and sat on his front porch. He heard some kids say, "Let's go take the dummy apart"--whereupon he stood up and the two "tough kids" screamed and ran for the hills.

Another time he climbed the tree in front of their house and sat up there. When the kids came up on the porch for candy, he'd shake the tree and make weird noises.

[jedimaster91]

This is why I love Halloween.

[Greenday]

There's one house in my town that always put the most effort into Halloween. For a week before the holiday, they'd deck out their front yard completely. Part of it was having statues of gross stuff. Naturally, one statue would always turn out to be a real person in disguise. But since there were multiple ones, you never knew which. Also, they'd have someone on stilts chase people down the street. Always tons of crazy stuff.

[Mytical]

If I had a good budget..I could put on the best Halloween ever. I love the holiday.

Need several good fog machines..some fake (but somewhat realistic) tombstones, a tree blowing in the wind. And that is just on the outside!

[Tanasi]

I have a RC airplane that looks like a witch flying on a broom stick. It's fairly good sized so when it's moving fast it looks kinda real. When my youngest daughter was in pre-school the wife and older daughters threw a Halloween party for the class. I launched the plane from the other side of the house away from the party. I started making fly-bys and as I would get close the older girls would play a sound bit of a classic wicked witch cackling. Then I started diving at the crowd. The kids were running and screaming and having a big time. More than one costume went home wet that evening.
The next year my older daughters had trained several yearling calves to let people ride on their backs. So that year instead of pony rides they had cow rides. Here it is nearly a dozen years later and several of those kids still tell me about riding cows at that party.

[Jester]

I have a couple suggestions for your prank and a story of my own.

My suggestions:

Talk to someone who does special effects, magic, or some other kind of deceptive art about making the pumpkin "head." Because there are ways that, if done right, you can be wearing it right on your head, but people can look in and "see" a candle burning. No, I don't know how to do it myself (I am an idea guy, not an execution guy), but I know it can be done. Also, I am not sure I would use a real pumpkin, as it could get kind of gross, not to mention attracting bugs and what not. I know, I know, you want it to be realistic, but think about this....if you find someone good enough to make the illusion of the hollow pumpkin head, don't you think they would be good enough to make that look like a real pumpkin?

Also, better than jumping up and scaring them suddenly, in my opinion, is doing it far more slowly. As the "old woman" gets into the story of how she misses her dear, departed husband, a very slow, almost creaky turn of the head as you start looking at the listeners, or even a cock of the head, or a slight body movement, can be absolutely devastating. Just some thoughts.

As for my story....

A few years ago, when I still lived back in Phoenix, I had plans to go out on the town and hit the bars with friends. Which I did. But before I went out for adult fun, my roommates (who were throwing their own Halloween party, or going out with other friends, not sure) thought we would give the local neighborhood kids some fun as well.

So we had some creepy Halloween CD playing through the sound system, piped out to the front of the house, and we had all the standard lights off except the carport light, and some darker, colored lights for a couple windows in the main part of the house; combined with how dark our street is, this added the appropriate mood. My one roommate had some kind of bloody costume, with a cleaver or knife in his back. Myself, I did an Alistair Crowley sort of thing: I dressed up in very spiffy clothes (dress slacks, dress shirts, etc.), all in black, along with some kind of top hat, and a ghoulish mask.

So, when the kids walked up, they saw people sitting by the front door, but didn't really see what we looked like. So they approached...cautiously. As they got closer, that was my cue to look at them, still from the shadows, and in a deeper voice than my already rather deep voice, say, "MAY I HELP YOU?" Not only did the kids stop in their tracks at that, most of the adults did as well.

It. Was. Awesome.

Tomorrow, I will probably make an appearance at the Haunted Fort, reprising my role as Dr. Hannibal Lecter. I tell you, when people come around the corner and see Dr. Lecter leering at them, it scares the hell out of so many of them. Then, of course, I may start talking to them, in character. "Hello, ladies....you're looking rather tasty this evening." Etc., etc.