My Obsession

I am obsessed with technology.  I am obsessed with gadgets.  I am obsessed with movies.  I am obsessed with science.  I am obsessed with most things that fall in the category of general geekiness.  However, my first obsession as far back as I can remember is Halloween.  It always has been and it will always be my main obsession.  It even influences some of my other obsession, mainly movies. 

It probably started with my parents fostering that obsession through movies as early as 4 years old.  My father sat me down February 10^th 1973 to watch the original 1931 Dracula with Bela Lugosi.  It was on channel 20 WDCA in the DC area on the show Creature Feature with host Count Gore de Vol.  It was the first horror movie I ever watched and the host of the show had a name that sounded much like my own last name…Duvall / de Vol. Through the years, my mother and I watch most of the Roger Corman, Universal Monster and Vincent Price horror flicks and my father with the Hammer and grindhouse horror movies.  Seeds FIRMLY planted. 

Then there was trick or treating.  I got to play dress up as some of my favorite character through the years.  Most of my costumes growing were home made with help from either of my parents with the occasional cheap plastic ones in the late 70’s (ugh).  My mother introduced me to prosthetic makeup when I was in the 4^th grade with the official Dick Smith Horror Make-Up kit.  It was my first experience with spirit gum and something like alginate.  It won me first prize at the costume contest in school as Mr. Hyde.  As I got older, I got more adept and used more modern materials like latex.  In my late teens, I toyed around with appliances and did a Freddy Krueger costume for a few years.  The past 10 years I have mainly been an 1800s undertaker or grim reaper…nothing too elaborate.  I have been saving my energy for the other part of my obsession.

Sometime in the late 70’s, my dad started giving me ideas for creating a cemetery in the yard.    Cutting out big boxes to create tombstones with a little paint.  Using toilet paper to create fake creepy moss in trees and etc. As a result, through the years, I tried to create bigger and better ideas and props to scare the ever living shit out children (what the hell is wrong with me?!?).  It first start off like what my father told me…make tombstones and built dummies.  Then places like Spirit Halloween started springing up every year and I started buying my props.  Got some really good ones over the past 10 years.  Now, I am starting to rely on my other obsession…technology.  I am now using technology by building new props using motors and relying on tricks like projecting video on the house.  Every year I make or add something new.  I am now at the point where I plan new ideas up to 2 to 3 years ahead.  I am looking to add a ghost/ghoul that will drop in from a high point out of sight to the front door just when somebody sets it off when they pass a certain point on the sidewalk for next year.  It will also reset itself.  I am pretty sure I can make this happen and somewhat cheaply too.  A few years from now…there will be an expansion into the back yard with displays that will eventually lead the kids into the back of the garage with a bloody Dr. Satan like scene with me performing an autopsy.

The past few years with my setup, I have been able to get kids to NOT come up to the door and even cry.  My payment for putting all this work into the haunt has been the tears of frightened children.  I am now at the point where that may be not enough anymore.  I am now want to be paid with pants getting soaked in urine.  Not to be greedy, maybe one day, I might get paid with somebody dropping a major load in their pants.  I really need to up my game if I am ever going to get that.

With that, I need to head to bed so I can get up early enough to finish putting up the rest of the haunt.  It is pay day and I need to feed my obsession.