Adventures Abroad: The Gouls Come Out (10/31)

Monday was a whirl of getting ready for our huge production that night. We had planned to use a rather large portion of the house most of which was enclosed so that prying eyes couldn't see the product before it was finished. The layout looked like this:

The house started in the library which has two levels and was therefore separated into sections. From the library, a door opens into the tae-kwon-do room, a long, domed, cave-like room. The bulk of the house was located here. The other end of this room leads a second door that opens into one of the boys' dorm rooms. We used only the very front of this room for our purposes. Finally, the dorm door opens outside where a small patio leads back around the building to the patio once more. This area of the house is very spooky. Most of the lights out there don't work, it's fenced in, and a large portion is filled with gardens of skeletal trees and roots.

The entire expanse of the haunted house was quite large and therefore took a lot of time to set up. Thankfully, the more detailed parts were in the interior and easy to hide. The year of service kids arrived early to help finish setting up and to get the finishing touches on their costumes.

Before we knew it, it was time to begin! The youngest groups came through first and it was, of course, optional. All kids who entered the house willingly did so. At least at first...

Room #1 was Moni's room. It was the very first room of the complex and filled with cushions for the kids to sit on and candles as the only light. Moni had her own big chair surrounded by candles right next to the door. Several sheets separated her room from the one below.

She started us off by telling the story of the house. How it was hers and used to be a very beautiful place until she started letting too many things in. At first they were good things and then they started to become worse and worse until the house was full of evil. At this point in the story she starts to talk faster and get angry saying how she doesn't like these things in her house and wants them gone. Then she switches to German and starts yelling until the final dramatic moment of tearing a sheet down that covers the words "Run."
Small groups of kids were then led through the rest of the house by several different Year of Service kids also dressed for the part. Room #2 was Dan's and the lower level of the library.

We kept it filled with smoke by a smoke machine and had filled the first half of the room with really messed up piñatas. In the middle of the piñata graveyard was Dan. He was a clown and would start muttering as soon as the kids came in, saying how he doesn't like visitors and how they make him upset. At some point in the tirade he would walk into a small office off the library and grab a chainsaw which he would start and then chase the kids into tae-kwon-do which they were funneled into by makeshift cages.

Room #3 was the mad doctor and patient played by Sean and Teresa. Once the kids entered Sean would saw off Teresa's leg. Lots of fake blood was involved. One lamp provided the only light.

The good doctor on the left.

Room #3 was also the first of the tae-kwon-do set ups. The room itself was divided in half by the sheets and then sectioned off into the different rooms. This made the kids have to walk really close to the scary stuff and helped us keep them under control a little better. The big sound system of the house was set up in there using the soundtrack from The Ring, a movie I had nightmares about for months after watching.

Room #4 was the mirror room where we took advantage of the tae-kwon-do set up. It was cloaked with the thickest and darkest material we could find to cut the light as much as possible from the other rooms. One full wall was mirrors and large mirrors from the rest of the house lined the opposing one.

Wes with her make-up artist.

Wesleigh was in here and dressed entirely in black. Only her face, painted as a skeleton, was supposed to show. She had a flashlight that she'd use to light her face and turn on and off sneaking up on the kids as they walked through.

#5 was the exorcism room. Andrew with his facial hair at the time made a great and really creepy priest while Alli was our possessed person. She even had a squirt bottle hidden under the best to squirt the kids as they went through. Their light was a small table of candles.

Room #6 was the butcher's room and the characters were played by Year of Service. Sorry, no photos of this room. Not sure why, but the players vacated early to do whatever they wanted. A table was set up covered in actual goat parts (we have a lot since we have our own farm and only eat our own meat) and the walls were smeared with fake blood. Two big guys were supposed to be in their wielding cleavers and smiling maniacally.

Room #7 was less of a room and actually a tunnel forcing the kids to crawl to the final part of the tae-kwon-do room. People were beating the floor surrounding the tunnel to give the illusion of other things chasing them in there.

Room #8 was Becca's. Once the kids exited the tunnels, she would appear crawling towards them from a corner behind them. This was to drive them to the huge iron door that formed the barrier between the scary house and the rest. On the door was written "Welcome to you worst nightmares. Knock to enter if you dare." Thanks to Becca they were usually pounding.

My job was probably the most malicious of all. I was the door keeper and soother. Once the kids started pounding, I would open the door (which was latched from my side) and welcome them into the well-lit and happy living room of the boys' dorm. Luz and I were dressed as good witches and welcomed the kids with candy and smiles. We would ask them how the haunted was, what they liked, which was the scariest part, etc. Our role was the most malicious because it was a lie. Our job was to soothe the kids into thinking it was all over...before the worst part.

The big finale of the show was waiting for the kids outside of the dorm. We would send them out with words of wisdom such as "Now don't run back to patio, but walk carefully! We don't want you to fall." and "No, we're just waiting so you can all walk together." We then had the tricky part of getting the kids out the door and the door shut BEFORE the over-anxious zombies appeared. As you can tell by my comment, it didn't happen often. Usually we had a group shoving back into us trying to get back in the dorm and away from the zombies. They were supposed to wait until all the kids were out and the door was shut and then chase them to the patio and it met with relative success. It definitely scared the crap out of the kids.

Natascha, the zombie leader, after the whole thing was over.

This guy would swing his machete on the stones making sparks fly as a part of the zombie pack.

I felt like such an awful person, especially with the chicas group. They were the youngest section allowed through and only 5 chose to participate. They survived the rest and seemed so relieved to meet us. Luz and I played our part and got them to the door. The first couple had stepped out when the zombies attacked. I literally had all 5 shoving against me so hard that I had to half carry them out the door and half way to the patio before they would finally sprint for themselves. I could hardly blame them, the zombie horde was very impressive and made me nervous even though I knew they were there. No photos of their area either and trust me, the environment was half the terror with that group.

All rooms got rave reviews and each was picked by one child or another as the scariest. It was pretty successful venture and even today the kids still bring it up. All in all, good job volunteers. Here are some more photos of the fun: