Confessions of a Chucky Doll

Being a haunter at The Town of Terror, put on by 92 Moose and B-98.5, has been an interesting experience. I had never haunted before, but I do enjoy scaring the daylights out of people given the chance. Want to know what it’s like to be haunting for a haunted house/hay ride? Read on and I shall share my experience with you.

    As I said before I had never haunted professionally, or in this case semi-professionally, so the experience was completely new to me. Not only that, but I am playing a well known horror icon. That is both a good and a bad thing. It’s bad in that people know the character and have certain expectations of me. There are certain standards I have to uphold. The good bit is that it is a well known monster so half of the work is done for me because of the appearance and those expectations.

    Now I’m sure some of you are thinking, “Wait, Chucky isn’t a girl!” You’re right, he’s not; however, with a sports bra, multiple layers, and the fact that the Chucky shirt is baggy hides my gender. In fact those who I encounter after say they had no idea that I was Chucky.

I will also take a moment to admit that my Chucky voice isn’t spot on. In fact it’s a bit high pitched for Chucky. What can I say? I’m not good enough to pull off the maniacal dead pan menacing child like voice that Brad Dourif can. The man set the standard and created the character. While I know I’m not going to match it I just try not to be an embarrassment.

    Of course the best thing about being a haunter are the reactions. It goes without saying, but I’m gonna say it anyway, screams and shrieks are awesome! Although to be honest I also enjoy the jokes, the thrilled recognition, the enthusiasm of wanting to play with Chucky, the horrified looks, and even the sarcastic comments. Any reaction is great. It lets me know I’m doing a decent job, or at least being amusing.

    Although I’m going to take a quick sec to tell you all something. A little haunted house etiquette if you will. Haunters have 1 job, and 1 job only, and that is to scare you. At the very least get some kind of reaction out of you. Don’t be the strong silent type; it’s rude. A scarer not getting a reaction is like a comedian getting silence while on stage. We know we’re not going to get to everyone, and that’s fine, but show a little something towards our efforts. Thank you for giving me that moment and consideration.

Now I want to share with you my favorite part; the reactions I have gotten. Like I said, I’m generally happy with any reaction I get so I’m going to share some of my favorite reactions I have gotten thus far.

“Is that Chucky?! Oh my God it’s Chucky! HI CHUCKY!”

“IT’S CHUCKY!”

“Oh my God I hate Chucky! Keep him away from me!”
“Dude seriously, I hate dolls!”

(After asking, “Who wants to play with Chucky?!”) “I wanna play with Chucky! C’mon Chucky, I’ll be your best friend!”

“Chucky aren’t you supposed to be a midget? Why are you so tall?”

“Oh my God he’s got a knife!” (plastic prop by the way)

“Holy crap Chucky is following us!”

(As I was following the hay ride wagon) “Okaaaayyyy Chucky I get it!”

“Look it’s Chucky. OH MY GOD HE’S REAL!”

“Chucky, you’re seriously creeping me out.”

“KEEP AWAY FROM ME!”

(After asking, “Who wants to play with Chucky?!” and having a friend pushed towards me despite their attempts to get away from me) “He does! He likes Chucky!”

(This was a conversation between myself and a girl at the back of the hay wagon after I said, “CHUCKY NEEDS A NEW BODY!”)
“Chucky needs a new body?”
“Yeah, Chucky needs a new body!”
“Why does Chucky need a new body?”
“LOOK AT ME! I’M STUCK IN A FRICKIN’ DOLL!”

(After saying, “CHUCKY NEED A NEW BODY!”) “You can have my body Chucky. You want it?”

"You're not a 'Good Guy' Chucky!"

“Chucky you need to go home and go to bed! Go home Chucky!”

 Other than that I get the usual shrieks, screams, and even chuckles. Although sometimes some of the best reactions I get come much later. Like when I take new haunters to get costumes while wearing most of my Chucky outfit. The new recruits realize I’m Chucky and then tell me how much I scared them from earlier shows. It really makes me smile.

    There was even one time Chucky got to run amok in a Spirit of Halloween store for a remote broadcast. Scaring is much easier when people aren’t fully expecting a life sized Chucky doll to be creeping around the aisles. I got some good screams that day. Although I did take it easy on the little ones and I tried to incorporate humor by pretending to try on different costumes and accessories. Some people are never going to look at Chucky the same way after seeing him hold up a Wonder Woman bustier for size. Or the princess crown for that matter.

So what have I learned from my experience as a Chucky doll?
That Chucky certainly creeps out, if not outright scares, most of the population.
It takes a few tries to figure out what works best for scaring people on a hay ride.
Any reaction is better than none at all.
It sometimes creeps people out more to learn that Chucky is a girl than Chucky himself.
No matter what, have fun. If you’re not having fun why do it?

Geeks & Halloween

Here’s an interesting thing about geeks that I have learned. Most geeks are totally into Halloween. It’s a favorite time of year for many of them. When I first came across this realization I thought it was a little weird, but then after thinking about it more I realized how it all made such perfect sense.



The biggest aspect of Halloween is the costumes. There are stores and websites dedicated solely to Halloween costumes and that’s not counting the space set aside in department stores. Geeks dress up in cosplay when we go to conventions. Halloween is the one time of year when we aren’t ridiculed by the non-geeky for going out in public dressed up. Plus, in general, geeks look for any excuse or occasion to go out in public dressed up.

Then there are the monsters and creepy crawlies. For comic readers monsters, demons, creepy crawlies, and homicidal maniacs are par for the course. Those are the villains our favorite heroes battle. I mean look at Joker alone. He’s a sociopath homicidal clown. Stephen King wrote a book about an evil clown called, ‘It’. Although I think Pennywise pales in comparison to Joker’s antics.

    The ghost stories and supernatural aspects? Yep, got those covered too. Characters like Hellboy, John Constantine, Doctor Strange, Doctor Fate, and The Specter deal with the supernatural on a daily basis.

Then there are horror movies. Horror movies have a following all of their own and a few have their own comic series so they crossover. Not to mention that several geeky actors have done horror movies. A fan favorite is Bruce Campbell, aka Ash from the Evil Dead series. Ash has also appeared in a Marvel comics crossover, ’Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness’.

    So when you take a good look at it all it makes sense that geeks would be so into Halloween. We like a good scary story as much as the next person and when it comes to costumes we’ve got it nailed. Plus all of that candy around is pretty awesome.

Tell me, what’s your favorite part of Halloween? Who is your favorite movie monster? What’s your favorite horror movie?

The True Workings of a Haunted House

This year I was asked by a local radio station, 92 Moose, to help them with a large new project for Halloween. They had decided to do their own haunted house calling it Town of Terror. How could I resist such an offer?

    Helping out with a haunted house has been an interesting experience. In the case of Town of Terror it’s not just a haunted house. It’s more like a haunted fair ground. The set up is massive taking over the Pittston Fair Grounds. It has been a ton of work and I have only actually been apart of about 1/3 of it. Let me give you an idea of what’s been going on.

The prep, at least when I got asked to assist, started at the beginning of September. I joined the people behind Town of Terror to sort through 500 foot truck trailer filled with animatronics and totes filled with various Halloween décor, props, and costumes. After sorting everything into categories it was put back into the trailer.

At the end of September was the first build out at the Pittston Fair Grounds. Julie, one of the master minds behind Town of Terror, had a map of how the haunts were to be set up. Each area had a specific theme assigned to it. Not counting the contractors who were there to build the main event, there were about15-20 of us there hauling out supplies and getting things set up.

That day I ended up working with about a ¼ mile of corn stalks that had been laid out in 2 rows. My job was to put them around the pavilions and buildings. It may sound easy, but there was more to it than it sounds. By the end of the day I had dubbed myself the leader of the Children of the Corn.

    The following Tuesday I was asked to go with Merry, the second out of the 3 who had come up with Town of Terror, to help her gather donations made to the project. Now when I say donations I don’t mean like spiders, costumes, or little things. I mean toilets, chairs, couches, and a refrigerator, stuff to furnish the various horror scenes.

The weekend after it was 2 days of build and set up. This time I got to stay away from the corn stalks and got to design one of the scenes: the creepy hospital. I think that I and my partner Christy did a good job on it. The following day felt like horror arts and crafts. I spent a lot of time with paint. I painted platforms for zombie babies to move around in, black cats, and street signs.

 Now you may ask why it is I’m being so vague on what it is that Town of Terror has going on. The answer is because I don’t wanna let the demon out of the bag and ruin any of the scares we have planned. If you want to see Town of Terror for yourself it opens this Friday October 10 at 6pm on the Pittston Fair Grounds. Admission is $15 per person. For more information visit the Town of Terror site.




If you’re wondering how I’ll be haunting and what I’m doing, well that’s easy. When you get to the gate tell them Chucky sent you. Wanna play? BWAHAHAHAHA!