Favorite Halloween Prank?

[spamlds]

My two youngest kids loved Halloween and they always wanted me to try to scare them somehow on Halloween night.  Several years ago, when they were still pretty young, we lived in a really rural area, about two hours from any sizable city.  The October nights were always dark, creepy, with foggy fields, full moons, bats, and cobwebs.  There was a small town a few miles away where my wife and I would take them Trick-or-Treating.  On the way home, we used to head to one house out on a remote country road that was always decorated to the hilt, to finish off the night.  

As we left the last house, we pulled back into our street, which was a rutted dirt road surrounded by fields and woods.  There were no street lights and I had intentionally left the porch light off.  As we approached the house, I started telling my son, age 6 and his sister, age 12, that there had been reports of a strange creature that had been spotted in the area.  My daughter, suspecting that this was my attempt to scare them, just said, "Da-ad!" in that dismissive tone that only Jimmy Fallon can imitate.  As we pulled into the driveway, I was describing the mysterious creature and it's claws.  My daughter was rolling her eyes and the little brother was joking about it, too.

I turned the car's lights off and it was almost pitch black around the car as I stopped in the driveway.  As they got ready to open the door, I said, "Wait!  There's something coming up behind the car!"  

"Da-ad!" was the reply.

What the kids didn't know was that the rubber on the rear window's windshield wiper had fallen off the day before.  I had discovered this by accident when I turned it on during a brief rain shower and it made a loud, scratching noise against the glass that made me nearly jump out of my skin in broad daylight.

In the inky blackness that surrounded us, I sneaked my hand up to the button and turned on the rear windshield wiper.

"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!" the thing went.  The children's screams were authentic as were the tears afterward.  Old dad had pulled a good one on them.  I don't think I ever laughed so hard in my life.  

Does your family have any good Halloween traditions or have you pranked them in a memorable way to celebrate the season?  

 

[Ironhold]

It's not so much a prank as it is a confession.

It's Halloween. It's five minutes until the time the city officials designated for Trick-or-Treating to begin. I don't have a costume, but my parents need me to be the one to hand out candy anyway (IIRC, dad was still at work, and mom needed to be indoors with the animals). 

Well, I had a sinus infection that year. 

Long and short of it, I wound up spraying myself with blood when I sneezed. All over my shirt. No time to change, either. 

Nobody could tell that it was real. 

Apparently, everyone just thought I was done up as a slasher. 

[bytebear]

I dressed up as a scarecrow kind of thing, stuffed magazine roles down my pants and stuffed my shirt with newspaper, and put a paper bag over my head with some kind of mask.  I definitely looked like a fake thing sitting on the porch.  I loved listening to the conversations of 'is it real" and then doing the startle jerk which always make them jump.

[mirkwood]

My neighbor is scared to death of clowns.  He got set up for Christmas a couple of years ago before he lived here.  His sister is one of our best friends here in the ward.  I wrapped a clown head for him in a box and labeled it To:________  From: Santa.  I have video footage of him opening this package and finding a clown head staring at him...

 

 

So guess who is living with his in laws next door to me now...and guess who just bought another clown mask?  One that is going to end up in their window well in the next few days.  And guess who sleeps with their window open so some noises might wake them up and get them to look out that window...

 

Oh...did I mention his wife is terrified of dolls, like thinks they are supernatural and creepy...and guess who bought a creepy doll last week...one that has a high likelihood of ending up on the driver seat of the van...

 

Then there is the friend who put BYU stickers on my car one year...he is afraid of spiders...anyone seen how big spiders get at Halloween...

 

[NeuroTypical]

I actually lived the dream back in the '90's and worked at a haunted house for a season with the lady who eventually became my wife.  (the Institute of Terror, for folks in Salt Lake).  I was the evil wizard in the maze, she was my ashen-faced bride/victim.  

The room right before the maze was a strobe room.  Folks would gather at the entrance to the maze and let their eyes adjust, and I'd listen to them talk.  Best times:  When one of them would call the other by name.  Nothing scares a teen girl like a total stranger running (or stalking, or even walking) after them in a dark maze saying "Come here Ashley!  You'll never find your way out Ashley!  Your friends can't help you Ashley!"

Half the time, the named person's friends would push the friend at me and run the other way screaming.

Edited October 24, 2016 by NeuroTypical

[mirkwood]

3 hours ago, NeuroTypical said:

I actually lived the dream back in the '90's and worked at a haunted house for a season with the lady who eventually became my wife.  (the Institute of Terror, for folks in Salt Lake).  I was the evil wizard in the maze, she was my ashen-faced bride/victim.  

The room right before the maze was a strobe room.  Folks would gather at the entrance to the maze and let their eyes adjust, and I'd listen to them talk.  Best times:  When one of them would call the other by name.  Nothing scares a teen girl like a total stranger running (or stalking, or even walking) after them in a dark maze saying "Come here Ashley!  You'll never find your way out Ashley!  Your friends can't help you Ashley!"

Half the time, the named person's friends would push the friend at me and run the other way screaming.

Haha...I worked March Of Dimes Haunted House in 84, 85 and 86.  I worked Alien Encounters 93 and 94.  I used similar techniques.

[SilentOne]

On 10/23/2016 at 9:47 PM, bytebear said:

I dressed up as a scarecrow kind of thing, stuffed magazine roles down my pants and stuffed my shirt with newspaper, and put a paper bag over my head with some kind of mask.  I definitely looked like a fake thing sitting on the porch.  I loved listening to the conversations of 'is it real" and then doing the startle jerk which always make them jump.

We often made a scarecrow as one of our Halloween decorations when I was growing up.  One year my brother mentioned that he thought it would be fun to dress up in the scarecrow's clothes and hold the candy bowl in his lap with a sign reading "Take two." Then if somebody got greedy he could growl out, "It says take two!"