After some time finding out about AHWW(alt.horror.werewolves) where I found out I was not alone in this world. The Internet is a wonderful place to meet like minded folks. Naturally, I found more werewolf stuff then I ever dreamed of. One of witch is good looking werewolf costume that didn't look like the cheap ones at K-Mart. (this was before walmart became into being). So I proceeded to make my own werewolf costume for the upcoming month of October. I was at a point I needed some claws, I looked in the yellow pages and found one entry that sounded like I might find some. So I made the phone call asking for some bear or bear like claws. One thing lead to another and ended up chatting for two hours before hanging up. As it turns out, the person at the other end was the owner of the shop and owner of a commercial haunted house. We hit it right off the bat and invited me to try out acting at his haunt.

I managed to get all the werewolf costume done but for the head that was still on order. So I ended up hitting all the Halloween shops that was open and found a descent latex werewolf mask and modified it to work with my body. I added some more fur and re-painted parts of it to make it look better.

My first trip out there was memorable. After I arrived, I got out of the car, put on my head and proceeded to the area where the other actors had gathered. I head a loud yelp and one of the girls ran away. Turns out I managed to scare one of the actors without even trying. LOL The veterans actors quickly trained me on the rules and so on. My part was sorta easy as I had a non-speaking role. But as a fully furred werewolf, I got a lot of good scares that night. The other actors loved my costume as not only was it good, but it wasn't a "vampire" one.

The next year I was pretty much left to my own as I quickly learned how to work the lines and groups of folks coming through the house. After the second year, I always tried to get there during September and build my own area. I went to a local pawn shop and got a base guitar amp. Found a sound recorder/playback device at Radio-Shack. Hook it all together with a rocker light switch that I mounted on the wall. The amp was placed behind be where I hid. When a group came by, I hit the switch that played a one second of nothing to give me time to sneak out, then it played a very loud and deep werewolf growl.

Some of my more memorable scares over the years. About once or twice a year, I get a adult male reacting as though he saw a real threat due to me triggering that primordial fear reaction that protects caveman from predators. One family group where I missed the sound switch coming out of my hiding place, therefore no loud growl. The dad notice me right away, but didn't react with sound and step to the side to let me by to get the others, a daughter, son, and mom. I followed them around the corner that leads to a dark hall that connects the main house to a maze set up in a tent. I reach out and very lightly clawed the girls hair. She push it back with her hand, turn around saying "DAD, Stop tha....." and screamed with eye contact. The son turned around, screamed and both of them proceeded to push mom all the way down that hall to the wall. As I was having fun doing this, it took quiet a bit of self control not to break character as I could clearly hear Dad laughing his ass off all this time.

I have more stories to tell if one so inclined. Like bribe me with a nice chunk of raw steak. ;-)

Do you like a local haunted house? Asked if you can volunteer there. Many haunts are non-profit and use volunteer actors. I volunteer at that place for over 10 years I think. Sadly, the place closed two years ago.