Slaughter House Farm Gives Reporter A Zombie Boot Camp
Laurel, Del. – Terry Scott is no newcomer to Haunted Houses. He's been involved with them for over 25 years, and this is his second year operating Slaughter House Farm. I signed myself up for a haunted boot camp to see just what it takes.
First, he tells me scaring people is all about attacking the senses.
“We turn it black you don't know where you're going, you can't hear your friends. Bubbles will be coming down and touching these people, but they won't know what's touching them,” explains Scott.
Typical farm smells like chicken feed are blown through the attraction. Of course, seeing is believing. Nothing is quite as scary as the living dead.
Kerri and Ali Scott sat me down and began the transformation. They started by turning my skin green and yellow. They then added liquid latex to my face so they could pull it up for a torn-skin effect. Last, they added blood and bruises to my wounds. A quick tousle of my hair and a dusting of baby powder, and the look was complete. And the result was startling good!
Next, Chaz Snyder taught me the ins-and-outs of operating a chainsaw. It is something popularized by the movies, that Terry says every good haunted house needs.
“You're going to keep that away from you, treat it like there's a blade on it,” says Snyder. He says that even if you did touch the area where the blade would be, you would hardly even feel a vibration. The loud noise the machine creates and the idea of being chased by a chainsaw are what scares people.
The final lesson came from Terry Scott himself, where he taught me how to properly shoot a 12-gage shotgun. He tells me, Slaughter House is the only attraction using them in the area.
“We don't aim at people, we aim it at the ground. But we bring it back up quick so they think they've been shot,” says Scott.
With Terry Scott's final approval, you may just see me in next year's haunted attraction! All the proceeds from ticket sales go to projects like Operation We Care, Wounded Warriors, and the Leukemia Society.
