Damien Haunts Hauntcon!
By Damien Reaper
Edited By Noah Wullkotte
Halloween In April, I know for “normal” people it’s odd. They whine, “It’s not Halloween, It’s not Fall”. And we say nay! Haunters would scare people at any given day. When we heard that we are doing a show for Hauntcon, we jumped on it and welcomed it. After months of work by the Dent crew lead by Josh Wells, the make-up team lead by Bud Stross, the actors placed by Leslie Wells and our Dent’s chef and food master Chuck Stross, we were definitely ready.
Together they bring this ship to sail every time Dent has to teach the human race the art of scare and in your face theater. We all had to arrive at the haunt at 4pm to get make-up on and costumes for the new members of our cast. Most of the seasoned vets like Jimmy the Bully, Coach Booter, Nurse Piper, Lunch Lady Cookie, The Creep, Master Rellik, Principle Fruit Loops, Boiles, Jelly Bean M.D, Saw Table Sally , Luna The Librarian, Dean BW Scattergood, Aagod, Zeek, Buddy the ventriloquist, James Matthew, James The Evil One, Telfore Nyte , Krystal Mourning ,Donny the Hilljack, The Bus Driver Chuck, Miss Lindsey, Callopie, guest and great friend Granny and Ryan Alan Thierauf and his Mother Kimmie Anne from H.O.H Manor Haunted House/Scream Acres CT in Cincinnati.
What made this Great was my Father (aka The Evil One) got to act and I got to spend some time with him and 4 out 5 members of my band (The Sons of Damnation) .Only Graves, Patchwork and Mr Deadwood (aka Chop Shop) helped show the newer cast members the ropes or nooses depending on who tied the knot. On this day I was in a newer role as a biker or “Hell Rider” in the car shop. It was only for that day which was fine. It’s great to go back to one of my older incarnations and reinvent that look from my 2nd year when I worked at Dungeons of Delhi in 2000.
It was a very rainy day which made it a nice gloomy day to scare our peers. I saw old faces like Randy Schadel of The house of Doom and Gary and Jim from Ohio Valley (who is a sponsor of Hauntcon), Anita and Tom Sowers from Von Charon Productions, Melissa Mand Glenn Mcknight, Jason Dasti of MHC and all the great haunters around the US enjoying being schooled by Dent. I owe Leonard Pickel a big thanks for asking us to be apart of it.
A lot of people really enjoyed it , saying it’s one the best haunts they’ve seen in along time. I heard a lot of “Wow this is great”, “The actors were fabulous” (Jason Dasti), which just gives you a great feeling for sure. “This place was definitely worth the wait”, one person said. I wore my costume and played a biker. So, it was closer to what I wear everyday which is blue jeans, black button down shirt, boots, leather gloves and a long leather trench coat.
To get mentally prepared, I always listen to metal (Iced Earth, Judas Priest, KISS, Alice Cooper) on my fancy Iphone and hanging with a group of Monstars who are just as crazy as I am. In my room I was behind a cage which I jumped at and practice screaming and moving like a caged tiger waiting for his prey. They gave me a stick that is connected to a battery so when it touches the cage, it sparks. I told someone while doing the bit that I would shove it up sideways and they would spit fire. Hey, for Damien that’s sweet talk baby.
I also did the Thursday Open House with the lights on and all I can say is THANK YOU for all the great feed back from The Dent Schoolhouse and myself, the soul taking Deadman from Damnation, Damien Reaper.