How to set up a fake ghostly haunting?

August 11, 2006 9:49 AM

How to best fake a haunting, demonic possession, or alien visitation?

After years of enjoying shows like Ghost Hunters, A Haunting, and various shows of that ilk with friends, I would like to set up a fake "experience" for them.

How best to go about setting the stage (ie, creating "experiences" that get people thinking the place is haunted), running an "investigation" (ala Ghost Hunters), and giving everyone a good scare?

We have a couple moving into a new apartment in the next month. He is the sort that would get really into/freaked out by this sort of thing and she is the sort that would help me set him up for the haunting. There would, of course, be a big 'reveal' at the end to make sure he can still sleep at night in his new home.

There is no need to limit ideas to simple hauntings. Demonic posessions, alien visitations, and strange Lovecraftian horrors from beyond sanity are all welcome for the set up.

posted by robocop is bleeding to Grab Bag (30 answers total)

Wrap the apartment in tinfoil?

I know you've already thought of this... and I hate to throw cold water as a first comment, but if he's the sort to buy in, will a Big Reveal... really be enough?
posted by baylink at 9:54 AM on August 11, 2006

Hire a midget in a costume. 100% success rate.
posted by riotgrrl69 at 9:56 AM on August 11, 2006

Hire an actor to pose as a resident in the new building whose thoroughly rattled by all of the awful, awful ghosts that terrorize him at night?
posted by COBRA! at 9:58 AM on August 11, 2006

Go in and move stuff around when he's not home, or, hell, just when he's not looking. Put things in odd places, like a book in the dryer, or fill one of his cooking pots with, like, sand or something. Unscrew all the lightbulbs in a room and pile them neatly in the middle of the table. Stack up all of his chairs. Weird, inexplicable, non-sensical things like that can be really creepy.
posted by MrMoonPie at 10:04 AM on August 11, 2006

Response by poster: if he's the sort to buy in, will a Big Reveal... really be enough?

While he could get really into it, he'll also get really into the idea that I pulled a prank on him with his girlfriend's help. Of course, I'll be more than glad to fess up to all the strange happenings (except for that last one you mentioned, I didn't rig anything up to make that rocking chair sway back and forth....).

Building slow with a crecendo around Halloween would, I think, be optimal.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 10:06 AM on August 11, 2006

If he has framed photos, take the photos, scan them, use photoshop to blur out his face, then put the altered photos in place of the regular ones (of course, save the unaltered photos).
posted by MrMoonPie at 10:08 AM on August 11, 2006 [1 favorite]

You want to set up disbelievers not believers - your victim needs to hear about the terrors from someone making light of it, or advising him not to worry. Then when you pull a couple of (subtle) stunts off - moving things around, disappearing keys (I'm sure his partner will help here) your victim is put in the situation of being the only believer, of convincing others that it's true. By the time you pull out the big guns (sound effects, lights flashing in the night, trails of blood) he'll be ready to call in the Vatican.

Rely on his other half to be the brake, she should know if it goes too far.
posted by einekleine at 10:09 AM on August 11, 2006

Cut crop circles in his lawn. Precisely line up the cans and cereal boxes in his cupboards.
posted by MrMoonPie at 10:10 AM on August 11, 2006

I think hearing weird sounds in the middle of the night would be the most convincing haunt effect. It's also the most difficult to disprove. Find a way to set up his computer to play a 10-second mp3 of a baby crying... at 3 am! Make sure that whatever program you use to trigger this ends up closing itself.
posted by agropyron at 10:16 AM on August 11, 2006

Rearrange things in really creepy OCD fashion, like stacking all the pennies in a corner or something. That way it looks weird and more importantly not accidental.

I would also recommend doing the Marley from Christmas Carol. It can't be that hard to throw together (looks like a bunch of white makeup). Make sure you get really heavy chains stand in one spot and making a racket and moaning really loud. Oh that would be great. 2 AM, he wakes up to chains and moaning to see a Victorian ghost in his living room. It'd be so dark you could also add all kinds of smoke and not really worry about hiding the machine.
posted by geoff. at 10:16 AM on August 11, 2006

And there is no such thing as too far when it comes to scaring people.
posted by geoff. at 10:16 AM on August 11, 2006

Have someone leave bizarre or frightened or suggestive messages on his answering machine, depending on whether you go alien or haunted.

Some old guy used to leave mesages on our machine that said, "Help me!" that really freaked us out.
posted by clarkstonian at 10:18 AM on August 11, 2006

Response by poster: On Ghost Hunters, investigators use devices to detect changes in temp and EMF detectors. Is there any good way to set up a false positive for one of these devices?
posted by robocop is bleeding at 10:32 AM on August 11, 2006

Move things around, bend some forks and nails and leave them lying where you found them, trace messages in his mirrors with a soap bar or the like (making the message reveal itself when condensation forms when he runs the shower), replace a number of light bulbs with burnt out ones every wednesday, empty the milk out regularly or replace it with curdled milk, anything like that. If you have access to his electrical box you could trip a breaker once in a while. Coordinate that every Sunday at 7:06pm (6:66pm) with a weird sound, might freak him out (bang! darkness, ghost sounds). Find a way to gum up his ballpoint pens so they skip (I'm sure something could be done)

I happen to think more subtle things are best if you want to keep on going. Stacking lightbulbs or the like seems to obvious to me, but if my bulbs kept burning out within a day or two I would wonder what's going on.
posted by splice at 10:32 AM on August 11, 2006 [1 favorite]

robocop, just using the equipment in any old house will bring results. EMF detectors will trigger near outlets, temperature changes when there's a draft (and there always will be a draft in an old, not-well insulated house).

I have some much more serious stuff (seances, mediumship, etc.) in ebook form, but I'm afraid we'd be infringing copyright...
posted by splice at 10:34 AM on August 11, 2006

Set something up to fall on to the floor when no one is home and the windows are closed.
posted by Ironmouth at 10:35 AM on August 11, 2006

Anchor a string to a non-brick outside wall and then play it like a violin string - the whole wall will then amplify the noise.
posted by azlondon at 10:38 AM on August 11, 2006 [1 favorite]

If you go with the soap on mirrors trick, make sure you write whatever backwards - like something is on the otherside trying to communicate, not leave messages for later from "this" side. This might work better with a liquid soap you could finger paint with, instead of a bar - the lines would look too crisp.

You could hide stuff that smells around the place too - a floral or spice, and have the girlfriend refresh them often and deny smelling it. Don't move them around for awhile, have him get used to that scent right "there" and then have her put the scent on his pillow closer to the big reveal.

I would think someone moving your stuff and/or re-arranging would be freaky - the penny thing especially.
posted by blackkar at 10:54 AM on August 11, 2006

I just had this idea last night... do you have access to a video projector? If so, stop the illumination way, way down with black cotton or ND filters, and project some creepy spectral animation on a wall, just long enough to be noticed, then the animation goes black.

You can probably also back-project from outside into a window, where the image appears on the victim's wall, or against the curtains.

The main problem will be (a) cutting the light way down... you only need enough for the spookiness to be noticeable and the source to be difficult to find, and (b) confining the fan noise and light spill from the projector, maybe keeping it in a large box without overheating. That's why I'd go with projection from outside into a room.
posted by zek at 11:20 AM on August 11, 2006

A backlit silhouette of a person standing perfectly still, arms down, outside a window is always scary. You'd have to disappear quickly right after you're noticed, though.

If you have a television remote tuned to your friend's television, you could turn it on in the middle of the night a couple of times, so that it's always on when they get up.
posted by interrobang at 11:25 AM on August 11, 2006

Arrange to open a window or two at the place while he's away at work. When he comes home and finds his bedroom window open a crack, especially if it's really cold outside, it'll be kind of creepy when he walks in to a super-chilly room.
posted by printchick at 11:42 AM on August 11, 2006

There was a scene in a movie ('the sixth sense' I think?) where all of the kitchen cupboards are open, drawers pulled out, chairs maybe stacked weirdly or pulled out. That would creep me out. Better yet if it can be done when he walks out of the room for a minute, but that would be tough. I love MrMoonPie's suggestions too.

I'd do something with the power of suggestion. Have someone make off-handed comments about hearing odd noises, seeing shadowy shapes in peripheral vision, or other strange occurrences. If he's looking for evidence of weird things, he'll probably end up finding his own or at least be primed to notice anything you do.
posted by sarahmelah at 12:36 PM on August 11, 2006 [1 favorite]

Having a straight (wo)man is a big help in that your ghost can get more credit out of whatever events you set up. When the guy walks in to see all the drawers open (or whatever), the woman can make a casual remark about how this is the third time this week it has happened. Your ghost gets credit for three manifestations!
posted by MrMoonPie at 12:44 PM on August 11, 2006

Be subtle- at first. If you have access to the apartment before they move in, set up small, odd collections of objects in one or two out-of-the-way places. Maybe use an old photo combined with several other seemingly random (but eerie) things. Paint the interior of one of his closets red. Let him stew on that for a week or two, then proceed to some of the activities listed above.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 12:53 PM on August 11, 2006

If this is an option, throwing rocks onto the roof at night can do wonders for freaking someone out. If not, one big thing that freaks people out is to have things opposite of How They Should Be. Turn pictures backward, put hanging mirrors to where they face the wall, face the TV/computer monitor/etc to the wall, set all the chairs on their back one day, hide all the cordless phones where they couldn't have possibly gotten on accident, and so forth.

Other ideas include slightly loosening all of the light blubs to where they either won't light up or flicker. He'll figure out pretty quick that they're loose, and will tighten them. Continue loosening them on a regular basis. Also, if he has a ceiling fan, it probably has a switch where you can change if the fan blows up or down. Change it every night, and see if he notices. It's the little things that make the most impact. On a similar note, if you don't mind the spike in the electric bill, turn the air down all the way at night. He'll wake up with a chill (scary on its own if he's already a bit rattled), go to the thermostat, and wonder why it's set at 55 degrees. Repeat nightly, and swear you never touch the setting.

Also, there's some discreet powder than, when wet, looks like blood. Sprinkle it around the shower and sink he uses, or even better, in his bathtub. Instant IT moment!

There's also a lot to be said for a walkie-talkie hidden under the bed. Make odd noises into it at weird times of the night. Also, talk the girlfriend/wife into "talking" in her sleep. Have it be a mix of jibberish and vaguely religious talk, and have her end by shouting, then sitting up and screaming. My aunt, who's prone to night terrors, did this once on a family vacation and it scared the shit out of me, even though I knew she would do stuff like that. For the woman, who presumably has no history of such things, it could be absolutely horrifying, if pulled off right. Also, have her, when woken from her "nightmare", recall some horrifying dream involving a ghost in the house. See if you can have it end in a certain place, such as a hall closet, and then you can do freaky things involving that closet to the best advantage (such as leaving the door open when it was closed before, or having "missing" items end up in there, or one day having everything in it laid out in the hallway).

And yes, I've pulled off a coupe of fake hauntings before (mostly while family vacationing at this one haunted hotel with a easily-spooked cousin of mine). You'll have fun with this.
posted by internet!Hannah at 1:30 PM on August 11, 2006 [1 favorite]

Various places online make cthluhu props. You could make some creepy evidence of a former resident going mad or being part of a cult and killing himself, via the kind of props and fake documents availible. Then stash it all in a paint tin or something in a wall or in the space under a kitchen cabinet frame, then arrange for some way to ensure it gets found - buy him a joke metal detector, or have a pool/trail of blood appear in the night (which you and the girlfriend are convinced was just a spill from some ground beef recently purchased, even though there wasn't any such purchase :)

Use Moss graffiti to create messages from the dead or cult symbols growing on stonework? Or put fertalizer on the lawn in the shape of a body?

They used to put little tubes of soap in showerheads to create soapy water. You could do it with something that looks like blood, but such that it only lasts a few seconds before it's all gone. Claim it was just rust in the pipes because they hadn't been used for a while :)
posted by -harlequin- at 1:38 PM on August 11, 2006

We do this thing around here we call window violin. Basically take a piece of monofiliment, some clay and an SOS pad. Adhere the string to the windo with the clay, then rub the brillo pad on the string slooowly. Oh man this will scare the crap outta anyone. The whole house sounds like its howling.
posted by BrodieShadeTree at 5:11 PM on August 11, 2006 [2 favorites]

RPG players always love backstory and props. Hide a photograph (a simple portrait, perhaps with the subject frowning or just looking "a little off") somewhere in the apartment where it will be "discovered." Maybe throw in a newspaper clipping of about a murder or other lurid event. Allow their imagination to work on this for awhile, so that subsequent events have a horrifying "context" with which to work.
posted by SPrintF at 6:16 PM on August 11, 2006

Tilt pictures and mirrors to hang slightly crooked (GF can readjust easily after your friend fixes them).

Set the radio/TV to a station they'd never listen to, so when he turns it on it's not where they left it. Turn the volume way down too.

Leave a book open to a certain page on the coffee table. After he puts it back, GF replaces it on the coffee table, open to the same page. A book that fits your theme (ghosts? aliens?) would be great.

In his dresser, make sure one particular T-shirt is always at the top of the pile.

In the kitchen, keep refilling the sugar bowl or coffee canister so that the container is always full, no matter how much he uses.

You can channel Beep Guy and hide a smoke detector with a dying battery in the back of a drawer and hope that this apartment also has bizarre acoustics. Or if you're really mean, hide an alarm clock that beeps once or twice (not the kind that keeps beeping until you turn it off). He'll have a short window once a day (or night! mwah ha ha!) to figure it out.
posted by Quietgal at 9:08 PM on August 11, 2006

Can you get other neighbors in on it? Ask one (or several) to call and complain about all the noise coming from your friend's house/apartment. Of course, this noise always occurs at times when your friend hasn't been home.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 9:16 PM on August 12, 2006