So this is supposed to be a running blog, but it’s also a Nikkie’s Adventures-type blog, so I wanted to share my Great Horror Campout experience with you all.
In case you’re not aware, the Great Horror Campout is a 12 hour horror movie experience. You complete games/tasks to collect items (called S.C.A.G.) with the ultimate goal of surviving the night, of course, but mostly of being crowned Hell Master.
I’ve wanted to do this event for the past 2 years, so when I came across a Buy One Get One Free offer, I couldn’t pass it up. Especially since the price of those two tickets was somehow a lot cheaper than the price of a single ticket. Not sure how that’s a sound business practice, but it worked for me! Couldn’t find anyone to be brave with me, but not wanting to miss out (and lose out on ALL my money) I went alone.
All I knew going into it was that I was in the orange section. Each section was color coded and represented a specific fear. There was fear of monsters, blood, the woods, death, and fear. Team Orange was Terato- fear of monsters. (Fear of Fear, or Team Phobo, was the yellow “chicken” section which was off limits and therefore a safe zone).
I got to my tent and my tent-mates were already there. Two very nice gentlemen named George and Patrick. George was a previous Hell Master, so we decided to stick together through the night and began strategizing our evening. We briefly got separated before orientation, but I found them shortly after. I was told that when I left them, Patrick thought I may have been some sort of spy and they were sure they were not only never going to see me again, but that I was somehow going to try to take them out of the game. Crazy? Yes. Buy totally my kind of people. I replied to that with, “Well yeah, haven’t you ever seen a horror movie? A girl walks up to your tent and you just spill all your secrets? Amateurs!” Yeah, we were a great team, haha.
Our first stop was the Con-Tiki, which included dancing like a crazy person for a voodoo ritual and ended with a blood sacrifice (yes, the altar squirted us all with blood). Just a standard Saturday evening really.
Second stop was a bit more complicated. We made it to the Wolf’s Den line. And then promptly got separated. I failed to mention earlier that upon check-in, we had all been randomly assigned a horror movie stereotype. These included the Virgin, the Jock, the Cheerleader, and the Nerd. Each of these stereotypes may or may not have granted you special privileges during the tasks. George and I were both Jocks and Patrick was a Virgin. We were separated because a monster came to our line and took all the Jocks with her. She put us in line for the Pishtaco, for which the dossier instructions told us to get naked and paint ourselves. Um. Ok. We were specifically told to cover at the very least, our bikini areas, since the night before there had been a “Woodstock-type” incident. For the record, I was wearing a sports bra, so I took my shirt off. I may be brave for going to a horror-movie camp experience alone, but not brave enough to strip down to my underwear in front of anyone, let alone strangers. Just saying.
Anyhoo, we had to paint ourselves, which was actually pretty fun, and then chant to a priestess, and then there was a code-word thing that was super weird and made no sense. Pretty sure everyone failed that challenge. Those of us that failed had to line up with our hands above our heads while some monsters poured slime on the back of our heads. Yeah, it was that kind of night.
Met back up with my group and then got called out to do Vomit Toss. I had seen a picture on Instagram of the outcome of this game and the person looked like they had vomit poured on their head. I was terrified. Basically it entailed a line of people with a cup on their heads moving vomit from one end to another. The cup had to stay on your head. I don’t know what they used to make the vomit, but let’s just say each bucket was different but incredibly realistic. So much so, that I couldn’t help imagining a smell (it totally didn’t smell) and after the first time it got poured on my head by my overzealous neighbor, I was trying really hard not to make real vomit. So. Gross. By the end it was fine, but I had “chunks” all over my hands and in my hair. Again. So. Gross.
Next up was Ram Ball, which was super fun! Think Bubble Ball but instead of everyone running around, one person is in the ball and their 3 teammates have to roll them around the field to pick up various face masks. While blindfolded. And with Ram monsters in football jerseys running into you to throw you off course every few seconds. Because I was a Jock, my team got a 30 second head start and we had a Virgin, we automatically earned an extra mask. I wanted to go again, it was so much fun. And harder than it looked too, since “right” and “left” don’t work too well in a ball situation. Plus, I was strapped in, so you had to be right on top of the mask at just the right angle or else it was out of reach. I think we ended up with 4. Which I was pretty proud of. (The record for the night was 9, so I guess I shouldn’t be too proud, lol).
At this point, we went back to try our luck at Wolf’s Den again. This time we got in quickly and without any kidnapping. The point of this game was to get through the three levels and complete a puzzle. Each level had 3 tiles with a picture on it. The final task was to complete the puzzle in the correct order or get thrown into a cage. Our strategy was to have each of us memorize 3 tiles. Smart right? I forgot to mention that there were Wolf soldiers walking around. They would shine their flashlights and if you got caught in the beam you had to freeze and then do whatever they wanted. The first few times I got frozen, they just turned the light off and we were on our way. Then, they asked us for a volunteer because they were going to send one of us back to the beginning. Patrick volunteered, so of course they told George to go. Patrick and I got caught again shortly after and this wolf was a bit more demanding in what he wanted us to do. I had previously heard some yelling as I entered the Den but didn’t really hone in on what was being yelled. Turns out, they really just wanted to embarrass us. The phrase they made us yell repeatedly, for a good 30 seconds, was “I like to eat dog shit.” Yeah. He let us go after that, thankfully.
We completed the puzzle correctly, yay! But then he threw Patrick in the cage, boo! (Did I mention this was his 3rd time in that same cage?)
At this point, we were again separated, but the Headmaster had called everyone to the stage, so we met back up there. Every once in a while the Headmaster would call out a rule change or make certain teams go do a game. This time it was our turn for Blood Tag. This was pretty much as it sounds, except Big Foot was the one doing the chasing the first round. I managed to get through 3 rounds without getting hit, but the game went against every horror movie instinct I have because it required me to run around the woods in the middle of the night looking for a hiding place. Not smart, is all I’m saying.
By this point, it was roughly 2am and the game was set to end at 2:30. We passed by a creeper van and accepted the candy they offered (all part of the game, I assure you. We were rewarded with a toenail. Necessary SCAG item). Then we went to the Mass Burial. I am not claustrophobic, but I’m not so arrogant to think that being buried alive isn’t a terrifying prospect. They made us crawl about 100 feet into a tunnel. This tunnel eventually led to the mass grave and was quite long, with a turn in the middle that, if you were the first person in line (as I was) came as a lovely surprise to your head. I was the first person into the grave, and I was instructed to lay on my side against the wall of the grave. Each person behind me was instructed to spoon the person in front of them, until we were pretty much just a box of sardines. They closed the lid, told us we could use the safe phrase (“I want my mommy”) at any point but that it would take a while to get to us, so we shouldn’t bother. They definitely shoveled dirt on us since that box really amplified any and all sounds. Then they turned a fan on. Now, I was first in line, so I got to lay at the edge of the tunnel where it met the grave box while the group in front of me went. I knew they would turn a fan on since I had just experienced it in the tunnel. I was not prepared for being on that side of it though. It felt like the air was being sucked out of the box and they left it on for several minutes. Not a scary experience but an unpleasant one for sure.
This is where my rational brain kicks in. First of all, they’re not going to seriously bury you alive. Yes, you sign a waiver. But there’s still too much liability in that. The graveyard they did this in was dark, so I couldn’t quite “get” how they were going to bury us. After the experience though, it seemed like we were in some sort of garden box. They shoveled a couple scoops of dirt onto the top of the lid and then scraped the shovels on the sides and top of the lid. I know it couldn’t have been more than a few scoops of dirt because I could very clearly hear the shovel connecting with the top of the box. Had there been more dirt, the shovel wouldn’t have met with the lid. Again, too rational. This is why Knott’s and Universal Studio’s Halloween mazes don’t scare me. I know it’s not real and I am too curious about how certain effects are done. That being said, the fan thing was definitely put in place for people like me, because it was unsettling. It was not an airtight box; I could see outside while I was at the edge of the tunnel. But still. Definitely the creepiest thing I experienced that night.
At that point it was pretty much game over. We turned in our SCAG items, accepted that we didn’t win anything, and went to bed. They had arts & crafts, horror movie themed board games, and scary movies throughout the whole event. So I figured I’d take a nap and then go do something else. Slept for maybe 45 minutes and then George left to watch a movie. I put my jacket on and then decided I wanted to sleep more. No more than 5 minutes pass and suddenly there’s heavy metal playing over the PA system and the Headmaster comes on to announce which team won (collected the most SCAG). Really? 4:30am is the time to do this? Since 4:30am is when my first alarm goes off during the week, I was wide awake at that point. So, I took my blanket and went to watch a movie. Got through the end of The Descent (I hate that movie, btw) and then the sun came up. So you literally could not see the next movie. By this time, it was 6am and we knew none of us had won Hell Master. So we left.
Honestly, I had a blast. There were some things I didn’t like about it (too many people, too many sub-games/sub-rules) but it was like an extended haunted house experience with a bunch of random and slightly effed up things happening too. I never went to the tent while the game was in progress, so no, they didn’t drag me out of bed. It was messy and could have been messier (we didn’t get to everything; not enough time) but not really scary. In fact, I was a little disappointed by that. In the hours leading up to the event, I was really getting worried about what I had signed up for. But it was pretty tame. Now, I realize my threshold for weird and creepy is much higher than the average person, but you’ve just read everything I went through. Was any of it really that scary? They definitely liked to mess with us, but that’s about it.
So overall, super fun. I would totally do it again, although maybe at a smaller venue. There’s nothing scary about waiting in line for a half hour.
