Frequently Asked Questions about ScaryPlace
What is ScaryPlace?
Who or What is Scuttles?
What is the Haunted Theater?
What is ScaryPlace?
ScaryPlace is several things, but for the moment, it is not a physical place. (Given sufficient interest and funding, that could change...)
ScaryPlace is a destination website, designed to entertain, inform, and perhaps even enlighten.
ScaryPlace invites interaction from the Scary community in the form of original stories, reports of true scary experiences, displayed artwork, and personal feedback.
ScaryPlace will give you honest, un-sponsored reviews and recommendations of scary events, books and movies.
ScaryPlace also intends to become a resource where aspiring haunted house and other scary event producers can come for advice and instructions on how to build, promote and operate a safe and effective scary experience.
ScaryPlace is not a commercial endeavor. The site is entirely funded by personal funds and occasional contributions. I hope you will notice that there are NO ADS on ScaryPlace.
Who or What is Scuttles?
Scuttles is the "founder" of ScaryPlace. He makes his wishes known to the staff, and we carry on as best we can. Not much is known about Scuttles, but what we do know is here. (For the sake of readability, you will continue to hear Scuttles referred to as "he", but never having seen beneath "his" flowing black material, we can't really fix a gender to "him".)
Scuttles appeared on the scene back in 1986. The famous Haunted Theater was setting up for it's usual three week run leading up to Halloween, when reports of a "shadowy figure" started to be passed around. Reports described him as "something like a ghost, only it's dark instead of glowing". One comedian said he "looks like the shadow of 'Cousin It' from the 'Addams Family'". Other witnesses said Scuttles looked like a Jawa (from Star Wars) or one of the dwarfs from Phantasm, on account of the glowing red eyes. But none of the descriptions are quite right.
Coming up with an accurate description was complicated by the fact that he seems to be different things to different people. It is believed that he draws on a person's own expectations when they "see" him. Scuttles seemed to like what he found at the Haunted Theater and became a "regular". Year after year, he drifted through the theater, and was often seen patrolling the lines of waiting victims, provoking or priming them for the coming thrills. Oddly, he had a soothing effect on smaller children, who seemed to find him a friendly figure. But the potential troublemakers found his presence in the Haunted Theater an incentive to vacate the premises as quickly as possible, many needing a change of underwear.
Scuttles was known to pop out of almost any place within the theater, usually accompanied by the screams of delighted, or terrified, victims. Scuttles has a number of distinctive habits and abilities. (The habits are verifiable, but the abilities are constantly in question. Again, it seems to depend on the individual who is dealing with Scuttles.) Perhaps because of the "Cousin It" comment, Scuttles adopted a battered old bowler hat from the prop room, and was rarely seen without it from that point on. He often would "rattle" the hat in greeting, prior to disappearing before the eyes of a victim. The rattling sound itself is odd and unsettling to most. A human head would not produce that loud, staccato sound.
Scuttles does not speak, at least in human terms. But he does communicate. There is something in his eyes and the odd skittering noises he makes that gets his message across. (Experiments with videotape have shown that you actually have to be there to get the meaning, leading to the theory that there is some sort of mental aspect to his communication.) Scuttles has been reported to be in more than one place at one time. It has been reported that he can "float" like a ghost, drifting silently down a hallway, only to rise high above the victims before vanishing. Other times, he seems to scuttles along, low to the ground, like some oversized insect, while making a very unnerving chittering sound, reminiscent of all the "bug" movies you have ever seen.
Scuttles does not photograph well. Camera film seems to fog, and on video, all you can see is the red pinpoint eyes. However, check back here in the future where we hope to develop an illustration of him for you. The Haunted Theater is no more, but Scuttles lives on. And until there is a new home for him, he will live in these web pages, and perhaps make a guest appearance... Who knows... he may decide to visit you.
What is The Haunted Theater?
I just completed an entire page about the Haunted Theater. Click here to see it.