Give Them a Real Scare This Halloween: A Guide to Scaring Trick-Or-Treaters and Haunting Your House, Yard or Party [Paperback]

Joseph Pfeiffer (Author, Illustrator), Randolf Metz (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 30, 1997

This 128 page humorous how-to book is a collection of tricks, illusions, props, costumes, and scenery ideas that can be used to scare trick-or-treaters in the yard or at the door, build a haunted attraction, or spice up your Halloween party. Over 250 cartoons and drawing humorously illustrate hundreds of frighteningly wacky ideas described in satirical humor. A must for anyone who enjoys Halloween.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The production value of this publication is exceptional, with plenty of great ideas. Mr. Pfeiffer is an incredible cartoonist, and the illustrations alone are worth the price of the book. Written to tickle your funny bone, you will find this book in the humor section. This Night Stand Librarian rates it with a thumbs up, and recommends you add it to your library. -- Haunted Attractions, Oct. 1997

From the Publisher

Joseph Pfeiffer has been a cartoonist infatuated with the holiday of Halloween for most of his life. In addition to the three month of research on the topic of haunted attractions, this books presents a vast collection of both humor and great ideas to better enjoy Halloween.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Chessmore Publishing Company; 1st edition (August 30, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 096597720X
• ISBN-13: 978-0965977203
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.3 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,384,398 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #37 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Religion & Spirituality > Occult > Ghosts & Haunted Houses
  • #52 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Home & Garden > Crafts & Hobbies > Seasonal
  • #60 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Home & Garden > Crafts & Hobbies > Decorating

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Book, But Not What I Expected, April 10, 2003

By 

R. Parisi "RobInRI" (Providence, RI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Give Them a Real Scare This Halloween: A Guide to Scaring Trick-Or-Treaters and Haunting Your House, Yard or Party (Paperback)

I was looking for ideas for scary decorations, which is not really what this book is about, although it is well written and the cartoon drawings are great.
If you're looking for scary tricks to perform, this book has Halloween gags which would be good for a family or group to do together, to scare Trick Or Treaters or haunted house guests.
But if you're planning a Halloween party, and you want to socialize and actually be part of the party, this is probably not the book for you. Most of the ideas in this book must be repeated every time someone new arrives. They require you to play an active role in the scare, either in costume or behind the scenes, and many require two people.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A disappointment overall., September 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Give Them a Real Scare This Halloween: A Guide to Scaring Trick-Or-Treaters and Haunting Your House, Yard or Party (Paperback)

This book outlines some yard ideas, but they apppear uncreative and need special equipment. If you're looking for halloween party ideas tho this may give you some ideas. Some pranks for trick-or-treaters are one time pranks. If you're looking for simple, practical ideas on creating dummies, haunts, and spooks this is probably not the one you want.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Save your money, September 26, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Give Them a Real Scare This Halloween: A Guide to Scaring Trick-Or-Treaters and Haunting Your House, Yard or Party (Paperback)

I ended up returning this book.

I was looking for a book that could show me the details on building some interesting non-professional haunted house effects for my yard this year. This book is not it. The low production values, clumbsy writing, and weak artwork could be endured if the content was good, but unfortunately, it was not.

Make no mistake - this is not a 'how-to' book. Much of the book looks like the author likes to draw scary pictures on half a page, and describe the drawing underneath. Only the simplest of illusions are detailed. Anything ambitious is glossed over - if you're lucky, you get text to the effect of "If you want to do this, find someone who knows how to do it." Not very helpful if you're trying to learn.

The text reads as if it were written by teenagers in one draft. It jumps from "don't blame us if you get someone hurt" to "don't blame us if your guests don't suffer heart attacks and die from fright!" (I'm paraphrasing.) The author even suggests mocking peoples' beliefs by making a "freak show" exhibit out of them - meant to be a joke, hopefully, but it just comes off as being insensitive and sad.

Finally, there is very little in the way of practical information. A few illusions have simple diagrams, but I would have liked more: how to actually build some of these illusions, how much I could expect them to cost, what I need to buy to make them, how long it might take to assemble them, how to stage and light them, and most importantly, how to ensure they are safe.

The sad part is that you can tell the author really loves this stuff, but just doesn't have the depth of knowledge to justify writing a book. It feels like he just brainstormed a bunch of spooky scenes, described the few illusions he could figure out, dropped in some trolled bits from the Halloween-L mailing list, and called it a book.

Overall, an amateurish and unhelpful work.