[0:22] Hello, everyone. I'm Jonathan. I'm Crystal and this is Haunt Weekly, a weekly podcast We own an attraction and entertainment community whether you're an actor, owner, or just plain aficionado We aim to be a podcast for you And we return to you this week with a guide, We're going to tell you how to write a ghost story, which we're going to get into in more detail It's a little different from a backstory, But we're going to get into it in just a little bit hopefully this will be educational and helpful as I know a lot of you all are working on your Hunt backstories and lore as we speak. But if that is not what you need, please check out all of our other episodes. You can find us at HuntWiki.com or HuntWiki on Twitter, HuntWiki on Facebook and YouTube.com slash Hunt Weekly. You can also catch us wherever your podcasts are found.
[1:10] And to start off with, most weeks at least. We didn't do it last week because we kind of took last week off and by that I mean use content we pre-recorded. But usually we ask a question of the week and last week's last time's question of the week rather was what are you most looking forward to in the 2023 haunt season and boy did y'all show up for this one. Ryan Greger, said he's looking forward to having a new house to haunt up, figuring out a new layout, and getting a feel for the neighborhood. Be sure to make kind with all your neighbors now.
Take them goodies and flyers. Amanda Hughes said, trying some new elements in my act, a lot of stuff you guys suggested, like having more lines to react to the off-the-wall interactions I have, trying to make it more creepy and unnerving as I'm going to have to be largely out in the open with people and not a brief interaction scene, so a long scene, those are more difficult.
Really developing character.
[2:12] And that I actually get to be my character this year, which I haven't done in forever.
That is, that sounds great.
It does. Nicholas Vaux, I have no idea. I apologize, Nicholas.
Says lack of sleep, not really.
Really much more interested in getting a good paycheck, which I understand that.
Yeah. Micah Arnold said reopening my haunt and using my found haunt knowledge.
So this year isn't a complete mess. New found haunt knowledge.
Yeah, complete mess with five different themes. Because of you guys, my haunt is going to be 10 times better.
Well, thank you very much, Micah. Well, thank you very much.
I'm glad we were able to help somebody. I don't think it'll be 10 times better, but you know what? I do like the idea of having a consistent theme.
And if it's 10 times better, it's because you made it 10 times better.
It has nothing to do with us. Exactly. That's what I meant to say.
Discussion on a haunt celebrating 49 years and its location
[3:02] Yeah. That's a much better way to say that. Darren Fowler said their haunt is celebrating 49 years this year.
Which is awesome. Which is awesome. And here's the thing.
They are the West Springs Spook House in upstate South Carolina.
I actually mapped it. They are 25 minutes away from my grandfather's house, where my mom grew up in Woodruff, South Carolina.
Huh. So, and I've spent a lot of time in that region and I'm, I obviously, I've never been to it so I've never visited all the attractions in that area, but I can almost guarantee I've been by the place at some point.
Anyways.
Right. Sean Fenner said, complete remodeling of one of our attractions.
Looking forward to the public being able to see it.
I understand that so much. That's such a great feeling to have something new to show.
It really is. Craig Watt, hopefully make a profit.
And Drew Badger said, I'm a nerd.
[4:01] Drew Badger said cooler temps. Like no fucking shit. Yeah, but there's a mighty big assumption there will be cooler temps.
I know.
Just like assuming that I will not choke on my liquid as I drink it.
But anyways, that brings us to this week's question of the week, and it's quite a simple one.
What is your favorite ghost story?
Let us know, HauntonWiki.com, HauntonWiki on Twitter, Facebook.com slash HauntonWeekly and YouTube.com slash HauntonWeekly. We'd love to hear your thoughts and get the answer to the question.
But my favorite ghost story has always been the Gray Ghost. I'm still choking slightly, sorry about that.
But basically it's a ghost along the coast of South Carolina that supposedly warned people of hurricanes before we had like the National Weather Service and that kind of shit.
We had actual warning of hurricanes.
If the ghost appeared, you got the fuck out, basically. And I like that story because it's simple.
And the ghost isn't harmful. It's actually a very helpful ghost in that scenario.
Yeah, it's the most helpful ghost. This kicks the shit out of Casper.
Fuck you, Casper. You're not a friendly ghost. You never saved anyone from a hurricane.
[5:19] And I do like that type of ghost story. There are a lot of stories around, you know, spirits congregating around bodies of water and stuff like that.
I used to do a lot of research into this kind of stuff.
[5:34] But I don't really have a favorite ghost story.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: A Ghost Story
[5:40] I mean, the first thing that came to mind was the legend of Sleepy Hollow, but that's really a legend, not a ghost story. but as we will get into, those can cross over.
Yes. So actually, no, I don't think that's a bad answer. It's a very good ghost story.
And I do think it's a ghost story. Because the actual- In the end, it is.
Yeah, because the actual legend of Sleepy Hollow is in and of itself a ghost story.
It's just a ghost story sometimes wrapped in a ghost story.
Disappointing Animatronics at Spirit Halloween Store
[6:10] So yes, once again, let us know all the places we mentioned.
All right, first things first, we have a pair of updates.
Which feeds us into this topic, but the one that does not is we finally got to go buy a Spirit.
Yeah.
I gotta say I was pleasantly surprised.
Yeah, there were some props that had an unexpected element. Yeah, I will say this, the animatronics still look like they're crappily built. These all looked incredibly lightweight and cheesily built.
Yeah.
And I can't imagine any of them surviving any significant usage without major repairs.
I mean I could even in fact even though we were there like a week after they opened this place, some of them are already broken. You know.
And that sucks. Well, they either weren't broke. They were either broken or not turned on. Yeah.
I'm not sure which because we were there a week after opening. Fair point. But yeah, but you could tell with the ones that were moving that it was very cheap and lightweight.
And like you could see like the frames shaking as it moved around things. And you just know that's going to create problems. But they were very creative. There was two that I remember well, One was a clown that had no legs was kind of doing a push-up on its hands and was vertical and I'm like, okay What's this one gonna do and then the whole body starts turning? I genuinely did not expect that motion with that Yeah, and it looked like a topsy-turvy. Yeah, and.
[7:36] Then there was a grim reaper type. Mm-hmm who?
Moved his arm and exposed basically a whole ass other person Yeah, which I think that that could really be incorporated into a haunt but using actor, Yeah, like maybe maybe have the the motion of the bigger prop be a prop and a mechanical thing, but have an actor actually hiding inside instead of the, The other dummy. Yeah, it was a very very effective hiding job. They did on that You could tell they put a lot of thought into it. Like I said, it was 300 fucking dollars for him not paying that Yeah, whoever designed it did a great job. Yeah, but I'm a hundred percent sure that like I said, these are not gonna last, They also had some really good decor.
If you're wanting just some like home decor. Yeah, I kind of want to buy all of it.
I'm not going to. Especially if you like the pop culture touchstones that were big this year there that I can recall, was Nightmare Before Christmas, always, Ghostbusters, Haunted Mansion, Which, that goes for the new movie.
[8:39] Beetlejuice, which I think is in the run-up to the sequel Because isn't there a Beetlejuice movie due out sometime soon?
And then a corporate reasons unclear. I think it's like the 30th anniversary or something, But killer clowns from outer space was also huge. Yeah, and Mars attacks was everywhere, too Oh, that's right. Mars attacks was to your right. Yeah, and I haven't heard anything about a reboot of that or something Yeah, it may be an anniversary for that too.
Yeah. But no, I mean, so yeah, there was a lot of great decor items.
No Flyers Allowed at Spirit Halloween Store
[9:12] It was not what I consider great pricing, but it wasn't horrible either on it.
I think we bought a mask that we were interested in playing around with and trying to see if we could work on and improve.
And I think we bought a couple other things, but for a lot of it, my attitude is just kind to wait until November and buy it off the site if you like it.
The bad news from Spirit was that we asked about the prospect of leaving flyers, which this has been a big tradition for us at Halloween to leave flyers there, and we were not able to last year because there was no Spirit.
[9:56] No Spirit opened geographically close to us. that opened in the area all opened about 30 minutes away, you know, minimum. So, yeah, but they said no flyers. They're not going to take any now. My plan is to come back in September and see if the other haunts are leaving flyers and the other haunts are leaving flyers. Then I'm pretty sure we can find a way to make it work. Yeah, exactly, but...
They're not, that would really hurt in my mind because I remember even growing up.
[10:34] Spirit was the place you would go to learn about what Hans were opening that year. You would go and see flyers, you would see... Whatever the local costume shop is.
Oh yeah, the costume shop in general. And unfortunately for us, this is the one on the West Bank because they put the other one out of business. Yeah. So this is what we've got and we can't work with them at least or not right now. Not right now. So we're gonna see how that happens. We've been told that before and ended up working out. Next we do need to go by Home Depot and Lowe's apparently though.
Well I've been checking our local ones and nothing's in stock yet and I think it's because we're still in hurricane season and they're you know selling generators and shit for hurricanes. Fair point. But we also took another trip and.
[11:21] This one is the one that does lean into our story right now. We took a trip to the Slidell Historical Museum. For those that don't know, New Orleans sits at the bottom of a giant lake called Lake Pontchartrain, and this is a town to the east and north, slightly, of New Orleans called Slidell. It's right across the lake.
It's a town that we found out is about as old as New Orleans, though not in terms of when it was like, what's the term I have? Incorporated. Incorporated, but in, terms like people living there has about the same history as New Orleans.
It grew up in tandem. Yeah, it grew in tandem not because of New Orleans, which I found very interesting. Yeah. But yeah, and the reason we went there was because we mentioned in the last news episode, episode 400, that the Mall of America I picked onion head.
[12:11] A Slido legend for their theme and so we wanted to go and they said they had an exhibit there on their site. Right. Let's go learn more about Onionhead and maybe talk about it.
[12:24] We ended up meeting a gentleman by the name of Gregory. Wonderful guy, very, very enthusiastic about this history. Yes, I think Gregory was also maybe a little bit lonely and just really happy to to see people. Yeah. Because we met up actually with some friends from the area who had spent a weekend in that same like two-block zone and had no idea there was a museum there. Yeah, I don't know how far back the guestbook went, but yeah it seemed to have. Seriously, if you're in Sawyerdale, go pay the museum a visit.
Yeah. It's free apparently. Yeah. And it was... And it's cash donations and cash Charges if you want to buy any of their merch, but but it was a it's a very cool museum And I do actually encourage people to go, One thing I learned and this is a complete aside from the podcast But this has been on my brain a lot lately is that we learned about the Sullivan Salem marriage It was a marriage between Fritz Salem and William Sullivan. It took place in 1922 in Slidell and it was supposedly the wedding of the century and, as We looked as Gregory looked into another historians looked into it. It wasn't just a wedding of the century for Slidell, right?
It was the wedding of the century full stop. It was a big huge power broker wedding.
[13:43] Thousands of people and this was at a time when the only way to get a place like Slidell was by train and train was Not you know, I mean, yeah, Well, it was not super convenient, Thousands of people came it was a big huge deal that were film crews all this stuff, And then in like a few decades after it was forgotten. Yeah by the 1960s So just like less than four decades later people forgot about and now 101 years later. You could barely even find, Information on it. Yeah, they're really hot. Yeah I I tried to find some information on it and see any actual photos or anything like that Yeah, I found some old times picking in articles. I found some old newspaper article. Yeah, but it was it was really scarce Yeah and it's amazing that something so big happened with significant international coverage completely lost to history within 100 years.
Yeah. It's just amazing to me. Yeah. But yes, we did end up learning about Onionhead to. And basically what I didn't know was A, You have to ask if you want to learn about onion head right because apparently.
[14:52] The the photograph is very upsetting for young children and anybody who's scared. I, And as I mentioned to gregory we run a haunted house, we know age is like the worst predictor, Yeah, how people will react when subjecting anything mildly horrifying Yeah, it is literally the worst predictor I can think of because I have seen.
The Legend of Onion Head Travels the World
[15:14] You know, I've seen two-year-olds go through a haunt wanting to pet all of her scary monsters Mm-hmm, and I have seen you know people in their 40s and 50s collapse and assume that this is their impending death You know but anyways, But you have to ask about it if you do go when you do want to hear more about onion But the first thing I learned was it the legend has traveled all over the world. Yeah, I did not realize that No, cuz Gregory found about it when doing research in South America. Yeah. And he was like, there's something called Onion Head that's from Slidell. Well, there's lots of Slidells all over the world. Oh, Slidell, Louisiana. That's where I'm researching. Yeah. So, it's and he's also found versions of it in like Asia and Europe and elsewhere. So, this legend has traveled the globe. And in fact, in many ways, it may be better known outside of Slidell than within Slidell in some ways. Yeah, now I will say that in September or October with the Mall of America doing its thing, which they, which the Slidell Museum had not heard about, by the way, I would totally lean into this, make, because all of the exhibits are in jail cells, well, okay, most of them.
[16:32] Are in jail. This is a converted old jail. Yeah So I would like take one of the cells put a curtain up so that if people don't want to be scared They don't have to be scared, But then put you know, uh a dummy in there with a mask that looks similar and this the legends, From all over the world because there's little differences in each And put all of that around and make it spooky and like swamp sounds and stuff in there, Yeah, and make it a feature attraction. Yeah, making a reason to come by the museum Mm-hmm I think that could be really really good and I mean I don't know if there are any haunted attractions in the slide L area anymore. There was one for a time. Mm-hmm, I don't think there is one now. I don't either but, yeah, so yeah, I just but the thing about it was Thinking about onion head and thinking about that story and we're gonna repeat the onion head legend, At least in some detail at the end of this and you'll see why in a minute We're bringing it all back around to this. We're all coming back here. I don't want to tell the story twice.
Bringing the Onion Head Legend Full Circle
[17:40] But yeah, I thought that the onion head legend despite having some complexities and issues is a good example of how to write a compelling ghost story and, Apparently have it travel the goddamn world So basically there are five elements of a good ghost story and we're going to go through them one by one. And the first one is the kernel of truth. Basically to me in my mind this is actually the most important step. But every ghost story needs a kernel of truth. Basically this is a hook that makes the story feel believable.
Um, this is what, and what this is can vary from place to place and how you, and the story to story. One easy place to always look is local history.
New Orleans, this is super easy.
Yeah, most places it is because every, you know, there are disasters or tragic deaths.
We're getting there. I know.
[18:46] But yeah, I'm jumping the gun. Basically, you have disasters, you have plague here in New Orleans, you have plagues, you have fires, you have floods, and it's going all the way back through history.
You can get all the way back to the 1700s on this, and very easily, so basically, yeah, you can just start a story with a historical event that everyone knows is true, use that as your jumping off point, and Bob's your uncle.
Now, we do this with our haunt backstories, and to be real quick about this, the way I'm looking at a ghost story versus a backstory is that a backstory has the specific function of explaining your haunt, creating context for your haunt. A ghost story is meant to be retold and shared.
Ghost Stories vs Backstories: Creating Context and Retelling
[19:33] On its own. Now, there's a lot of overlap between the two, but there are some differences we're we're going to get into. But the main thing is a ghost story can be part of a haunt backstory. In fact, it probably should be. That way your haunt backstory gets retold. And then when you present it as the backstory, people are already somewhat familiar with it. Yeah, I think one of the oddest conversations I've ever had at a haunt con was two women who were looking to open a haunted house. And I'm like, well, what's the legend in your town?
And what's the scary legend yeah yeah and there was something about a chicken it was a headless chicken or something it was a It was a headless chicken and the guy, and there was a swindler involved, and so- It was real complicated lore around the headless chicken. Exactly.
But anyway, it was a really wild story, but we sat there for about 15, 20 minutes, and talked about the legend and how they could incorporate it if that's what they wanted to go with with their haunt story.
But it was also a ghost story because the townspeople found out that the swindler had swindled and killed him.
Yeah. And then the ghost of chickens ran everywhere.
Here's what I found. Nope. No one asked you, Siri.
Local Legends as a Source of Haunting Stories
[20:51] Another good source are any local legends which are currently told as truth.
And this one can vary. I mean, obviously, a ghost story built on a ghost story is a bad idea.
But there's always local legends that get told as if they're truth.
And people genuinely believe.
Cryptozoology is actually a really interesting area to explore here because like some cryptozoology nobody believes. But some cryptozoology at least a significant percentage of people in the area seem to convince it happened. I was around when Lizardman was a thing in South Carolina. I've seen this happen firsthand. But the other kind of truth is the truth that's just true to the person that we can all relate to. Things that make us all uneasy, for example, so many ghost stories start with driving alone on a stormy night, something like that, or being, alone at a place without cell signal or any way to get help. Things that make us all uneasy, but are things that we all know to be true. Things that we know we have experienced and felt even if maybe that specific incident did not happen. So you can speak to a sort an internal, a deeper truth as well. But basically, find something that either is true.
[22:13] Or speaks to the audience as individual truth. You can take either of those approaches, and I think both can work equally as well. I'll say one thing, if you want the story to travel outside the immediate area, going for that personal truth is probably better. Something that everyone can relate to, something that's more universal. Yeah. But for a haunt which is geographically limited, it may be better to go with local history just because, A, you know your audience will be familiar with it, and B, you know, it's something easily, easily connectable.
And you're not really trying to reach every man, woman, and child across the world.
No, you don't have to reach people in South America and Asia, right?
Onionhead just did. Yeah. And the second item. A tragedy. Tragedy.
Tragedy as a Key Element in Ghost Stories
[23:08] Yes. Every ghost story has a tragedy and we heard all about tragic deaths on a ghost tour in.
[23:16] Charleston. God, that was so terrible. Yes, and if your tragedy has a kernel of truth, be careful. Yeah, because basically you want to make sure that your ghost story isn't causing any actual harm to someone, whether it's the actual person involved or a relative or a loved one or even a close descendant.
And we had this incident a while back, we actually did an episode on it, about the Bloody Mary Tours, where they were doing a ghost tour of a grisly murder that happened in 2005.
And this was several years ago, we saw this, this was like barely 15 years after the incident happened.
Yeah, I'm not even sure it made 10. Yeah. And it had been open for a little while.
Yeah. it was horrible and we knew people that knew the people involved. Yeah, exactly.
[24:10] And it wound up getting media coverage because, you know, we talked about it with our friends who knew the people involved. Yeah, it blew up fairly big. So yeah, make sure that if your tragedy is the kernel of truth that you're not causing more harm. You're not adding to the already tragic situation. Right. That said though that tragedy can be just about anything.
[24:37] I mean basically the idea is that something bad happens to either a neutral or a good person or a good group of people you know um, though to be to warn if having a Group of people may depersonalize the story some and once again, this may hurt the retelling of it, Because people like to tell and share stories about that are more relatable, right? And this is this is one of the reasons why, um ghost stories may not be as good as backstories to work with in haunts because it usually does center around one person instead of a group of people. Now this one person could be your lead character who recruits all these other people. But yeah, this is one of the key differences between a ghost story and a backstory. With a backstory you're trying to put the audience, lots of people into the scene.
And that's kind of hard to do with a story that only involves an individual person.
Unless it is that individual person is now doing the haunting, for example.
But every good ghost story has to have this element of tragedy.
Tragedy: Human-caused or Natural Disasters
[25:46] And to be clear, it doesn't have to be human-caused tragedy.
I just talked about the gray lady.
[25:55] She was killed in a hurricane. that makes sense. Boom. Boom. We're done. I mean, there are plenty of natural disasters.
There are plenty of accidental deaths that can happen. And then there's always the classic, as we have seen in so many of these stories, died of a broken heart. Yeah.
Exploring Tragic Deaths and Ghostly Disappearances
[26:15] Man, so many people die of broken hearts when they aren't candidates for broken heart syndrome.
Broken heart syndrome isn't actually a thing. It's actually a thing. Yeah. But that's typically for people who have weaker hearts usually due to age or some condition dealing with the stress of losing a loved one. Yeah. That does happen. But yeah and people do get lost in the woods and die in fires or disappear in various ways. Fall down wells and then last you can't find them.
You know things happen. But yeah a good ghost story needs a good tragedy. It needs something bad to happen to a good or at the very least neutral person. Number three, the supernatural element. Okay, right up until now we've basically just told a tragic story. Yeah.
Interesting, perhaps Shakespearean. Yeah. But not a good ghost story. So yeah, why is this a ghost story, not just a tragedy. And so basically, why is this haunting taking place today? What is going on? Were there mystic properties of the place?
[27:27] Um, was it a graveyard that was disturbed? That's a good vague one. Yeah. Um, was it a science experiment going on? Science is also excellent to pick on for like, for general ideas. Yeah. Um, was the purpose, or this is something that's more common in Eastern cultures as I've learned recently, um, was the person so wracked with grief or anger or some other emotion that they just couldn't move on to the next part, next life? What's going on? Unfinished business. Unfinished business is a classic yes so be careful when dealing with religion this is one of the key problems with the onion head story we'll get into but yeah be careful when dealing with religions so I would be very hesitant to have like a voodoo priestess put a curse now you can say so-and-so put a curse you know yeah, because curses are things and lots of religions well and you know you you can say I curse you. Dan Housen curse. Exactly. Like five people in the podcast got that reference.
But without any you know religion behind it. Now seriously look up Dan Housen. It's awesome.
Religion and storytelling: Finding a universal approach
[28:44] But yeah you don't have to call out a specific religion. You can have a there's a myriad of ways you can have this that doesn't tether it to any one religious view. But yeah basically this element is just there to explain why this isn't a tragic story but rather is a ghost story.
Setting the Stage for Listener Connection and Importance
[29:09] Next up we have a connection to the listener. Yeah I debated which to put or to put the last two when I was writing the notes because I think these two are together but also and very important separately, but go ahead.
Right, so this is the chance to lay the groundwork for what's coming up, which is what you were just alluding to.
Why should the listeners care?
Why should they care right now? Why do they care about your ghost in this moment, in this time?
Yeah. Because obviously they're not in the time that the tragedy happened.
No, they weren't there a hundred years ago or 200 years ago, whatever.
Now, are they in the same place?
Do they look like the same victim?
Isn't the right time of year or it has 20 years past and now the clowns gonna come back He comes back every seven years six months in 22 days. Yeah He's very specific like that at 1300 hours.
The Importance of Creating a Haunting Experience
[30:08] Yeah, very specific goes I mean amazingly punctual it's ridiculous Yeah, but why should the listener be paying attention and be caring about this haunting right?
Then as you're telling them or at whatever time you want them to care about it. Yeah, why should they give a shit? Mm-hmm?
[30:27] What is special to them right now? And we actually didn't Lee pulled off one of the best versions of this in our haunt and I'm really on early on I am so proud of this that and it's just a shame. We haven't been able to pull up something similar, Because or pull something this good because basically we had a killer whose idea was He was the alphabet killer and there was an actual alphabet killer, but ours was worked differently.
Yeah, ours. I think we called him the collector.
Yeah, but the thing was he collected skulls with the names of the first letter of the name of everybody coming through.
Yeah, they were his victims. And so what we would do is we had like an altar display with A through Z.
But we had 25 skulls. exactly and so we would try to find a way to get the name of someone in the net age group and then someone will go in and just rearrange that was a blank space exactly and I thought this was just gonna be a cheeky little thing they make us go teehee we're being cheap we're being silly and nobody would fucking notice thought it'd go right over people's heads people don't notice details usually but they fucking notice that and they fucking reacted to that Yeah, holy shit Wilbur that would, Your letters are not there.
The Fear of Being Betrayed by Friends
[31:52] We're both like pointing frantically at the microphone, So, yeah, it happens so many times but that's just it why should they care in that moment about the story Yeah, why is it scary to them? Well because this kill imaginary killer needs your letter, To complete the skull collection then they have 100% of the video game They will get the platinum trophy and be able to pass on, exactly.
[32:22] They're coming for you. So yeah No That is a compelling reason why that person should care and the other thing I learned about that is how quickly friends throw each other under the bus Because I could hear it outside.
They're coming for you, Katie. I'm letting them have it.
Here, it's her, it's her. It's this one. She's the one that's Katie.
So many times. Yeah, people are horrible.
Yes, people are, and it doesn't matter if it's family or friends, they do it all the same.
It doesn't matter what the relationship they had coming into home was, what matters is the relationship coming out.
Oh man, but yeah, basically give some kind of hook so that they know why they should care right now.
All right, and the final element is what is their expectation?
They care now. So, so far, you've got your kernel truth, you've got your tragedy, you've got a supernatural element to make it a ghost story, and now you know why they're caring.
What expectation are you setting up with that framework? What should they be looking out for?
[33:38] Cause like you said, all that stuff happened in the past. We have our connection to today now.
What's going to happen? Are you going to hear footsteps in the hall?
You're going to see specters visible in the building? People disappearing?
Creepy screams? Shit flying around?
Where are we going? What should I expect if I encounter this ghost experience this ghost story. What should I be expecting? Now I personally turn to the altar of Japes and agree with his rules on this. One is don't make a promise or a threat you can't keep. Exactly. And so basically maybe don't have your ghost walk through a bunch of mist and firework and explosives and then a fire or something. Make it something you can actually do inside your haunt without pissing off the fire marshal right yeah you know make it something like that.
[34:37] But yeah, to make the threat vague and scary. There's a cold mist that hits your neck.
Yeah. Yeah, you can do cold mist. Cold mist is easy.
Exactly. Yeah, you got a spritz bottle somewhere. Get a little ice water and a spritz bottle. Exactly.
You can really fuck with some people. You could, and you could be up in the rafters or in a hidey hole, and they would never see you.
Oh, or get... Or just have it automated. Actually, yeah, you could automate it, but it would be really good for that purpose. I mean, obviously you have to be careful not to Make the floor too wet because you know, yeah all issues, but you could get like one of those plant misters, There's a really fine mist a little bit ice bar just afraid on the back of someone's neck. Oh, yeah that fuck with people, I would also feel really good right now. It would feel fucking amazing, It's kind of like the sound of children's laughing. Oh when you're expecting it and wanting to hear it It's the greatest thing on earth when you're not expecting it, and it shouldn't be there. It's terrifying. Yeah, Just like that, but yeah But basically make it something that you can definitely deliver on and something that you can build into your haunt.
Exploring the Elements of a Good Ghost Story
[35:50] Uh, so yeah, main thing is keep it simple. I mean And the thing is like a lot of the ghost stories we talked about like the gray lady Expect to see a spect a figure walking along the beach warning you to go away, Okay. Well, maybe that'd be a little difficult to do on a haunt. What if I just said you can hear the footsteps, You know people say they hear their footsteps right before they'll you know, you can hear the waves crashing Oh, yeah, you can hear the waves you can do so much with this, especially in the using sound, Because you can make sound of almost anything easily.
Yeah. Sound is one of the easiest things to bring into a haunt. Exactly.
So, yeah, you can do a lot of great stuff here. I really do hope...
So yeah, those are the five elements of a good ghost story with longevity and legs.
Now, how does this apply to Onionhead?
[36:44] Say this knowing this podcast may end like a few minutes early but that's okay. Okay. It's been a long week and uh yeah but regardless. So how does this apply to Onionhead? Well to retell the story of Onionhead super briefly. Onionhead was once again there's a lot of different versions of this so I'm just going to go with the one we heard and the one we went to the Slido Museum with, and sort of had an earth swap. Onionhead was a disfigured albino enslaved person, who also may have had mental capacity issues, who was ostracized by the town and he lived with his mom in a shack way out in the outskirts somewhere. A five year old girl was found murdered and the townsfolk jumped to the conclusion apropos of nothing, that Onionhead must have been the one to do it.
[37:44] Right because that's what you do without cast and so a mob Went and hunted him down. He ran into the woods and he had small warned him. Don't you do it?
My boy didn't do nothing basically said, you know, my boy didn't do anything leave him alone, But they didn't listen. They found him in a ditch curled up in a ditch crying, And then that mob really murdered him and according to the legend We heard cut his body up into 13 pieces and sprinkled it around a local cemetery Yeah, now the thing is is that I have heard just dismembered also, But the museum did say 13 pieces. Well, it's always got to be 13. It's always gotta be 13 or something, man, Yeah Weird number to cut a body into though. It is you think about like where you would separate a body 13 isn't I mean, You could just cut off the fingers and a couple of toes and that's true. I'd be technically 13 pieces. Yeah.
[38:40] Yeah. It doesn't have to be big pieces. That is true. I didn't mean it that angle.
But anyways, he was dismembered, otherwise cut up, and sprinkled around.
And according to the legend, we heard once again, his mom was a voodoo priestess or voodoo queen, put a curse on the mob, and slowly but surely, the members of the mob began dying.
Gruesome deaths. Gruesome deaths. Not tragic deaths, because...
I found this on the web.
Siri is got a mind of her own today. I don't know what her problem is.
[39:15] But yes, the gruesome deaths that were inexplicable, though there were seen notes left at the, or elements left at the crime, different elements in different stories, that indicated this was in revenge for Onionhead's murder.
Yeah, basically at the museum what they said was that in blood, in the victim's blood, in writing was, if you were there, you're next.
Yeah. Or I'm coming for you. something like that. It was some kind of writing. And at most, nearly all the members of the mob died that way, is supposedly the legend. Now, this is a good ghost story, and let's go over the five elements with the context. The kernel of truth. Onionhead, it turns out, was a real person.
Analyzing the Five Elements of the Onionhead Story
[40:04] Yes. And the locations in the story actually exist in the town. They do, and there was some confusion which cemetery it was supposedly sprinkled around. Which I mean it's obviously going to be a challenge to find a fictional cemetery in real time, but yeah. Yeah, but they they do know, figured out which one was closest to the bayou and they think that they have it right on their website. And they have found evidence of the shack.
Yeah. Which Onion Head and his mom supposedly lived in. Yeah, so they have photos of it. In a state of deterioration and decay but photos of it. Yeah. So the person.
[40:44] Existed.
The murder and all that shit doesn't look like it happened. None of nothing else happened other than he existed. No, I think that the murder was real murder. The girl was real. Yeah, but not the murder of onion head. No, I think that was too. Okay. Well, it seems to me, I don't recall that being real. I thought that that was real and that the cutoff point from real into mysticism was the cursing and the cutting up of the way. Um, there's kernel truth here, Yeah, I mean had definitely there's a kernel of truth because we're debating what the truth is You see this is not good sign though, because we're sitting here arguing on that arguing but debating what was real and what was fake, In the story. Yeah, that's actually a good story. Yeah, exactly. This is actually kind of what you want, The tragedy there were actually two tragedies in the story. Mm-hmm Yeah, the murder of the little girl Yeah, who was you know killed by a drifter but not onion head but the brutal murder onion head too was a tragedy. Yeah.
[41:43] Who going back to one of your points was a sympathetic, innocent person who had acted violence upon them. Yeah or had some kind of tragic act. We're going back to tragedy obviously. Which brings us to the supernatural element which was you have the mother who was allegedly a voodoo queen or someone that's very vague. Or into you know like a local medicine person who would mix herbs together. Who otherwise placed a curse on them all. Yeah. There's your supernatural element. The connection to a listener. Fun fact it turns out this was historically told the reason this legend got passed around Slydell and really this shouldn't be a shock to anyone.
[42:35] The reason Scott passed around Slidell...
Was because teen boys would take their girlfriends to the cemetery for some quote-unquote cuddle time, here Gregory put it, and would tell them this story to spook them and have them get closer. So the connection was they were literally supposedly at the cemetery where it happened.
And that Onion Head is the guardian of the cemetery. Yeah, he is now the guardian of the cemetery and that brings us to the expectation for today, which is that he is the garden of the cemetery. You're supposed to see him or somehow know his presence even though he's hundreds of years gone. Yeah. And so those five elements tie together and that story has literally traveled the world a thousand times over now. Like when he told us that he first heard about in South America, despite being fairly local, that blew my mind.
But then again, we first heard about it from the fucking Mall of America. So what can I say? I know right? What can I say?
[43:42] Anyway, it's just interesting to see how stories travel and Goddamn that's a good one. Yeah, Well on that note everyone. Thank you very much for spending the past hour. So with us, we're gonna wrap things up Please check out more Haunt Weekly at hauntweekly.com, hauntweekly.com on Twitter, hauntweekly.com on Facebook and youtube.com You can find us wherever you get your podcasts from.
[44:07] But until next time, I'm Jonathan, I'm Crystal, and this is Haunt Weekly episode 403, How, to Write a Good Ghost Story.
Next one is episode 404, a podcast not found, but B, it's time to do the news.
So see you all then.