Spookiness Rating: 5

The Horrible Scavenger Hunt

Bring us 30 of the 50 items below, including at least 5 elements from each of the four categories.

Phobias

  1. an original Shakespearean sonnet about fear of flying, written in the first person (scansion counts!)
  2. a photograph of a team member with their hair standing on end
  3. some food item (commercial or homemade) that looks horrible but is actually quite tasty (item must be left with the judge)
  4. a valid death certificate
  5. a color photograph of a team member completely (OK, mostly) covered in blood (or something that looks an awful lot like it)
  6. the precise phrase that was the answer to the 2000 Boston Globe Halloween Hunt
  7. an authentic airplane "flight distress" bag
  8. a photograph of a team member delivering a speech to an audience of 50 or more people
  9. a photograph of a team member naked in front of an audience of 10 or more people
  10. a live, unharmed spider in an adequate container that's transparent
  11. a photograph of a team member in a very confined or a very wide open place
  12. a picture, book, videotape, or other entertainment item that depicts an evil clown or clowns
  13. something that goes bump in the night

Horror Fiction

  1. a Harry Potter book in a language other than English.
  2. a book that contain the word "horrifying" on either the front or the back of the dust jacket/cover (the word cannot be part of the title)
  3. a photograph of a team member underneath a razor-sharp pendulum
  4. a William Shatner mask
  5. a truly horrible poem (poems provided as Hunt puzzles are not acceptable)
  6. a bottle of amontillado
  7. a 5-to-10-minute original horror film titled The MIT Mystery Hunt Project, of appropriate style and content, on a VHS videotape
  8. five limericks, each summarizing the plot of a different famous horror novel (scansion counts!)
  9. a horror novel and a videotape that have the same title (it's OK if one is based on the other)
  10. a vinyl copy of the album Thriller by Michael Jackson
  11. two words or phrases that are related to horror and that are anagrams of each other (example: "monster" and "ten ROMs"; except "ten ROMs" is not horror-related, or even particularly meaningful)
  12. a commercial book, comic book, videotape, or other such entertainment item that depicts the interaction of at least two monsters, creatures, or well-known horror figures such as Dracula, with the two beings being from different original sources (for example, a battle between Frankenstein and the Mummy)
  13. an original cartoon drawn in the style of Edward Gorey or Charles Addams (the judge should be able to tell which)

Creatures

  1. an origami model of a bat
  2. a wind-up/electric skull that clicks its teeth together
  3. an original drawing or painting of a succubus or incubus at work
  4. a complete skeleton made up of real bones
  5. a photograph of a team member holding a live snake that is at least as long as the team member
  6. a creature (or a model of a creature) that glows in the dark
  7. a signed photograph of Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, or Lon Chaney
  8. a (living) black cat
  9. a commercial stuffed animal that is a cockroach, a praying mantis, a centipede, a spider, or a tarantula (cuteness counts!)
  10. a URL to a collection of at least 10 pieces of vampire porn (art or fiction)
  11. a superhero comic book where the cover shows a picture of a costumed superhero fighting a vampire, werewolf, mummy, or zombie
  12. a doll made from pieces of other dolls

The Supernatural

  1. a photograph of a team member in a cemetery after dark
  2. a voodoo doll
  3. a copy (or photocopy) of a short ghost story that you think is really scary (the story should be 10 pages or less)
  4. a real business card that has "666" (together) on it somewhere
  5. a 200-word essay explaining what you would be willing to sell your soul for (be convincing!)
  6. a cross of silver
  7. a deck of 25 Rhine-Zenner ESP testing cards
  8. an X-rated graphic novel that contains a scene in which a horrible beast is summoned in an occult manner and then has sex with someone
  9. a commercial Wiccan product that makes an explicit claim that it is for use in a magic potion of some sort
  10. a Ouija board
  11. an original-cast recording of Damn Yankees (RIP, Gwen Verdon)
  12. a three-dimensional piece of art representing la Catrina of el Día de los Muertos