On Halloween we posted a sample of our new search, the CON29DW Fear+.
Much to our eternal regret, this isn’t a new product we’re offering, but a “hilarious” Halloween jape, and one which proved very popular with customers.
Appropriately for Halloween, we crammed the search full of references to some of our favourite horror movies and TV shows, and then challenged customers to spot as many as possible. (It was only after we’d sent it that we realised we’d not included The Evil Dead, for which we’re never going to forgive ourselves).
Many of our customers rose to the challenge, not only getting all our references, but including ones that were so subtle/obscure, we didn’t even realise we’d made them! (we’re that good, honest). Below are all of the ones we included, along with selected additional contributions from our customers:
Page one:
- Order Number: 666 – Easy one to start with, it’s from The Omen.
- Customer reference: Silver Shamrock – a tad more obscure, Halloween III: Season Of The Witch.
- Property address: Derelict ghost train; creepy, abandoned amusement park, Terror Island – Intended as a reference to pretty much every episode of Scooby Doo, but thanks to the customers who pointed out that it could also refer to Zombieland, Ghost Train, Terror Island, Island Of Terror and Goosebumps, all of which we’ll allow.
- There’s a public sewer within the boundary, running right through the old Native American burial ground – although sewers weren’t referenced in either of the films, this was a nod to both The Amityville Horror or The Shining, and definitely not Poltergeist, which features a standard graveyard and everyone remembers it wrong.
- Haunted water – we were just being silly, but as several customers mentioned Dark Water, which does indeed have haunted water, we’ll allow that.
- Giant octopi, mutant two-headed sharks and possibly the creature from the Black Lagoon – Of course everyone’s seen Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus and 2-Headed Shark Attack, right? Plus there’s a giant octopus in It Came From Beneath The Sea, which we haven’t seen but it’s Ray Harryhausen so we’re intrigued (and we’ll allow it). And Creature From The Black Lagoon was a slightly obvious one.
- Zombie pirates – we put this safe in the knowledge that no one would ever make a film about zombie pirates and we could just be silly about it. There’s Pirates Of The Caribbean of course, but they’re not strictly zombies. Then several people pointed out the Zombie Pirates is actually a real film, so we’ll have to let you have that.
- Exorcist referral letter – We’d meant The Exorcist, but allowed any exorcism-based films.
Page two:
- We’d recommend staring into a mirror and reading the questions out loud five times. – That’ll be from Candyman (not the Christina Aguilera song).
- Hellmouth – Yes we snuck in a Buffy The Vampire Slayer reference.
- Piers Morgan – A few people mentioned Britain’s Got Talent here. Which we’re not allowing, we just find Piers Morgan terrifying.
- All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy – Easy one here. It’s either from The Shining, or some of our staff after a particularly long day.
Page three:
- We’re not counting all the vampires, werewolves and zombies on the key as they’re too obvious/not from any specific film. However, on the map itself there were:
- Burkittsville Woods – the setting of The Blair Witch Project.
- Haddonfield – We couldn’t not mention the hometown of Michael Myers in a Halloween-themed search could we?
- Camp Crystal Lake – it’s the world’s worst summer camp, as seen in Friday the 13th.
- Baltimore State Hospital For The Criminally Insane – the residence of a certain Hannibal Lecter, as seen in The Silence Of The Lambs.
- 1428 Elm Street – That’s the house from A Nightmare Of Elm Street. The clue’s in the title.
- Murder House – American Horror Story (the TV show, not the Presidential election).
- The Winchester – Apparently not the best place to take refuge from a zombie apocalypse, as demonstrated in Shaun Of The Dead.
- Bates Motel – As seen in Psycho, (and yes, also its TV spin-off Bates Motel, which we’ll allow even though that’s far too easy and wasn’t directed by Hitchcock).
- Pet Semetary – and talking of obvious, that’s from Stephen King’s Pet Semetary. It’s not one of his best to be honest.
- Hordes of zombies outside – Several people mentioned The Walking Dead. As we’re horror snobs (yes, that’s a thing) we should only accept the original, black & white Night Of The Living Dead, but we’ll accept any zombie-based mayhem.
- Creepy kids crawling out your TV – That’s The Ring. (The original, Japanese one, obviously).
- “What’s your favourite scary movie?” – That’ll be from Scream. And, just for the record, the answer’s – Love, Actually. It’s terrifying.
- Creepy old guy from the amusement park. And he would have gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for you pesky kids – Yes, we put another Scooby Doo reference in there. Because Scooby Doo’s great.
A big thanks to everyone who entered, and congratulations to Jessica Davis from PSG, who wins a £20 Amazon voucher.