This product is simply awesome!!! I would highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys the feeling of being scared or enjoys freaking other people out. I hosted a horror themed party last weekend and bought this box set thinking we'd get a laugh out of it. We got that and so much more. *Warning* - it's far more chilling than you expect!!! The stories in the book aren't just lame headless horseman type tales, they are more like urban legends (some of which you may have heard) with real life danger e.g. serial killers stalking their victims! Reading these stories aloud with the horror music playing in the background literally freaked everyone out - even me!
Also worthy of note is the music. It's all original music composed for the box set. Again, when I ordered this, I expected the music to be hammer horror / haunted house type sound effects, but was pleasantly surprised to find the production value to be really high & the style being more reminiscent of classic 70's type horror - John Carpenter's Halloween came straight to mind. Also, the photography throughout the book is stunning - mostly black & white and very atmospheric. It really puts you in a creepy place.
The other addition to the box was the most fun part of the evening. There's an "FX" CD, which is basically a bunch of eerie sound effects. The best part is that they're all spaced out to go off at random intervals - so you never know when the next one is coming. In the inlay cover, there are suggestions of how to play pranks on your mates
using this CD. I simply just put the CD into a portable CD player and hid it under the bed upstairs. On the stroke of midnight I went up there, pressed play, turned up the volume and then rejoined the group. There's a 5 minute (ish) gap of silence at the beginning of the CD giving you plenty of time to get away from the player! The effects began quite subtely and as they increased in scare factor, so did my panic stricken guests (I guess the stories nicely set the mood!!!). The screams that came out of my friends were so loud that our neighbours complained :)
There's a bunch of other stuff in the book that we didn't have time to do. Murder in the Dark for adults sounds like fun!
Anyway, I can't recommend this box set highly enough. To make your experience more enjoyable, I'd recommend turning off all the lights and lightening a bunch of candles - much more atmospheric. Also, although there's nothing in the box very graphic, I wouldn't recommend it for young kids, otherwise they'll end up having nightmares for the rest of their life!
Happy scaring!!!