Hughsville teen garners support from Western Clinton in ‘Face of Horror’ contest

RENOVO -- A Hughesville teen embraced the help of central Pennsylvania, including a large boost from friends in Renovo, to secure an amazing finish in her group in a horror contest that had over 200,000 contestants, a remarkable showing paced by supporters known and unknown.

Emma Mitchell, 19, of Hughesville, has always been a fan of horror movies. After seeing a "Face of Horror" contest which included a $13,000 cash prize, a photoshoot with Kane Hodder who played Jason Voorhees in the famed Friday the 13th movies at the Woodbury house and to be featured in a future edition of Rue Morgue Magazine.

Mitchell was eliminated last Thursday when the final 12 contestants were named, but the journey was filled with fun and unique times that spanned local communities.

The teenager's costume ideas and enthusiasm certainly guided her in her journey, but in a contest that was all about social media support and votes, Emma had a bit of a secret weapon in her grandmother, Sue Emerick.

Anyone that knows Sue is aware that her creativity and enthusiasm for anything out of the ordinary is unmatched and where she excels, so when her granddaughter approached her regarding the contest, the campaign was instantly in motion at full speed.

'Creepy Girl', the moniker that Mitchell campaigned under, became a staple of parades and haunted houses throughout the area where treats and candy were tossed out in the hope that people would offer a vote (or more) online.

Although Emerick left the Renovo area decades ago, her close relationships with friends have maintained strong and they jumped on the chance to help her and her granddaughter out.

Many of those friends are part of the Greater Renovo Area Heritage Park committee and with Halloween around the corner, they were feeling festive and wanted to help. With the recruitment of over a dozen students at Bucktail Area High School, the Heritage headquarters was transformed into a haunted house, setting the backdrop for two required films to enter the contest.

"We had to submit two separate videos, one under 30 seconds and one in the 4-5-minute range, and my 'girlies' in Renovo came through in such a fantastic way," Emerick said of her friends whom she just as often refers to as sisters. (The video contest has not had a winner announced yet, as the winning submission will be chosen by Kane Hodder himself).

In addition to a great location for a video shoot, the Renovo network quickly became Creepy Girl's most loyal fans.

"You could vote once every 24 hours, we had so many people in Renovo setting the alarms on their phones so that they would remember to vote every day, then we'd all be online together, filled with excitement as eliminations were announced, it was so much fun," Emerick described.

The updated voting would be announced each Thursday at 11 p.m. Eastern time, so it was several late Thursday nights for those in group chats watching and hoping Emma would keep moving on. With over 200,000 contestants entered, they were broken into groups and had to survive weekly eliminations. Initially the top 100 people in each group would move on, then 50, 20 etcetera until finally only the top vote getters moved onto the final 12 last Thursday Nov. 2. It was then that Mitchell was eliminated.

"It was tough, we're running a crowdsourced campaign, by the end we were up against people that had corporate sponsors, we went as far as we could," Emerick says proudly of her granddaughter.

The group had one last event organized for the contest, a sock Bingo party in Renovo last Saturday. With Creepy Girl being eliminated 48 hours earlier and now no longer needing to raise money for future events, Emma went out with class.

With the $450 raised on Saturday, that money was now no longer needed to plan her next vote-getting events. Instead, Mitchell decided that she will use that money and buy gifts for kids at the pediatrics center at Geisinger.

"This was a blast. I cannot thank my girlies from Renovo and the students at Bucktail enough. They certainly came through for Emma, I loved every minute of it," Emerick said in appreciation.