‘Tis the season for merciless pranks.

Renae Johnson filmed herself setting up a gruesome prank, where she poked a pair of scissors through a fake tongue, put it in her mouth and waited for her kids to get home from school.

When the Johnson kids came home from school they saw their mom lying there, Renae then started to groaning in fake pain and wrote a message on a piece of paper to try to communicate with them. She had her kids convinced it was real.

Naturally they freaked. As would anyone.

The mom said, “My kids had thought they’d be able to go to the haunted house this year,” explained the mom in Arkport, New York. “After this, I decided we should wait.”

Thats probably best.

As you can guess, the viral video has caused a ton controversy surrounding her parenting skills. Check out the video: