When I started thinking about the haunted garage (or driveway or both) for this year I had a clean slate. This was both good and bad. Good because unlike last year when family issues prevented me from doing much before the 31st itself - see here to read about how I did it all last year, this year I had time to plan and do it right. It was also good because I had moved into a new bigger house in July and had a 3-car garage to work with and a larger driveway. What was bad was that I was starting over in a new neighborhood, we literally have 4 occupied houses on one side and 1 on the other and I had no idea if I was doing all of this for less than a dozen kids. It was also bad in that we had moved into a high wind area, I knew the PVC-pipe and duct-taped plastic haunt I made last year would not work. It was also bad in that I was determined not to overstress myself, unlike last year I wanted to enjoy Halloween. It was also bad (or good) in that I had a completely blank slate, we had never done anything at this location, didn't know what would work, couldn't attach anything to the house ("Don't you dare put a hole in my new walls!"), etc.
Last year we had erected a structure of PVC-pipe and duct-taped sheet plastic to it for walls. My better-half complained that this did not give any places to attach decorations, it also was not sturdy and threatened collapse the whole evening - even in a light wind. What I determined to do this year was to build a more sturdy structure (i.e. with wood) and pre-build it the weekend before so on the Halloween itself I had less to do.
What worked well last year was the "corner" concept. In previous years we had a straight shot through the haunt to the candy-giver, with lots of decorations to look at. Last year I introduced the "corner" in the haunt and made people walk in a "S" shape to get to the candy. This turned out to be very successful as the TOT's (Trick Or Treater's) creeped around the corners waiting for something awful around each bend. So I wanted to have corners.
But I didn't have a floor plan in mind. Up to the first of October we still hadn't decided if it should be completely inside the garage (a plus in that we could lower the doors and not have to worry about setting up early and vandals or wind) or on the driveway (lots of room, no problems for the fog dissipation, doesn't require me to clean out the garage) or both to maximize the haunt potential.
We
finally decided that at least part of the haunt should be out on the driveway.
So I was able to start construction. I needed to make it modular as I had no
idea of the finished layout. I took some wood I had lying around and purchased
some cheapie 2x4's and built several wall panels 4 foot by 8 foot. The idea was
to merge a plywood sheet with an open panel in a "L" shape. The shapes
could be moved around and would be sturdy enough that the wind wouldn't blow
them over.
After a lot of different ideas and trying to decide what was really possible, we finally decided that the entire haunt should be out on the driveway - this decision was mostly due to the impossibility of cleaning out the garage enough to use it!
On the Saturday before Halloween I started connecting my panels to each
other. I ended up with 5 L's which were not nearly enough but I didn't have any
more wood and quite frankly after constructing all of this I wasn't ready to run
down to the hardware store and buy a bunch more. So we made do...
2 of the L's became the entrance, I spent a couple of hours lugging the other
L's around trying to come up with the maximum possible haunt using just 3 L
shapes.. I finally ended up with a pretty decent one that used the side of the
house and some extra wood for walls between the L's. Then it was a matter of
using the rest of the scrap wood to connect the L's and strengthen the whole
structure so I wouldn't need concrete blocks to hold it down in the advent of
high wind.
After all the wood had been placed, I still had a couple of walls left to be
done so I used some PVC-pipe and reinforced with cardboard. It wasn't pretty but
it worked. The cardboard was held in place with cable-ties, permitting a secure
hold but making it easy to take down.
Finally the structure was complete - I was done for Saturday!
On Sunday I began doing the black plastic walls. I was worried about the wind
flapping the plastic over the next 2 days and possibly tearing it out from the
staples so I used 1-foot long pieces of duct-tape on the plastic and stapled
through that. It took more work but in the long run was better because I didn't
lose any plastic over the whole 3 days (and it was windy on Tuesday night!) I
did all the walls and left some bare wood on one side, I thought it would be all
right and it turned out to really enhance the look - so I'm pleased with it.
One thing we did notice on Sunday night was that the streetlight right next
to our house lit up the haunt too much, it is literally 20 feet from the light
pole to the corner of the haunt and with no roof it is like daylight in there..
all though there have been many ideas tossed around about getting the light shut
off, we decided that since the front of the haunt tends to be a gathering place
anyway (and I would rather it be lit) that I would just put a roof over the
haunt.
So on Halloween morning, I went out bright and early with my last 2 rolls of
plastic and ran them over the haunt. It worked beautifully and the haunt was
appropriately dark - in fact it was too dark but I'll get to that later. This
picture shows the final hallway just getting the roof. You can see the front of
my "Wall Of Pain" see last
years pictures of it for more
detail.
Once the walls were up it was time to place the main props, lights and wiring. I have 7 of what I call "main" props.
And as a last minute addition - the "Hands And Feet" box - more about that later.
Fog
is an important part of the haunt and I continued last years tradition with a
super-easy fog chiller. I use a couple of cheap buckets full of ice and a small
fan to pump the fog. There are 2 pipes since the Fog Box and the Wall Of Pain are both designed to emit fog, so I wanted
them far apart but also within range of the fog machine and piping.. so the Fog
Box went into the first corner next to the garage. The Wall of Pain is at the
other end of the haunt, also next to the garage (so I can run the piping through
the garage and nobody will see it).
I was worried (rightly so) that the SEMITB would be unhappy with strobe lights as it uses an automatic sensor, so I placed it on a dark hall in the middle of the haunt and put the black lights around it. That gave the rest of the props and I stretched them out between the various corners.
I ended up with a blank corner and in a flash of inspiration I found the
"Markus The Carcass" prop I purchased, it has a face, 2 hands and 2 feet
and is supposed to look like he is mostly buried. I also had a assortment of
random hands and claws from various years of props so I took them all and pushed
them through a large box. The result came out a lot better than I thought and
fit very nicely in the unused corner, especially since "Markus" has
lights in him that fade in and out and it came out quite nice!
The Flying Crank Ghost was a dilemma. I had constructed a moveable extendable frame for it, but when I extended it up it looked cool but nobody could see it. The ceiling over the haunt prevented anyone from looking up and seeing it. I ended up placing it next to the Candy-Bowl but I think it was wasted the whole night.
Once the props were placed I needed the lighting. I always place a strobe at the entrance to attract people and get them in the right frame of mind as they enter. The glowing fog box has its own light so it ended up in a dark corner - this didn't work too well, the box was too dark and people couldn't see it very well. The Jangling Chained Skull has its own light so it was OK, I used a strobe to highlight the hanging cage and the Rotating Laughing Skull, then the SEMITB had black lights over it, the "Hand and Feet" box glowed with its own light and a strobe took care of the Wall Of Pain. The wires ran over the structure to assist in holding it down.
I like the entrance to have some oomph! I have a loop tape with a "Come
On In" deep voice running continuously. So I put up a Boris Talking Skull
above the entrance, but his voice just isn't clear enough so I stuck a speaker
behind him. The speaker boomed out the message but then Boris wouldn't move. I
tried placing the "Microbone" in front of the speaker but since they are close
together I got some nasty feedback. I ended up with the stereo down behind a
wall of the haunt and the "Microbone" taped to the front of the other speaker and
then the whole thing in a box so you couldn't hear the 2nd speaker going. It
worked quite well and the loud clear tones came from the speaker and Boris moved
his jaw and lighted up in sync. A pair of patio torches set to high-flame
completed the entrance.
Also
out in front is the famous (for me at least) "critters in the box",
this is where I take a simple large box, paint a stencil on it about dangerous
animals. Then I put inside 6 "weasel balls" and let them roll around
inside the box. Finally a couple of tent stakes and some cheap chain
"holding the box down" and I have an instant conversation piece. The
parents got a kick out of trying to figure what was inside and many of the
little kids were genuinely afraid of it. You can see it in the lower right of
the picture.
We were worried that people would come out, get their candy and then walk
across the new flower and plant area to the next house. So I needed to put up
some kind of wall down to where the grass started. At first we discussed another
black-plastic wall - but when I ran out of plastic at 4pm on Halloween a trip
down to Home Depot was out of the question. In a flash of inspiration my better
half came up with the idea to put masks on the Styrofoam heads and mount them on
PVC pipes. We put some rebar into the ground, slid some PVC over it and stuck
the heads on top of the PVC. I then strung a couple of Halloween Christmas
lights between the poles and filled in the rest with spare rope.
Since it was not a "solid" wall it worked out better, the lights
added some brightness to it and nobody tramped over the flowers!
Once the construction and major props are in place, my better half comes along and puts up all the decorations. She was really inspired this year and made some really good set-piece decorations that worked really well, there was a shortage of shelf-space so a lot of things just sat on the ground which didn't work as well as I would have liked as people tended to kick them and step on them... You can see the sets below.
As you walked in, on the left was a large box that had giant claw rips and pieces torn out of it. The box had a red light inside and fog pumped into it, so the glowing rips in the box had fog oozing out of them. It looked pretty good.
On
the right, was the "Jangling Chained Skull" display,
although the picture didn't catch it, the skeleton had his arms up and was
reaching out for people, the rat was illuminated by a strobe and the light on
the skull itself was bright. It came out very nice.
Next up was the "Rotating Laughing Skull". In this one, I built a
simple pedestal, covered with stickybacked paper. Underneath the top is a simple
slow RPM motor and linkage to give a back-and-forth motion. A talking Boris is
put on the turntable and the wire runs down the back. Inside the pedestal I
placed a small boombox and taped the "microbone" to the speaker, then
ran a loop tape of maniacal laughter. That way the good sound came from the
boombox, the "microbone" picked it up and made the Boris talk as well.
Next to the Boris Skull was my Laser
Eye Vampire Skull which really looked cool.
After
you turned the corner, another strobe hit the "Hanging
Cage" and the stuff around it, having a skeleton underneath and a
shredded set of clothes on the skeleton in the cage made it look really great in
the strobe.
After rounding the corner, the black lights kicked in and you headed down a very dark section towards the "Super Easy Monster In The Box" (SEMITB), this thing was a huge hit and scared the kids a lot. I ended up having to baby it a lot and turn it off manually when little kids went by.
Finally
around the corner was the "Hands and Feet" box and
the
"Wall of Pain" (shown here in the construction picture). The Wall of
Pain has arms that are powered by a fan and reach out for the kids as they go
by.
Lastly
the FCG (Flying Crank Ghost). I spent a lot of time working on an extendable
housing for it, the frame collapses down to 7 feet high (so it will go through a
door) and extends up to 14 feet high (shown), the problem was twofold. I had
originally thought it would fly over the haunt and look cool, but it didn't work
that way. I also ran out of time and didn't get any material for the actual
ghost. I ended up taping some white garbage bags together but they fell apart
after a couple of hours...
Having it out on the driveway worked, the garage was completely unfit for anything other than a workshop (or junkyard!) The L's and the corners worked well, people sneaked around them and we had several "volunteers" who stayed in the haunt and scared people all night long. The SEMITB worked particularly well, scaring the adults more than the kids. It will make a return visit next year. The set-displays worked very well, thanks to inspired decorating. The wood structure worked very well, no problems with wind or kids hitting it and knocking it over and the exit wall of masks worked quite well.
The control mechanism for the SEMITB was very finicky. It uses an automatic sensor and the strobes/fog/something seemed to give it fits. I ended up having to manually turn it off and on for visitors. Some kind of switch-mat or infrared-beam would work better. The lighting wasn't too good, the strobes worked well but it was too dark in many places. The FCG wasn't placed or constructed very well.
The structure (the L's) worked very well. Next year though I want more and I want to makes some U's - U-shaped areas, that will not only act as corners but also will house a niche which can have a set-display in it or just a place to hide and jump out at people.
Next year I want to improve the FCG... I'm thinking of opening up just one door of the garage and placing it off in the "distance" with some lights to make it look good...since it uses a fairly loud motor, it has to be away from the TOT's.
I also need to improve the lighting, the strobes were cool, but it was so dark in areas you couldn't see the props, especially when the fog was thick. I also need to create more "scenes" where people can look - I think the U's will work good here. They tended to hurry through and stumble over the stuff laid out on the main track.
I would also like to enhance the ultimate destination (where the candy is given out), a folding chair just doesn't do it.... some kind of big throne would be cool, perhaps with speakers doing a heartbeat or something...
Another area we had problems was that people didn't know which was the entrance, the actual entrance or the exit. Next year I want some kind of "Enter Here Any Who Are Brave" type of sign to proclaim the right entrance.
I'm wondering if the SEMITB mechanism can be adapted for non-box props as well, think of it shaking a giant spider or something...hmmmm....I'm already starting to get ideas......