Happy Late Halloween!
Thanks to all who came out and toured the haunt. We had a blast scaring you! See you again in 2011!
Here is a link to the rest of the pictures... http://creepacres.yolasite.com/pictures.php Enjoy!
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Tonight!
Tonight is the last night you can come get scared until next year! Thanks to everyone who came on Friday and Saturday! Come tonight for one last great scare!
Thursday, October 28, 2010
This Weekend!
We are open this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday! Be sure to come on Friday or Saturday to avoid the Halloween crowds on Sunday. The haunt this year is wicked awesome. We have all walls painted, detailed, and stocked with props. I have one scene that will test the limit of claustrophobia! All procedes collected onsite will benefit the Wounded Warrior Project. Again we open TOMOROW!
Monday, October 11, 2010
Detail, Detail, Detail!
So we're busting our butts over here to get this done, and I think it's gonna happen! The haunt is fairly short this year, but will be extremely intense! Details will be ten times better than last year, and scenes are designed with scares in mind. This year we are OPEN THREE NIGHTS! Since Halloween is on a Sunday, we will open all that weekend Friday, Saturday, Sunday! We will also be collecting DONATIONS, and ALL PROCEEDS WILL GO TO CHARITY, MOST LIKELY THE WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT. Be sure to bring a few bucks and support this awesome cause! Here's a few pictures of what's in store!
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Well...
WE ARE IN THE GARAGE!!!!!
I'm gonna skip all the info and jump right to pictures. Happy Haunting!
Monday, August 30, 2010
Wall Panells
We're scheduled to move into the garage next weekend!
Right now I'm trying to get as many pannels as possible complete so at least the first half of the haunt can be up by the end of next weekend. A lot more work goes into a haunt than you'd think! This year's haunt, while shorter than last year's, will be darker, more detailed, and scarrier. I can't wait to see how it turns out! Expect a post this time next week! Happy Haunting!
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Work Has Started!
Building Has Officially Started! I'm working hard to try to get the first third of thye haunt finished by the end of August! This year I'm converting to the industry standard of 4' by 8' pannels screwed together to create a path. The only setback is the paint- the 5 gallon container was so full that we couldn't get any more black into it, so the walls will end up being either white or conctete grey...
In other news, I'm working on a new website for Creep Acres. For now you can view it at http://creepacres.yolasite.com/ Sonn, it will have it's own domain name at creepacres.com- I just want to work out the kinks before that time.
That's about all! Happy Haunting!
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Building is Just Around the Corner
Well, it got me in the Halloween mood.
I have a plan for the haunt! And mayde, just maybe, I'll stick to it and not change my mind. This year will be very scary and capitalises on distravctions, air scares, and lighting. If I work it right it should seem like a town of hillbillies and not a suburban garage. One thing's for sure- this place will brng out your deepest fears! I hope you aren't afraid of clowns! Mwahaha! Once again, this year we will be open THREE NIGHTS!!!!! We'll be open Friday, October 29, Saturday, October 30, and Sunday, October 31 (Halloween). Keep checking back! We will post progress pictures as we go. Thats about it! Farewell, and Happy Haunting!
Yet Another Lame How To!
Planning!!!!! DO NOT just start building; you need to make a blueprint first. I do this on graph paper, each square representing a square foot of my garage. Of course, to do this you need to know the dimensions of your garage, so grab a tape measure and start measuring. If you don't feel like going through all that trouble, you can always just use a blank piece of paper.
Simple Walls-
1. Insert an eye bolt into the walls of the garage at either end where there is any wall along the line between the bolts.
2. String ropes from the eye bolts to the ones across the garage. Now, you can hang your walls wherever needed, and keep the spaces you want open clear of plastic. Be sure to string the ropes very tight, as there will be a lot of strain on them from the plastic.
3. Wherever you want walls, use duct tape to attach a hanging piece of plastic. Be sure to keep the bottom of the plastic just off the ground so nobody trips over it.
Other walls-
*Instead of plastic, hang white sheets and bloody them up for a gory scenes.
*Use pallets stacked two high to give a very creepy look to a narrow hallway. Especially cool when a strobe is used as well.
*Build a framework out of two by threes and attach particle board. Be sure to paint these walls, as bare lumber isn't too scary.
*Use what you have available! Picket fences make great walls. Lattice and chain link can be used to separate a group from an actor for the first scare, and then the actor can steak around through a gap for a second scare. A hallway covered in tinfoil with a strobe light in the mix can provide a very disorienting experience.
Remember, all this takes time to do, so start early if you want to have a good haunted house. I start at the beginning of August, and I recommend you start, at the latest, at the beginning of October.
PROPS!!!!!
You can make an easy scarecrow style prop by taking two pieces of wood and screwing them together in a cross shape. BEFORE doing this, put the piece going horizontally through the sleeves of a shirt. Then, once it's together, staple on a pair of pants and stuff them with newspapers. Then, put a mask on it. If you want, you can add other features such as a hat. If you want to put the scarecrow in a pose, use PVC pipes and joints to pose it.
You can make realistic guts by spraying foam insulation onto a wall and then spray painting it red.
Cobwebs are great, but you need to completely stretch them out to make them look realistic. A wad of cotton isn't scary.
In hallways, you can hang black thread to simulate cobwebs. It works great on everyone.
Advertising-
I print out flyers every year (always on orange paper) and pass them out to cars and put them on houses. I have a blog and a web-site for my haunt. I have a sign in the front yard for the haunt and have a bunch of fliers for people to take out front. Also, if you decorate the entrance of your haunt, it will draw trick or treaters in.
What it all comes down to...
SCARING PEOPLE
Before we get into the acting, you need to understand the five components of a haunted house: Actors, sets, props, lighting, and sound
We've already gone over props and sets, so now let's look at lighting and sound.
Lighting-
Lights and their effects-
Spotlights- Illuminates props and draws guest's attention to them, making it very easy for a darkly dressed actor to pounce on them from the other direction.
Strobe lights- Makes it hard to see. Great for startle scares
Black lights- Illuminates a scene with any white in it, creating a sense of wonder.
Green and Blue lights- Spookify a scene, more of a creep factor than a scary vibe.
Red lights- Good for bloody scenes, makes everything red.
Sound-
If you can afford it, I'd get a more expensive CD from a Halloween superstore, in the range of 10-20 dollars. I paid 5 dollars for a CD once and 3 of the 12 songs were people breathing heavily, one was the sound of a chainsaw, and the rest were other cheesy effects. Get a more expensive CD for a better feel to your haunt. The best sound for a haunt is creepy background music with the scary sounds produced by your actors.
Actorless Scares-
Simple Walls-
1. Insert an eye bolt into the walls of the garage at either end where there is any wall along the line between the bolts.
2. String ropes from the eye bolts to the ones across the garage. Now, you can hang your walls wherever needed, and keep the spaces you want open clear of plastic. Be sure to string the ropes very tight, as there will be a lot of strain on them from the plastic.
3. Wherever you want walls, use duct tape to attach a hanging piece of plastic. Be sure to keep the bottom of the plastic just off the ground so nobody trips over it.
Other walls-
*Instead of plastic, hang white sheets and bloody them up for a gory scenes.
*Use pallets stacked two high to give a very creepy look to a narrow hallway. Especially cool when a strobe is used as well.
*Build a framework out of two by threes and attach particle board. Be sure to paint these walls, as bare lumber isn't too scary.
*Use what you have available! Picket fences make great walls. Lattice and chain link can be used to separate a group from an actor for the first scare, and then the actor can steak around through a gap for a second scare. A hallway covered in tinfoil with a strobe light in the mix can provide a very disorienting experience.
Remember, all this takes time to do, so start early if you want to have a good haunted house. I start at the beginning of August, and I recommend you start, at the latest, at the beginning of October.
PROPS!!!!!
You can make an easy scarecrow style prop by taking two pieces of wood and screwing them together in a cross shape. BEFORE doing this, put the piece going horizontally through the sleeves of a shirt. Then, once it's together, staple on a pair of pants and stuff them with newspapers. Then, put a mask on it. If you want, you can add other features such as a hat. If you want to put the scarecrow in a pose, use PVC pipes and joints to pose it.
You can make realistic guts by spraying foam insulation onto a wall and then spray painting it red.
Cobwebs are great, but you need to completely stretch them out to make them look realistic. A wad of cotton isn't scary.
In hallways, you can hang black thread to simulate cobwebs. It works great on everyone.
Advertising-
I print out flyers every year (always on orange paper) and pass them out to cars and put them on houses. I have a blog and a web-site for my haunt. I have a sign in the front yard for the haunt and have a bunch of fliers for people to take out front. Also, if you decorate the entrance of your haunt, it will draw trick or treaters in.
What it all comes down to...
SCARING PEOPLE
Before we get into the acting, you need to understand the five components of a haunted house: Actors, sets, props, lighting, and sound
We've already gone over props and sets, so now let's look at lighting and sound.
Lighting-
Lights and their effects-
Spotlights- Illuminates props and draws guest's attention to them, making it very easy for a darkly dressed actor to pounce on them from the other direction.
Strobe lights- Makes it hard to see. Great for startle scares
Black lights- Illuminates a scene with any white in it, creating a sense of wonder.
Green and Blue lights- Spookify a scene, more of a creep factor than a scary vibe.
Red lights- Good for bloody scenes, makes everything red.
Sound-
If you can afford it, I'd get a more expensive CD from a Halloween superstore, in the range of 10-20 dollars. I paid 5 dollars for a CD once and 3 of the 12 songs were people breathing heavily, one was the sound of a chainsaw, and the rest were other cheesy effects. Get a more expensive CD for a better feel to your haunt. The best sound for a haunt is creepy background music with the scary sounds produced by your actors.
Actorless Scares-
The brick wall in the picture at the top looks boring, right? Actually, it was rigged on a bungee cord so an actor could push it down on guests as they entered the room and then it would spring back up at the actor. Of course, numerous safety precautions were taken, including roping off the area directly in front of the wall. Of course, while the actor triggered the scare, it was the wall that actually scared the trick or treaters.
Another idea is to use compressed air to scare people. Simply hook up an air line from the air compressor, through a trigger that an actor can squeeze to let out a burst of air, and into the scene, where it will make contact with the frightened guests. The best places to aim for when you install the air line is the back of the neck or ankles.
Finally... ACTORS!!!!!
Picking the costume-
First, look at where the actor will be. Pick a mask or make up that fit the scene, then choose the rest of the costume based off the mask or make up.
Scaring People-
*Distractions. Make people look one way while the actor comes from the other. To do this, keep the lights where you want them to look, and have the sound come from the distraction, not the actor's hiding place.
*Stay still to make them think you're a prop, and then pounce. This is very effective if guests suspect another prop in the room (Remember, Distractions).
*Drop panels are devices built into walls or behind picture frames that slide down to let an actor scare from the new hole in the wall.
*Humor can keep guests entertained. People get scared more easily within 30 seconds of a good laugh. That does not mean that you should have someone walking around telling blond jokes! Only use humor when you can find a way to incorporate it into the scene.
*Target the weakling. Don't waste your time scaring the people who obviously aren't (Sometimes the macho guys are easiest to scare, if you have perfect timing). If you scare one or two people and entertain the rest, you have a good show.
*Learn people's names. One way to do this is to have a guide. The guide can enter the first room acting (in character) very friendly, and ask for the names of the two or three people who look most scared. Then, the guide can relay this to every actor in the haunt. Another way is to ask for the most scared person in the group and give then an item to guarantee safe passage (A sign that says "CHICKEN," a balloon) and tell them to write their name on it for it to be activated. Then, actors can target this person and use their name to get personal.
There are lots of other scaring methods, but it would take forever to list them all.
Just remember to have fun with it! Happy Haunting!
Another idea is to use compressed air to scare people. Simply hook up an air line from the air compressor, through a trigger that an actor can squeeze to let out a burst of air, and into the scene, where it will make contact with the frightened guests. The best places to aim for when you install the air line is the back of the neck or ankles.
Finally... ACTORS!!!!!
Picking the costume-
First, look at where the actor will be. Pick a mask or make up that fit the scene, then choose the rest of the costume based off the mask or make up.
Scaring People-
*Distractions. Make people look one way while the actor comes from the other. To do this, keep the lights where you want them to look, and have the sound come from the distraction, not the actor's hiding place.
*Stay still to make them think you're a prop, and then pounce. This is very effective if guests suspect another prop in the room (Remember, Distractions).
*Drop panels are devices built into walls or behind picture frames that slide down to let an actor scare from the new hole in the wall.
*Humor can keep guests entertained. People get scared more easily within 30 seconds of a good laugh. That does not mean that you should have someone walking around telling blond jokes! Only use humor when you can find a way to incorporate it into the scene.
*Target the weakling. Don't waste your time scaring the people who obviously aren't (Sometimes the macho guys are easiest to scare, if you have perfect timing). If you scare one or two people and entertain the rest, you have a good show.
*Learn people's names. One way to do this is to have a guide. The guide can enter the first room acting (in character) very friendly, and ask for the names of the two or three people who look most scared. Then, the guide can relay this to every actor in the haunt. Another way is to ask for the most scared person in the group and give then an item to guarantee safe passage (A sign that says "CHICKEN," a balloon) and tell them to write their name on it for it to be activated. Then, actors can target this person and use their name to get personal.
There are lots of other scaring methods, but it would take forever to list them all.
Just remember to have fun with it! Happy Haunting!
Sunday, May 16, 2010
It's Looking Like a Good Year
Right now we're planning a trip in October to go to St. Louis and Kansas City to see FOUR of the nations top haunted houses. We'll fly into KC and drive from there to Darkness and Creepyworld, two world class haunts in St Louis. The next day, we'll hang out in St Louis and drive back to KC to tour Beast and Edge of Hell, along with thier two smaller haunts. I'm very excited for this trip. When we get back, we'll have plenty of great ideas to finish off Creep Acres. Other than booking airline tickets and rental cars, not much else is happening with the haunt, but I did get the time yesterday to add up how much wood we'll need this year, and let me tell you, it's a lot. Over the summer I'm going to call Home Depot and Lowes to talk about bulk ordering lumber. I just hope I can afford the level of detail I'm going for this year. lol. Seeing how slow things go in the offseason, you shouldn't expect another post until late June or early July. Until then, happy haunting.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
It's gonna' be good!
Plans for this year are looking great! I think this year the haunt will finally be as detailed as I'd like. I can't say all the details, but you can expect things like rusty pipes and old western facades in parts, along with custom lighting and sound aswell. Remember the room at the end of the haunt last year? It will become a mine shaft with a dead (or not so dead) miner inside. Also, the room with the hanging sheets will become a half claustrophobia tunnell. All other rooms from last year will be completely changed. It's going to be scary as crap. We'll blow you away with the detail and then, BOOM scare you just like that. Actors will definately be scarrier than ever. This haunt will be unlike anything we've ever done before.
Over the past week I've been working on stacking the wood from the haunt last year and let me tell you we have a ton. The plywood and two by threes alone make a stack four feet by eight feet by four feet, and then there's a bunch of random walls and fences. It doesn't seem like that much when it's all put together, but it's a ton of wood when it's stacked on the ground. This year I'm going to double that amount of wood...
The haunt will be open THREE NIGHTS for 2010; Friday the 29th, Saturday he 30th, and Sunday the 31st (Halloween).
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Haunt Update
Not much is happening right now, but I am planning on removing the room with the sheets and sewing two sheets together and making a half wind tunnell. Wind tunnells are used in professional haunts and consist of two inflated bags on either side of the walkway that squish you as you go through. Ours will just be one bag, but it should get the desired effect.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Article By Me- Home Haunting For The First Time, with a $3,000.00 budget!!!!!
This is an article first written for "Yahoo Answers." It was 3 and a little pages on "Microsoft Word." So, here it is.
Haunting for the first time with a three thousand dollar budget.
Holy crap, dude, $3000? I've been haunting for years now at home and even now I don't have that much worth of stuff. You are VERY lucky to be able to do that. But, before you start, make sure everyone is willing to do there share. I work about 25 hours for every minute long that my haunt is. So, I work 100+ hours every year, and my haunt isn't even very detailed. If you want all that you can get out of your money, then you need to make sure everyone who contributes is willing to give 150%. In other words, don't spend 2 grand on materials on October 16 and end up with two empty rooms and $1500 worth of raw materials. I start in early August, but I have less money and therefore can afford less details. You on the other hand can afford much more and therefore should start at the beginning of summer if you want to get it done.
Now, before that time, I strongly recommend joining Halloween Forum AND Hauntworld Forum. They both have different things to offer. Halloween Forum has more of a "Home Haunters Unite!" type of feel, whereas Hauntworld Forum is open to all haunters and tends to be where the pros hang out, so you can get ideas from them. I am a member of both.
Remember, with your kind of budget, you need to plan so that it's money well spent. Some theme ideas include- insane asylum, morgue, cemetery, traditional haunted house, haunted circus, creepy hillbillies, meat shop with slaughterhouse in back, hospital, farm, cave, post-apocalyptic scene with realistic (ie- not bright green with one eye) aliens, army camp, cornfield, pyramid, and a crypt, just to name a few. To get ideas you can look at local haunts, as I'm sure a fanatic like you would, or Google search for haunts such as The Darkness, The Thirteenth Gate, Spookywoods, and other infamous haunts. Also, be sure to check out Terror Syndicate, it is by far one of the greatest home haunts of all time. Once at the home page, click on the "Haunts" link to the right and select the year that you would like to view. I recommend looking at them all, as it is a great haunt that relies at least 50% on animatronics.
The theme I try to use is the hippie/ farm/ ghost town idea because you can fit so many scenes into it. Clowns, meat shops, insane asylums, and mines can all be used in this theme by making buildings look run down and using a little imagination.
Planning-
Graph paper is a key tool to planning out haunts. What I do is make cutouts of rooms with entrance and exit and then draw out a layout of the space and try to piece the puzzle together. You will need to change the rooms slightly, and that's perfectly OK. Remember to design your haunt so that as many walls as possible can be 4 foot by 8 foot.
This is very important that you think of this step in the planning stages and not 2 hours before you open- Good Haunts Have a Flow!!!!! They don't go from scare to scare to scare; they have breaks, which, if timed right, will make the haunt believable. This is a skill that I am still working on. People will know, in the back of their minds, that this is fake, but if scares are perfect and the haunt has a flow, you will not give them a chance to remember that. Make them think along the way, don't just scare them. Give them sub-conscious tasks that occupy the back of their minds so that they can't use the back of their minds to think about how it's fake. These should be simple- "Where's the exit to this room?" or "How do I avoid the monster up ahead?" Make sure you don't make the tasks too difficult. If they are too puzzled, they will think "This haunted house is dumb." Just like that, you've got someone leaving who's going to tell everyone the know "That haunt sucks." Haunting is, in essence, playing mind games with people to make them scared. Now, back to the concept of flow. The best haunts go like this-
1. Very detailed opening scene- It is very important that you use this time to build tension, do not throw the guests right into the action.
2. Dark, twisting hallways, used to further build the tension. This should also be used so that when guests get thrown into the action there is a contrast,
3. The action! This is where 70-80% of your haunt should be.
4. Relief. This is essential to make sure that your final scare is a scary as can be. Around here there is a haunt called Terror in the Corn. Their attraction consists of a 5 minute hayride through the corn, a trail through the corn, and then a 15 minute ghost town. After the ghost town, you take a five minute walk through a graveyard with funny names on the tombstones. Then comes a small shack with strobe lights and intense scares. It is only so scary because of the graveyard before it.
5. Final scare. Pull out the big guns, baby, it's time to send kids screaming down the street. For your situation, I'd recommend a chainsaw. Come on, they're only a hundred bucks and without the chain they're perfectly safe, so long as you have proper ventilation so nobody gets carbon monoxide poisoning. Also, remember to keep the gas out of wherever you're haunting so you don't burn your customers. This haunting cliché is overused, but for a good reason. It is the greatest means to scare anyone in the history of haunted houses.
The last planning note is to use "Google Sketchup." It's a great free tool and because it's through Google you can trust that you aren't downloading a virus.
Construction- I won't go into a lot of detail on this, but how I build my walls is-
1. Materials- 2 by 3s, not 2 by 4s, the cheapest particle board I can get my hands on, 3" wood screws, drill, bits to both drill holes and drive screws with, circular saw.
2. Cut down the materials to fit the size of the plywood. It is best to use 4' by 8' panels for storage reasons and to best fit your haunt together. Drill holes. If you don't, the wood will split and might cave in. Screw it all together. There you go- basic haunt walls.
3. Painting- I'm no expert. Last year I had one room that was painted in my entire haunt. So really, if I lectured you about painting a haunt, I'd probably be giving you crap I've gotten off the web and not telling you from experience. However, there is one thing I learned from not painting my haunt- it is important that you paint your haunt or else the environment will not seem real. So paint your haunt!
Special Effects-
A few ideas-
Tin foil + strobe light = reflections from the strobe everywhere and VERY disorienting.
Black light + white stuff (ie- sheets, t-shirts, flourecent paints, glow in the dark props, even some dish soaps and detergents) = purplish glow everywhere that you have something white
Compressed air- for a small amount of money, you can purchase a laser sensor kit that you solder together. This is a toy for tweens that is like a burglar alarm. If you disable the buzzer and hook it up to a solenoid valve, you can use it to spray compressed air whenever someone is standing between the consoles. Combined with a strobe pointed at the eyes in an otherwise pitch black and very claustrophobic hallway, this can be one of the best actorless scares that money can buy.
Let me tell you about a little effect we use called the white room. Basically it's an 8' by 5.5' room, or tunnel, where you enter on one end, and zigzag through hanging sheets to the other. Here's the catch- there's one strobe light at each end of the room, and a leaf blower at the other end, so the sheets cling to each other and you have to fight to get through. This scene is ruined by the presence of an actor, so keep your actors in hiding until people get out. However, it is a great opening room, and is even scarier if the strobes and leaf blower are hooked up to a switch and actors can turn them on a few seconds after the first person enters, for that extra startle. Peolpe are scared of unknown noises! I'm not lying, we've had people run back out because of the leaf blower.
Animatronics- I haven't used them, but there are lots of sites on the web that'll give you step by step tutorials. If followed right, they can be very effective.
Scaring with Actors- A haunt is nothing without its actors. Without them, there is no realism, and in most cases, no actual fear. Here are some ideas-
Misdirection!!!!! This is the most important and easy way to scare people. Cause a diversion to get people to look away from the actor, and pounce at the very moment when everyone is looking at the diversion.
"Dummies" are when you have an actor pose completely motionless until the group examines him, or wait until the group thinks he's just another prop. Then you come to life.
"Oh, he can't get to me, that fence is in the way" That's what people will think when your actor lunges at them from behind a fence. Keep count of the scares. You've already startled them once. Give them a chance to feel relieved. Then come out through a break in the chain link fence between you and the guests. Just like that, you've scared the guests twice with one actor.
Remember the balance that we talked about in the planning stage. Don't startle them again and again and again. This gets old after awhile. Switch between breaks, startles, and interaction time with the monsters.
Costumes- Shop yard sales in the spring. Often times you need to spend over a hundred bucks to get a good costume at Halloween, so make your own!
Masks and Makeup- As far as masks go, here are signs you should get one. Don't just pick up any mask you see. Make sure it meets this criteria-
You have a character that it goes with.
You have a costume that fits it.
The actor in the mask will be able to scare well in it and not have trouble breathing in it or having it make him slobber all over the place.
The mask is one you feel is the best choice for that character.
The mask will fit the prop if it will be used as a prop.
For makeup, I just get a family sized horror kit for $7.00 at Wal-Mart.
My site- theterrorhauntedhouse.yolasite.com
Again, you are very lucky to have so much money to spend on a haunt. Make use of that money. Make sure everyone is committed to making this dream a success. Oh, one more thing. I find it very annoying to work for months for only one night of operation. This year Halloween is on a Sunday. I'm opening on Friday and Saturday too. I recommend you do the same. Also, advertize! Give flyers out to everyone in the neighborhood. Then go out there and put on the greatest haunted house ever. Best of luck to you. Now go make this happen.
Haunting for the first time with a three thousand dollar budget.
Holy crap, dude, $3000? I've been haunting for years now at home and even now I don't have that much worth of stuff. You are VERY lucky to be able to do that. But, before you start, make sure everyone is willing to do there share. I work about 25 hours for every minute long that my haunt is. So, I work 100+ hours every year, and my haunt isn't even very detailed. If you want all that you can get out of your money, then you need to make sure everyone who contributes is willing to give 150%. In other words, don't spend 2 grand on materials on October 16 and end up with two empty rooms and $1500 worth of raw materials. I start in early August, but I have less money and therefore can afford less details. You on the other hand can afford much more and therefore should start at the beginning of summer if you want to get it done.
Now, before that time, I strongly recommend joining Halloween Forum AND Hauntworld Forum. They both have different things to offer. Halloween Forum has more of a "Home Haunters Unite!" type of feel, whereas Hauntworld Forum is open to all haunters and tends to be where the pros hang out, so you can get ideas from them. I am a member of both.
Remember, with your kind of budget, you need to plan so that it's money well spent. Some theme ideas include- insane asylum, morgue, cemetery, traditional haunted house, haunted circus, creepy hillbillies, meat shop with slaughterhouse in back, hospital, farm, cave, post-apocalyptic scene with realistic (ie- not bright green with one eye) aliens, army camp, cornfield, pyramid, and a crypt, just to name a few. To get ideas you can look at local haunts, as I'm sure a fanatic like you would, or Google search for haunts such as The Darkness, The Thirteenth Gate, Spookywoods, and other infamous haunts. Also, be sure to check out Terror Syndicate, it is by far one of the greatest home haunts of all time. Once at the home page, click on the "Haunts" link to the right and select the year that you would like to view. I recommend looking at them all, as it is a great haunt that relies at least 50% on animatronics.
The theme I try to use is the hippie/ farm/ ghost town idea because you can fit so many scenes into it. Clowns, meat shops, insane asylums, and mines can all be used in this theme by making buildings look run down and using a little imagination.
Planning-
Graph paper is a key tool to planning out haunts. What I do is make cutouts of rooms with entrance and exit and then draw out a layout of the space and try to piece the puzzle together. You will need to change the rooms slightly, and that's perfectly OK. Remember to design your haunt so that as many walls as possible can be 4 foot by 8 foot.
This is very important that you think of this step in the planning stages and not 2 hours before you open- Good Haunts Have a Flow!!!!! They don't go from scare to scare to scare; they have breaks, which, if timed right, will make the haunt believable. This is a skill that I am still working on. People will know, in the back of their minds, that this is fake, but if scares are perfect and the haunt has a flow, you will not give them a chance to remember that. Make them think along the way, don't just scare them. Give them sub-conscious tasks that occupy the back of their minds so that they can't use the back of their minds to think about how it's fake. These should be simple- "Where's the exit to this room?" or "How do I avoid the monster up ahead?" Make sure you don't make the tasks too difficult. If they are too puzzled, they will think "This haunted house is dumb." Just like that, you've got someone leaving who's going to tell everyone the know "That haunt sucks." Haunting is, in essence, playing mind games with people to make them scared. Now, back to the concept of flow. The best haunts go like this-
1. Very detailed opening scene- It is very important that you use this time to build tension, do not throw the guests right into the action.
2. Dark, twisting hallways, used to further build the tension. This should also be used so that when guests get thrown into the action there is a contrast,
3. The action! This is where 70-80% of your haunt should be.
4. Relief. This is essential to make sure that your final scare is a scary as can be. Around here there is a haunt called Terror in the Corn. Their attraction consists of a 5 minute hayride through the corn, a trail through the corn, and then a 15 minute ghost town. After the ghost town, you take a five minute walk through a graveyard with funny names on the tombstones. Then comes a small shack with strobe lights and intense scares. It is only so scary because of the graveyard before it.
5. Final scare. Pull out the big guns, baby, it's time to send kids screaming down the street. For your situation, I'd recommend a chainsaw. Come on, they're only a hundred bucks and without the chain they're perfectly safe, so long as you have proper ventilation so nobody gets carbon monoxide poisoning. Also, remember to keep the gas out of wherever you're haunting so you don't burn your customers. This haunting cliché is overused, but for a good reason. It is the greatest means to scare anyone in the history of haunted houses.
The last planning note is to use "Google Sketchup." It's a great free tool and because it's through Google you can trust that you aren't downloading a virus.
Construction- I won't go into a lot of detail on this, but how I build my walls is-
1. Materials- 2 by 3s, not 2 by 4s, the cheapest particle board I can get my hands on, 3" wood screws, drill, bits to both drill holes and drive screws with, circular saw.
2. Cut down the materials to fit the size of the plywood. It is best to use 4' by 8' panels for storage reasons and to best fit your haunt together. Drill holes. If you don't, the wood will split and might cave in. Screw it all together. There you go- basic haunt walls.
3. Painting- I'm no expert. Last year I had one room that was painted in my entire haunt. So really, if I lectured you about painting a haunt, I'd probably be giving you crap I've gotten off the web and not telling you from experience. However, there is one thing I learned from not painting my haunt- it is important that you paint your haunt or else the environment will not seem real. So paint your haunt!
Special Effects-
A few ideas-
Tin foil + strobe light = reflections from the strobe everywhere and VERY disorienting.
Black light + white stuff (ie- sheets, t-shirts, flourecent paints, glow in the dark props, even some dish soaps and detergents) = purplish glow everywhere that you have something white
Compressed air- for a small amount of money, you can purchase a laser sensor kit that you solder together. This is a toy for tweens that is like a burglar alarm. If you disable the buzzer and hook it up to a solenoid valve, you can use it to spray compressed air whenever someone is standing between the consoles. Combined with a strobe pointed at the eyes in an otherwise pitch black and very claustrophobic hallway, this can be one of the best actorless scares that money can buy.
Let me tell you about a little effect we use called the white room. Basically it's an 8' by 5.5' room, or tunnel, where you enter on one end, and zigzag through hanging sheets to the other. Here's the catch- there's one strobe light at each end of the room, and a leaf blower at the other end, so the sheets cling to each other and you have to fight to get through. This scene is ruined by the presence of an actor, so keep your actors in hiding until people get out. However, it is a great opening room, and is even scarier if the strobes and leaf blower are hooked up to a switch and actors can turn them on a few seconds after the first person enters, for that extra startle. Peolpe are scared of unknown noises! I'm not lying, we've had people run back out because of the leaf blower.
Animatronics- I haven't used them, but there are lots of sites on the web that'll give you step by step tutorials. If followed right, they can be very effective.
Scaring with Actors- A haunt is nothing without its actors. Without them, there is no realism, and in most cases, no actual fear. Here are some ideas-
Misdirection!!!!! This is the most important and easy way to scare people. Cause a diversion to get people to look away from the actor, and pounce at the very moment when everyone is looking at the diversion.
"Dummies" are when you have an actor pose completely motionless until the group examines him, or wait until the group thinks he's just another prop. Then you come to life.
"Oh, he can't get to me, that fence is in the way" That's what people will think when your actor lunges at them from behind a fence. Keep count of the scares. You've already startled them once. Give them a chance to feel relieved. Then come out through a break in the chain link fence between you and the guests. Just like that, you've scared the guests twice with one actor.
Remember the balance that we talked about in the planning stage. Don't startle them again and again and again. This gets old after awhile. Switch between breaks, startles, and interaction time with the monsters.
Costumes- Shop yard sales in the spring. Often times you need to spend over a hundred bucks to get a good costume at Halloween, so make your own!
Masks and Makeup- As far as masks go, here are signs you should get one. Don't just pick up any mask you see. Make sure it meets this criteria-
You have a character that it goes with.
You have a costume that fits it.
The actor in the mask will be able to scare well in it and not have trouble breathing in it or having it make him slobber all over the place.
The mask is one you feel is the best choice for that character.
The mask will fit the prop if it will be used as a prop.
For makeup, I just get a family sized horror kit for $7.00 at Wal-Mart.
My site- theterrorhauntedhouse.yolasite.com
Again, you are very lucky to have so much money to spend on a haunt. Make use of that money. Make sure everyone is committed to making this dream a success. Oh, one more thing. I find it very annoying to work for months for only one night of operation. This year Halloween is on a Sunday. I'm opening on Friday and Saturday too. I recommend you do the same. Also, advertize! Give flyers out to everyone in the neighborhood. Then go out there and put on the greatest haunted house ever. Best of luck to you. Now go make this happen.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Plans for 2010
It is likely that we will be back in the garage, but there also is a slight chance that we will get a chainsaw. I am planning a decked out haunt that'll be pretty short but really detailed. Scenes include a cabin, a mine, and an insane asylum. All of these will be ghost town themed and will be very detailed.
Give us your input!!!!!
What do you want to see in the haunt?
Go to theterrorhauntedhouse.yolasite.com and click on the link at the bottom of the page that says "Fill out my form!."
Tell us what you want in the haunt this year!!!!
Go to theterrorhauntedhouse.yolasite.com and click on the link at the bottom of the page that says "Fill out my form!."
Tell us what you want in the haunt this year!!!!
New blog... maybie?
Blogger, since mid summer last year, has been asking for google accounts to log in. Sometimes it lets me log in, othertimes not.
So, I set up a blog on the website.
Go to theterrorhauntedhouse.yolasite.com and click on "blog" to see it.
I am lagging behind on getting pics up, but some are on the site, however they take extremely long to load.
I will be downsizing the quality so that they load faster.
The haunt itself was great. There were lots of actors and great scares including a sensor that triggered compressed air.
This year will be great, updates are on the other blog. Thanks to all who came out in 2009, and we'll see ou later this year!
So, I set up a blog on the website.
Go to theterrorhauntedhouse.yolasite.com and click on "blog" to see it.
I am lagging behind on getting pics up, but some are on the site, however they take extremely long to load.
I will be downsizing the quality so that they load faster.
The haunt itself was great. There were lots of actors and great scares including a sensor that triggered compressed air.
This year will be great, updates are on the other blog. Thanks to all who came out in 2009, and we'll see ou later this year!
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