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Haunts: 2001

Walkthrough
Entire 2001 Walkthrough

2001 Floor Plan
Open Floor Plan in New Window



Cemetery

Cemetery Guests approached the Haunted Garage through a cemetery in the front lawn. The cemetery included about half a dozen tombstones, a lion statue, a coffin, and a dead tree, all partially enclosed by a cemetery fence. Often, one of us would lie in the coffin waiting to "come to life" when an unsuspecting guest approached.

Two floodlights backlit the scene: one was positioned above the yard, behind latice work, which created a mesh of shadows on the ground. The other was on the ground backlighting the tombstones. Although the picture doesn't show it well, both lights created a very eerie effect.

Cemetery Cemetery
Cemetery Cemetery
Project Instructions Tombstone instructions can be found here.
Project Instructions Cemetery Fence instructions can be found here.
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Entrance

Entrance One of the most elaborate things we did for our 2001 haunt was construct an additional hallway outside of and leading into the garage. This was done for a number of reasons. Primarily, my garage didn't have as much space as Victor's did last year, so we felt we needed the extra space. Also, we wanted our guests to enter through a door to give the effect of entering a haunted house. The false front enhanced this effect even further by disguising the garage door.

Fortunately, we did not need to construct that actual walls of our add-on, as my dad had the four walls from the dressing room at his former store. We supported the walls by nailing wood 2x4's across from them to the roof. Fabric walls were used to enclose the sides and back of the add-on.

To make the warning signs, I painted a wood pattern on some cardboard with tempera (poster) paint and cut out a jagged shape. I then painted whatever messages I felt were necessary on these. The "Haunted Garage" sign was made simply by spray painting propped up cardboard with the can way too close. For simplicity, this was just duct taped to the front. The warning signs are held up duct tape loops on the back.

Entrance Entrance
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Hallway

After entering through the creaky door of the entrance, guests found themselves in a dimly lit hallway. Since this hallway was actually outside of the house, some decorating needed to be done in order to hide some of the plants and make it appear more like a normal hall. A wire-frame shelf was placed over the planter extending from the house, and a brown tarp was draped over that so that it would appear to be a table. On this table, we placed a black light, a candlabra, and one of those electric ball thingies. This gave the hallway an eerie purple glow.

The other side of the hallway was pegboard from the backside of our false entrance. Here, we secured several fake weapons such as you might see in a medieval castle.

Hallway Hallway
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Projected Light Ghosts

After being one of the most successful effects of our Halloween 2000 Haunt, the Projected Light Ghosts were brought back for our 2001 effort. This year, we decided to bring the ghosts inside our haunt where we could better control the lighting.

Projected Light Ghosts Projected Light Ghosts
> Animate it! (37.5 Kb) <

The basic effect shows scores of luminescent ghosts swooping around the guests, and it is achieved with a mirror ball and slide projector. For being so simple to set up, the Projected Light Ghosts are an extremely effective addition to our haunt.

Projected Light Ghosts (Set-up) Projected Light Ghosts (Set-up)
> Animate it! (65.5 Kb) <

Project Instructions Projected Light Ghost instructions can be found here.
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Mirror Hallway

This year, we replaced Halloween 2000's
Black Light Room with a Mirror Hallway. Two flat, full-length mirrors and one wavy, fun house mirror (Which I bought for $20 at a thrift store) were secured along one wall. Shredded strips of white fabric draped from the ceiling and glowed eerily in the two flourescent style black lights. Striped bed sheets carpet this section of our haunt, also glowing under the black lights. To top off the scene, two glow-in-the-dark skull masks glowed brightly from their mounts on the wall.

The mirrors reflected the hanging fabric and striped sheets, creating a spooky and disorienting effect.

Mirror Hallway Mirror Hallway Mirror Hallway (Lit) Mirror Hallway (Lit) Mirror Hallway (Lit) Mirror Hallway (Lit) Mirror Hallway (Lit)

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Pepper's Ghost

The most elaborate effect of both our 2000 and 2001 haunt is Pepper's Ghost. A transparent ghost is seen sitting on a chair inside the house.

Pepper's Ghost The effect makes use of a large piece of glass positioned to reflect a person who is hidden from the guests' view. The actress' reflection appears to the guests to be a transparent ghost in the hallway.

Unlike our 2000 haunt where we actually needed to construct a seperate room for Jen, our Pepper's ghost actress to stand in, this year, we were able to make use of the inside hallway and laundry room for the effect. Jen stood in the laundry room, in which we had adjusted the lighting and draped several large black backdrops, and her ghost was reflected so that it appeared to be sitting in a chair that we had placed at the end of the hall.

Since our glass pane was smaller than would have been ideal, we needed to hide the top and side edges of the glass. For the side edge, we opened the door partially and positioned the glass so that one side was hidden behind it. To hide the top edge, we placed a wooden fence panel across the door to obscure that portion of the glass from a guest's line of sight. To make this fit in to the scene, we angled other boards along side the door and strung caution tape to give the idea of a condemned building.

The effect is extremely effective and well worth any time and money needed to construct it. Unfortunately, due to the dim lighting required for the effect, photographs of Pepper's Ghost do not turn out well.

Pepper's Ghost Pepper's Ghost
Project Instructions Pepper's Ghost instructions can be found here.
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Extended Hallway

A very large mirror was leaned against the door frame (aimed slightly downward) from the outside and secured with duct tape. This mirror completely covered the door, and from inside the haunt, the hallway appeared to continue almost twice it's true length until guests came close enough to the mirror to see their reflections. To enhance the effect, the entrance to the Bug Tunnel was made to blend into the hallway, so guests would not see it until after they realized that they were approaching a mirror.

For being such a simple and last minute effort, this was surprisingly effective. Some people nearly walked right into the mirror before realizing what it was, and others were even startled by their own reflections.

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Bug Tunnel

The Tunnel
The shelves in my garage make a very skinny walkway leading along the entire side and out of the garage. I noticed that, unlike any of the areas we had worked with before, this section was strong enough for people to actually bump into the walls without our entire haunt falling on top of them. For this reason, I decided to hang fabric from the entrance and exit and make this hallway as dark as possible.
Bug Tunnel
Using a staple gun, I secured large, flattened cardboard boxes to the shelves to create the walls of the tunnel. The ceiling was added by laying large, flat peices of plywood across the top of the two shelf units.

The Bugs
After obtaining silouhette images of a spider, cockroach, and scorpion, I traced these bugs onto heavy paper and made cut out stencils using an Exacto knife. I then used the stencils and black spray paint to paint nearly a hundred bugs covering the walls.

The Cobwebs
Using long strips of duct tape, we hung many long black threads from the ceiling of the tunnel. When guests walked through these invisible threads, it felt as though they were walking through cobwebs.

The Lighting
As noted before, inside the tunnel it was extremely dark. To give the best possible effect, we cut a hole out of one of the walls and placed a strobe light there, directed into the tunnel. The strobe was set to a slower setting, so a little more than every second, it would flash, showing the guest walls covered in bugs.

Bug Tunnel (Strobe Light) Bug Tunnel (Hanging Threads) Bug Tunnel (Painting Bugs)

The Rickety Floor
The floor of the Bug tunnel was made with two sturdy plywood boards. These boards were raised in the center by a thin length of wood, so the entire wooden floor would rock back and forth as guests walked across. To enhance the effect, the first board was stablized by adding supports to the sides. When a guest had walked through half of the tunnel, the floor would suddenly drop as they stepped on it, creating a very unsettling effect. Carpet was added over the length of the floor and duct taped to the floor on each side. This was so guests would not trip while stepping up onto the rickety floor.

Bug Tunnel (Floor) Bug Tunnel (Floor) Bug Tunnel (Floor)

As with any effect, photographs do very little to show the overall effectiveness of the Bug Tunnel.

Project Instructions Walking Through Cobwebs instructions can be found here.
Project Instructions Rickety Floor instructions can be found here.
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Candy Room

This is the area in which we handed out candy (or in this case, rubber lizards, as chance might have it). Both the entrance and exit from this room were draped with hanging strips of fabric.

The rubber lizards and candy that we were giving out this Halloween were too large to use with my
Magic Candy Production Box, so I omitted that effect this year, even though it worked so well in our Halloween 2000 Haunt.

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Back


Haunts

Halloween 2003:
- Walkthrough
- Planning/Setup
- Halloween Night

Halloween 2001:
- Walkthrough
> Floor Plan
> Entire Tour

Sections:
1. Cemetery
2. Entrance
3. Hallway
4. Light Ghosts
5. Mirror Hall
6. Pep. Ghost
7. Extnded Hall
8. Bug Tunnel
9. Candy

- Video
- Planning/Setup
- Halloween Night

Halloween 2000:
- Walkthrough
- Planning/Setup

Halloween 1999:
- Pictures




All original content copyright 2004 Raymond Fero


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