Here are links to slideshows produced from pictures taken at my Halloween party
I had a haunted garage/laundry room for my party which was slightly modified so that I could use it for trick-or-treaters on Halloween also. For the party, you entered into the laundry room to feel the body parts. When people exited the garage back out through the laundry room, the new group would go in the garage. This was very efficient in getting everyone through so that haunters in the garage didn't have to be 'working' all night. For the night of Halloween, the garage door was open and a tarp went across the front, leaving an opening for the door. On the tarp was a hanging skeleton in a cape that I could work with a microphone. He would greet trick-or-treaters and then call Igor (me) to assist. Just my makeup proved scary to some. See the picture near bottom.
Below are some descriptions of the props made, and how they were made:
The Graveyard was done with scrap plywood, primer, gray paint, black paint, and 1"x1" wooden stakes. Nothing fancy this year. I've read a lot of sites that used 2" foam that you can carve and such. That's a project I'll work on over the winter. Some ideas are at http://www.hauntedyards.com/tombstones1.html
Spare body parts in boxes were intestines (spaghetti in butter to keep it from sticking), brain (many gummy worms slightly warmed up and squished together into a ball), finger bones (chicken wing bones cleaned by being boiled and cleaned and dried), and eyeballs (peeled grapes).
| The Dragon was borrowed from Jim, who happened to have a Dragon because he used to run the local chapter of NERO (New England Role-playing Organization), a live action Dungeons and Dragons type of game. He needed to simulate a dragon at some point, and had this in his garage. Behind the eyes are red flashlights, which looked pretty cool in the dark garage. We also had a fog machine hooked up. The dragon head was mounted on a ladder. |
The refrigerator had a peeled arm, a bowl of eyeballs (chocolate and peanut butter from the local grocery store), and gelatin molds (with very specific recipes) of a heart and a brain. |
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The grill was pretty fun. I removed my charcoal and inserted a string of christmas lights, leaving mostly orange and some red bulbs. I spray painted the charcoal as white as possible on one side, and then a light white around the edges on the other side. The lightly painted side was the top, to look hot. The heavy white was the bottom, to reflect the orange glow. I had a little space heater under the grill to give off heat, but it was a bit loud so I ended up not using it. The hand was on the little grill to the left. It was a mechanical hand that moved (that's why it has a wire), but again, noise was an issue, so it was off (and the cord hidden). The arm and finger were purchased. I offered the finger to people as finger food. :-) The skewers each had four eyeballs on them (again, the chocolate). Nice prop.
The Laboratory was very cool. I borrowed all the glassware from a friend at work who runs the chemistry lab. We only used a portion of what he gave us! The various colors were produced by cutting apart different color highlighters. Of course, dry ice chunks were awesome, creating bubbles and smoke. The blacklight was a nice touch.
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The Guillotine was fun. Not really a prop since it really works! I built the framework with 2"x4" planks and plywood. The body was stuffed with 2 litre bottles (legs), 1 gallon milk jugs (body) and newspaper to shape. I had our machine shop make a nice, heavy, metal blade that really made a loud thud when dropped! I stood to the side and dropped the blade. While people watched the blade, I squirted some water up in the air, to fall on them like blood splatter. :-) On Halloween, one boy, about 10 years old, was with his parents. He did OK with the grill, the lab, the refrigerator, dragon, and spare body parts. But, when I dropped the Guillotine blade, he took off, and ran away! Me and his parents were in shock! He must've had his head cut off in a previous life! In the bucket was the head (already cut off) that I'd hold up. It was a puppet head. It looked like I was holding it by the hair, but my hand was inside so that I could make the mouth move. |
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This is me, holding the severed head. I'm on the right.
Jim also had some weapons he used in Nero that were nice enough to hang for display. Luke made the noose, rather easily, which makes me wonder....
For the party, the haunted garage had the following people help:
Morganna, who let people in from the house to the laundry room, and worked the spare parts area.
Mary, who was a headless person holding her head in her hand, wandering around asking for help.
Danny, who worked the guillotine.
Jake, Ryan, and Teddy were in the rafters working a floating head, a flying bat, and rattling chains.
Allen was an undead zombie, who lay still until people got close. He arose slowly and creepy.
Tyler and Bob were behind curtains scaring people.
Luke was the lab scientist.
I was the tour guide.