Our haunt video

Nightmare Playgrounds 2008: Zombies: Prep and construction

The cool thing about doing a haunted house and having a kid like mine is that I am NEVER without a willing test subject for new fun things. This is my girl modeling the latest in blood fashion, gell blood. This stuff is gooey and syrup like when warmed but as it cools it becomes solid. Looks wet, but doesn't get everywhere after it sets. She liked it plenty. After spiking the set...ah, ahem, sorry, theater term. Putting masking tape down to mark how we wanted the garage laid out I decided we needed some tombstones this year. For some reason no hardware store here stocks the blue cell foam that makes good tombstones. Instead we got to use the craptastic large cell white board. But that did not stop our aspiring DaVincis of Death....see the two in back? Nope, not supervisors. EEE on the left and Kemper on the right. Dave foreground.

This is Dave. Dave is an artist. Artist is a nice way of saying showoff. Dave made me die a bit inside when I looked at his product and mine. I must admit, pouting was involved. And not on his part.

I threatened to cut the "supervisors" salary in half if they didn't help. It wasn't until they had done one tombstone and started another they remembered I wasn't paying them.

Being much larger than I am I decided if I looked busy AND had a hot foam cutter in my hands they might think better of helping me into a new form. Pretzels are nice... but not when made out of me.

Say it with me....."showoff...ahem, artist." In all seriousness Dave did some beautiful work. If we weren't so pressed for time in building the actual haunt we would have done some nice distressing and texturing of the tombstones. As it was they turned out nice, not the works of art that I have seen other haunts do, but perfectly fine for a home haunt where we charge nothing. Pay attention to the angel tombstone later. And remember he did it freehand.

One of my favorites.

I don't believe in child labor laws. If she gets to help me scare the crap out of people then she can help. Oh, and see how my daughter is painting, too? The adult on the left is our good friend Tiffany.

Musical interlude. Donations appreciated.

Wardrobe boxes affixed together, wooden support structure to brace them to walls and strengthen them. Wrapped in rosin paper and variouos foam accents attached to them.

Shelves attached so we can do som knick knacky goodness and ambient lighting later....wait for it.

Paint it up with more slave...ahem...child, ahem....volunteer labor. Sorry. My buddy Dax and again, my sweet cherub...ah, who am I kidding, the kid plays "zombie" and chases me through the house.

The bricks are my BRILLIANT and BEAUTIFEROUS wife's idea. They are those weird green foam blocks used for flower arrangements. Sliced lengthwise and fastened on to the exterior. When we added the faux brick painting later it looked pretty good. She is great about bringing the haunt into a more 3-D feel (see last years haunt for further proof).

I are the smart one.

Trying to fugure out how delicately we can tell OSHA...

...to kiss our heiney. Hey, there is safe and then there is HOLY CRAP! HALLOWEEN IS WHEN?

I know fellas...the lumber, the power tools, the impending scent of children loosing bladder control and running into the night while their parents are bent double in laughter....it brings tears. Really. Frank and I are working on the main mausoleum. You walk into the garage on either side and the door to the main crypt is in back. The layout acts as natural crowd control and we put enough nooks and crannies in the haunt that people don't want to rush by and risk missing a spot where someone is hiding.

Their problem is that I built a BIG nook and cranny for actors to hide in so when they go by they have bad zombies behind them. This was covered in tarps and further camoflaged with the netting we put over our carport.

Bad zombies like this guy. Oh, wait, that is Dax "normal". I think I told him we had to wait to drink until after we were done using power tools. Notice the oh-so-subtle scowl?

My little painter. Oh, and my daughter, too. The guy on the left is Tom. I have known him since highschool. If you watch my wedding video he is mouthing "I do" when my wife and I are saying our vows. Oddly, I think he was the tamest of my groomsmen.

So, thrift stores are our friends. The two objects you see at the bottom are from an old lamp we tore apart. The curved center is transluscent and made an AWESOME way to make it look like candles were lighting the mausoleum from the inside. We taped pictures of mausoleums to the outside of the structures so our helpers could do their own work without us directing everything. Our friends are awesome. We can't thank them enough for all their help.

THIS IS NOT A DRILL, PEOPLE! Oh, wait....it is. We need to get to work anyhoo....

"Hello, joke police? There is a bald guy here and he needs some of your attention."

This is sweet Maili. As soon as she is mobile I am strapping a paintbrush to her diaper and recruiting her. Her daddy, Dax, and Mommy, Sena, have been our good friends (and enablers) for several years now.

"THIS IS NOT A DRILL....oh, wait it is....and it is called "compensating."

Sorry, Frank, you know I love you. Frank is the friend that you sit down and actually have "the Zombie Plan" conversation with. If you don't have a friend like this...well....good, you might slow down the zombies long enough for us to enact ours.

"Zombie Plan?" Don't worry you are a part of it Maili. Sena, too.

Troy and Kemper covering our main mausoleum in cardboard. You have no idea how many of the storage rental places kept asking me "what do you plan on doing with all these wardrobe boxes?" Come on, people, it wasn't like I went in getting shovels, duct tape, plastic bags and sleep aids...ummm.... at least this week.

My very first coffin. I am so proud. My friend, Christy, in the middle, and Tom. I have known Christy about as long as Tom. She brought us some of the most creepy reeds....and she got them from Ikea. Who knew...

I built this coffin with hinge pins so I could collapse it and store it. I was very pleased with it and it turned out exceptionally sturdy with no flex or give at all. I really want to build one as a permanent wine bottle holder...but convincing the wife....welll....we will see. Not holding my breath....mostly because the floor hurts when I pass out.

We used the carport tent again. This was the best hundred sumthin' bucks we have spent. It makes more haunt, hides the inside from those on the street and acts as crowd control.

Troy, Frank and Dax working on my coffin in the weeee hours of the moring.

I designed collapsing crowd contol barriers. I wanted something sturdy but storable to funnel people in a line. It turned out awesome. More pics of this later. The poles are what I used to anchor the cross boards into the stands and bases. The skulls were cheap plastic ones that were epoxied to the top of the pole and a drywall screw drilled in for extra vandal proofing.

"Seriously, Mr. Clown...you aren't safe here. Have you seen what my dad does to baby dolls? You should go...quickly."

You want some uh dis CLOWN BOY!?

Partially to mostly finished

Here is my coffin unpainted. Due to time I didn't get to add all of the features I wanted. I hope to add some really nice decorative trim, and handles.








I added some cool resin pieces we got from Ross for cheap we painted it brown.

You can see the people barriers put together. I think these turned out really good and bcause of their materials they were substantial enough. Really pleased with this project. And since they collapse down they are much easier to store.

The angel with blood tears was nice and creepy. The effect was more for us to enjoy because there a lot of small detail that gets missed by TOTs. The lighting was bright enough that if you looked at it you could see it but when busy looking for the next bad-thingy-that-wants-to eat-your-brain it gets missed.

Top of a mausoleum. Got the skull statuette from Big Lots and the leafy metal decor from Ross.

Another view of the mausoleum with statuette. To its left is a concave, three piece, tall mausoleum. It made a nice cupping shape and hid the nook just behind it well. A false wall was put across the nook that led to the back yard. Just another place for my bad things to hide. I had hoped that we could "kidnap" volunteer TOTs from their group and take them in the back yard. Thier group would wonder where they went (maybe they got eaten). Meanwhile we would be zombifying them with our skilled makeup artists and sending them back out into the crowd. Due to rain the zombification process was cancelled.

We made some of the mausuleums have a Dia De Los Muertos style. The Mary picture was pretty cool. It took a lot of resolve to not paint on a skull head or make it all bloody.

Better picture of the concave three piece mausoleum. The pieces to the left and right had these cool shelves. You will see what made them cool in the finished portion...just remember it.

Knick Knacky stuff. The sculpted piece below the angel is a wooden decorative piece, gotten from Lowes. Votives, candle holders, and wierd pot thing from Ross.

More decor and our pet mummified cat. On the ground you can see the creepy plants that add a lot of 3-D to the haunt.




The skulls were these really cool paper mache things we got from Lowes (Hecho in Mexico). Sturdy, lightweight and each one was stained (looked like by hand) so that they were all different. You can see the other two sides of the dismembered lamp attached here. Remember the brickwork on the plain brown box earlier? This is it textured and painted. BTW I hate painting straight lines.



Creepy plants attached and nicely hiding the support brace that anchored the main mausoleum. That big white garage door you see up top was hidden by plastic roll table cloth attached to ceiling and droaped over top of the main mausoleum.

This is the view from the back of the garage looking out.


Same area looking back into the garage.





About the same spot as the picture above it but looking at the main mausoleum. The coffin is insdie this and we did a creepy altar where TOTs had to get candy.

Finished Haunt

One of two cool gargoyles that we got this year. My wife actually talked me in to these. Yeah, I find that funny, too.

Remember that guy Dave. The angel there is his work. He even used a dremel and etched in the dark lines. The lines were painted after in a darker color.

This is the altar in the main mausoleum. The rectangular bowl in the middle held the candy. You can see all the candy on the floor from TOTs either dumping it and running or throwing it at our actors in fear.

Altar with uber kewl lighting. We used over two hundred LED tea lights for this effect. My wife and I have grown to not like blacklights so much. The ambiance is so artificial from the bluish lighting. Looking in to the bulbs is blinding and when you walk into a haunt and say "Oh, look, a blacklight," it looses its effect. I think the pictures below will show how nice and creepy it turned out.

Remember the concave three piece mausloeum? Add lighting and the shelves become even cooler.

Altar again.

Zombies and Thugs

Heather and Frank. Frank usually is an autumn but for the zombie make-up he went a little bolder. We had to talk him out of the 5" stilletos. Heather did my make up (you will see later). And I am perfectly comfortable with saying I love how make up makes me feel. More importantly how others feel about me.

Remember how cool my kid is? She had gone out trick-or-treating before coming back to the haunt and walked up to me. She said one of the most beautiful things..."Daddy, can I have a wound, I want to be a zombie." What father could resist such a thing.

Add some darkness under the eyes....

...and you have a recipe for sweetness. See the snack in her pocket? Me and my girl.

Dax with his prehaunt snack. Careful, she gums back.

My Ro and Madison. Sure, it looks cute....awww they are playing kitchen. They are making finger soup. So there. And don't worry, Snow White has a happy ending.

No, she isn't eaten by her Dad, Sky.

She becomes a zombie and joins the circus. I mean, c'mon, she already has the dwarves for the freak show. I am so proud at how she warmed up to the zombie idea. All it took was my girl helping her make finger soup.

Exterior of the haunt. Channi is in the red shirt off at left, James is in the leather trench. He came as Rob Zombie....I told him a zombie theme. He is a smart ass. Greg and Frank in front of the haunt. You can see Giselle behind and to the right of Frank. She was helping with...

SUH-CUR-ITEE! This is Tiffany. I had these hats made so that the people who were running the line at the front were obvious and given a bit more authority. They wore the shirts I made this year and looked awesome. They did a great job helping out.

My security Mooks. Kemper, Giselle, and Eee. Left side is Dax and behind Kemper is Kash. Kash and her husband Mike helped out on the build, too, but because it was a small work day (not many people) we didn't have spare hands to take photos of it. Kash made a bunch of cool zombie informational brochures and bracelets that said "infected." She kept telling me not to bite people. Yeah, that happened. Me not biting, right.

In the center is Randy. Halloween is his birthday. If you remember he was my Freak in a Box some years back. He got a really cool metal Freddy Kruger glove so he did the whole get up.

Well, it seems like Dax is a broken zombie. His bite doesn't make other zombies, it makes cute baby bees. oh.....run.....the terror....cute buzzing baby bees. Wait, bees kill more people every year than sharks.....never mind. GOOD JOB, DAX!

Dax rolls with a rough crowd. Representin' the Urrrrrrrrrgh. Grrrrrrrrr. Arrrrrrrrrrgh.

We don't want no problems. Just eatin' brains.

Brains?

And people wonder what my wife sees in me.

My peeps. Look at this crowd. Have you ever seen a more beautiful assembly of hotties? Cosmo ain't got nuthin' on us.

Looking forward to next year...whatever theme it may be.

Nightmare Playgrounds 2007: Twisted Fairy Tales

Nightmare Playgrounds proudly presents Twisted Fairy Tales. This was our most ambitious haunt yet. The amountof time and effort that was put into it easily dwarfed all of our other efforts.

I want to thank everyone who helped us on our haunt. Folks even came by while I had to go to the paying job and helped my wife work on the build. If I took the time to mention everyone who helped and how much we appreciate it I would have to do a whole other blog. We just want you all to know it was wonderful having you with us and we could not have done it without you. We love you guys.

Also, I want to thank my wife who took my vision of a pretty neat haunt and made it our best yet. She took a good idea and made it scary and worked really hard on it. Above all she made a haunt that would have been a bit two dimensional into a three dimensional place where things could sneak up and jump out at you. On to the pictures and descriptions.

How do you make a Twisted Fairy Tale Forest? Well first you build 1x4 frames, use some PVC for lightweight but sturdy branches and wrap them in chicken wire. My arms looked like I had been using cats as bowling balls. But, hey, bleed for the cause.

Then carry them to the garage where no cars can park for 3 months . Yup. We started this in August.

Wrap them in canvas and muslin, staple chicken wire to the ceiling for texture and fasten the bases together.

Then coat them in the wonderful substance: MONSTER MUD. Slather it with the creamy goodness. Don't forget to wear gloves and clothes you don't mind ruining.

Do some minor sculpting of a creepy tree.

Paint some visual texturing. Have a nice sturdy platform sitting in the middle of your trees (The better to pounce on you from, my dear).


Paint the creepy tree some more.

Then ask an expert how a tree looks.

And then follow her advice.

Mark creepy forest off the list.

Now for Granny's house.

2x4 frame, 1x4 supports, some reed fencing bought from a home improvement store.

A custom door covered in painted muslin.

Add some visual texturing.

Texture the door, add some decor.



Hide the water purifier with chicken wire, muslin, monster mud and moss. Put up some cheap plastic scenery. We improved it a lot by adding red rosin paper used for covering floors when painting. My wife continued the bottoms of the trees onto the paper making the trees go to the floor.

Set up the car port tent as the walkway to the woods. Cover the carport in camouflage netting.

Throw in some giant spiders and webs.

Add some creepy fairy tale characters like the Mad Hatter.

Find some kids and adults to scare the crap out of.

And have a howlin' good time.

Below are some pics for your enjoyment.

I have some more pics squirreled away, if I come across them I will add them.

Halloween 2006 BROKEN TOYS

From the Nightmare Playgrounds we bring you Broken Toys, the 2006 theme. As you can see we have a good cast again. I think this haunt could have been a lot better if I had controlled the groups coming in. We had a bit rowdier crowd this year and the haunt was set up for more of a slow experience than "run in for the candy." You will see what I mean as we go on. All in all this haunt was a learning experience and this year we are not going to allow large groups to go in together or linger in the haunt, it caused bottleneck issues and a lot of folks missed the cool effects we had set up.

In the carport I had made a couple of abandoned Jack In The Boxes out of wardrobe boxes. Painted them up and set them on each side of the port. This visually and physically funnelled the TOT (trick or treaters) into the middle. On the right side of the garage was this faux wall with twisted kids drawings. Since this haunt is not for profit I used images off the internet and then destroyed them after.

This crib is a two sided plywood front with 2x4 legs. I bought some foam from a fabric store, cut a hole in it, and covered it with a baby crib sheet with a slice down the middle. The sheet was anchored to the foam with spray adhesive. The crib bars are the cheap wood with plastic strip garden fencing you can get at hardware stores and spray painted black. The tiger on the front is a thrift store find as is the paper border that runs around the top. I used toddler sized dolls that had a plush body but plastic hands, feet and heads (two total). An actress would carry the baby behind the group that goes in the haunt making cooing and haunting hushing noises. She would say "excuse me" to the group to make sure she was noticed as she walked in their midst and put the baby lovingly into the crib. The baby would then be grabbed through the hole by the actor under the bed, shaken violently as if struggling and ripped through the hole downwards which chomping and growing noises were made. The actress would then walk outside oblivious and pick up the second baby that a go between actor had picked up from the guy under the bed (I have a side yard and door that allowed this.

Another thrift store find, about 20 bucks. Took off the back and removed the drawers. Took off the front of the drawers of the bottom three and glued them to the dresser. The top drawer had the back cut off and some blocks attached to the sides so it couldn't come all the way out. We put this against the dyed canvas drop cloth and cut a slit in back so an actor could be behind it. The actor could reach through the top drawer or throw some cheap plastic skulls I had picked up at the TOTs.

The Candy Dresser. This prop I loved. I took off the back, painted the inside black, and stapled black fabric on the back of it. I then put a slit in the middle for an actors head, a slit on each side for their arms and a candy bowl right on the bottom of the cabinet. The actor had black long sleeves, gloves and a black "ring wraith hood." This is one of those inexpensive hoods that you can see out of but people can't see in to. A plastic mask (cheap) with fixed red LED lights attached to a clicker switch (to make it blink) completes the prop. The tot sees the sign...thinks a bit to see if it is safe, decides the candy is worth it and opens the cabinet. They get closer, the actor turns on the eyes and starts reaching out while growling. Then when it is over two canvas straps on the inside of the door allow the actor to reclose the doors for the next TOT.

Seating area for a "guard actor." It is important to protect your people. I am going to make sure that this is more of a priority this year.

I love the lamp, my wife REALLY disliked it. I had kept it for years because it is so gothic. To her relief it got cracked and I had to throw it away. It was plaster and 5 bucks at a thrift store so I am not as sad as I could be....but I am still sad.

Josh.

I can't figure out how to fix this picture. It smooshed him shorter and made him look really wide. I love the picture but it is not a true representation of his dimensions. The cigarette rocks, too, and that is from a guy who doesn't smoke.

"I love children...with ketchup," was the line he used I believe.

Again a smooshed photo and she is not these dimensions. She was our resident trick or treater. An actress who wandered around acting quite disturbed. She was asking kids for their candy. The cool thing is they were giving it to her. She had a blast.

The play pen....or maybe murder pen. You may notice a few new babies....I got the bug again. These ones are some of my favorites so far.

Notice the teddy bear trying to escape with most of its stuffing and the doll head that Jack is holding. I love children.

This is Stab. Real knives inserted into his hands and one through his mouth. My wife is a very strong supporter of our Halloween but she said that these new ones gave her the willies.

Hate is such a strong word. He has been working out.

Meet Stitch. Somehow I don't think Lilo would be as fond of this one. I had a lot of fun with this him. His needle is a nail with the head cut off. The thread from his foot through his hand and to the needle were laced through and acrylic paints were used to make it pretty. I have to admit I giggled as I made this one.

Say "Hello" to Burn. Wire armature made from the stuff you get near the rebar and concrete at Home Depot and Lowes. I sliced the parts didn't want with my x-acto knife and then used those long butane lighters for fireplaces and grills to char him slightly. I found holding the flame away from it and letting the smoke hit had a really nice effect. I sprayed it with the Minwax sealant I mentioned earlier to keep the soot in when handling him. It worked out nice because he got a bit more shiny and that is what happens to plastic when exposed to high heat.

Meet Eyeclops Barbie. Pop off one Barbie head, paint one racket ball, cut ball for neck stem, and epoxy to body. Electrical tape for modesty (and so Ken doesn't get turned on and revolted at the same time). TAH-DAH!

Somehow I don't think Ken has Barbie on his mind right now. I had an old rabbit cage that was given to me. This is what was inside. Sharp pruning shears, acrylic paint and x-acto knife. Idle hands and all that....

Not sure why I don't have a picture of my other Ken. If you look in the tree on the right you will see another suspended in a wooden frame. He has hooks spreading his face, arms severed and reconnected with wire and in general is having a great time just hanging out. I also have a smattering of body parts and my Devil Baby perched in his usual.

My lovely and highly supportive wife on the left. She is in her belly dance garb and helps out with the kids too scared to come in for candy. She also spins fire poi (hot and hot) to our group's amusement. I was a Jack out of the Box (right picture). The mask I have on is a leather one. If you ever want to own a gorgeous leather mask by a true artist go to http://www.mansourdesigns.com/ I look at that site frequently and drool. The one I have on is the "rapscallion." The artist is cool, unpretentious and his wife is awesome with the customer service. They are getting a lot of interest from conventions and he sculpted the mask used by Kane in WWE. I don't normally gush about artists...I gush about him. As a guy I am comfortable with that. Browse the site, buy something and you will see why.

I also had bondage cuffs on ankles and wrists with heavy metal chain on them. I would skip at people letting the chain spark off the ground or just sway with me and they would go a runnin'. Added to very puppet like mannerisms, inhuman head jerks, and sing songing the verses to "Pop Goes the Weasel" (including one about Lucifer I made up) I got some reactions I am proud of.

Again I want to thank all of our friends who helped out this past year. We had a blast and are looking forward to doing it again this year.

Halloween 2005 Baby Pics

These are some pics of some of the babies I did for the 2005 haunt up close and personal. I bought some really cool LED circuits from Terror by Design. They are well worth their price. The boards are programmed to do a variety of blinks/strobes. The pattern I selected used is a random blink pattern. Very cool effect, I only put the LEDs in a few of the babies. So here are my kids.

Pin head has real finishing nails in his head. His clothes are made out of highly fashionable gaffers tape, as any Cenobyte will tell you, is all the rage.

This sweetie, my little (fallen) angel's wings were made out of a pipe cleaner frame and liquid latex. No mold was needed because he is only viewed from the front. His horns were made from dental acrylic I have for making fang caps and false teeth appliances. The tongue is a strip of latex painted black. I burrowed out his eyes and added the LED lights mentioned above, filled in the sockets around the eyes with white unbaked sculpey, and viola.

On the left is my zombie. I put him next to a severed leg prop and glued a strip of latex to the severed end and his/her mouth. It was leg. The skeleton one was cool but could have been better. Granted, like most props, looks a lot better in the dark. I had a lot of fun trying to get bones painted on right.

I thought I was done this year (2005) on babies but I couldn't resist and bought a couple more...they were meant to be together. I brought out the trusty exacto knife, acrylic paint, made some new spots for some of the extra parts and POOF. My very own Frakenbaby. I really like how this one turned out. Except for the slight separating of the babies right lower arm from the body showing the joining plug this one stands up pretty well to even close inspection.

I got all these sweet kids from K-mart. I forget what brand they are. All except Pinhead have the molded/rigid bodies. I was experimenting with Pinhead's body type and they didn't have anymore of the rigid bodies. I think some crazy Halloween nutjob bought the others....heh.

I highly suggest using the Krylon spray paint for plastics (Fusion) as your paint or base coats. The plasticizers used in the dolls that keeps them flexible retards the paint curing process. You will likely have a serious sticky mess on your hands. Even using these paints I had some that were a bit tacky BUT the folks at Krylon were SUPER cool. They have some great customer service and answered my e-mail in a thoroughly descriptive and explanatory manner. THEY ROCK. Oh, and they told me to use Minwax Polycrylic, a waterbased protective finish. Worked like a friggin' dream. I bought the clear satin, great effect.

Almost Halloween 2006 and finally finishing this one.

Halloween 2005 continued

Here are some of the great freakshow billboards I had a local airbrush artist named Alan Silva create for me. I am a moderately okay artist but don't have this skill. His product was just the theme I expressed to him and all turned out really cool. I met him at a expo in Sacramento and he did a great t-shirt for me really quick. His portraits are really cool, I am checking with him before I post his contact info here. I highly recommend him.



This is a closer picture of my babies. The two with glowing eyes are the ones with the LED blink circuits. I had a lot of fun making these guys and hope to be able to use them again.

My friend Chris and what is obviously his offspring. This match was unplanned but serendipitous.




Now if we could just find mommy's remains...ummm, ahem, I mean find mommy.
Wait...no that is a guy. Saul is the fellow who has the guts to let kids get candy from his sweetly spread torso. Tim is the fella who played my freak doctor. Add some fake intestines ( hose and latex paint) and you have some nice props to play with the kiddies.

And just because I love this picture, this is Tim's wife, Rachel, in the foreground.

You can see the love.

This grizzly (and much better looking in low light, I might add) scene was inside the tent. There were a few kids who went for the "crap" candy outside the tent rather than reach into our victim's bowels. We had several actors throughout the night doing different roles. I will be posting pics of them and some of my prep work a bit later.

But for now, this is me saying, "Get some candy, little kiddies."

Update from All Hallows Eve

HALLOWEEN 2005, NIGHTMARE PLAYGROUNDS PRESENTS:
THE DARK CARNIVAL



This past Halloween we had a larger turn out from our friends than ever before. The efforts took were also bigger and more time consuming than previous years.

Our theme was a Dark Carnival/Freak Show and we used our carport tent with huge fabric panels my wife sewed together. We enlisted friends (duped, really) into helping us grommet the things so they could be linked together. This was my wife's idea and it turned a bland tan carport cover into a garish circus tent. Notice my dorky expression as I set it up. Normally I am not a bandana wearin' guy but you will see why I had it on in a later photo. My wife tied black thread from the ceiling of the carport so when you walk through you get that "just walked through a cobweb" sensation on your face. We also had help from two of our friends but for now I am not adding names to this blog until they give the okay.


We wanted the kids and neighbors to have no idea what was going on inside the carport and garage so we also set up with the carport front on.

This is the the plywood/pvc pipe cage I built for Freak-In-A-Box. Randy is the freak inside. I got the idea one day and decided that it would be really cool to have prop like this for my actors to play in. The idea is simple, have a easy to build and lightweight box with bars so an actor can swipe at treaters as they come by. When the treaters pass the bars are just wide enough a slim person can squeeze through the bars and give chase. OR....they can pick up the whole cage with them inside of it and move it behind and closer to their intended target.

I also made some very cute baby dolls for my pumpkin garden. I bought those fake foam pumpkins, carved them like eggs that had hatched and had my sweet babies inside. We also had a actor (Lindsey, sorry if it is spelled wrong) playing "Scary Mary" (left) who was the infernal nursemaid for these kids.

As you can see she has a jack'o'lantern baby doll that has LED lights inside of it's head to make it glow. The clown on the right is a friend (Channi) also who is holding my daughter. We have a neighbor who is quite afraid of clowns and we made sure she got the attention she deserved. A few weeks before Halloween our neighbor and her mother did a good "pop" scare on me by hiding on my porch and yelling at me when I came home. They wanted to get me like I have been getting the neighborhood the past few years. Admittedly, I did jump. On Halloween I got my revenge and our neighbor ran screaming into her house. That didn't stop her mom from letting us go in after her, though. Ah, sweet revenge.

Some of the babies had LED light eyes that had a circuit that did a random blink pattern. Very nice effect. I made a devil baby with latex wings, a zombie baby, Pinhead baby, skeleton baby, Jack'o'lantern, a baby that was an ode to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein with a bit of cojoined freakishness. They were cool props and the zombie baby was eating off a latex severed arm in patch. I had the thing illuminated with a pumpkin light source and two tiki torches with skulls that I painted to look like garish clowns. (in clockwise order from top) Devil baby in tree, skeleton in pumpkin shell in back, pinhead, zombie, cojoined. Jack was carried by the sweet Scary Mary.