| Welcome
to our 1999 haunt...
Shallow Grave
We Started planning the design for
our first walk-through haunt last November and started the
construction in May. The majority of the haunt will stay up
year round and provide storage space for our props. Which
we keep building and building...
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The haunt is located at the back of
our house under our large deck. The upper deck is covered
with a roof which provides protection from rain inside the
haunt. The upper deck is the effects control area for several
of the rooms underneath. Another perk is the fairly large
pond we built which is located just outside one of the rooms.
The sound of running water at night can be really creepy!
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Coming down our driveway, we mounted
our Ceiling Crawler prop to the side of our house. We had
no direct light on the prop which really gave guest who where
waiting in line something to talk about.
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The haunt starts at the bottom of our
driveway around the corner of the house in front of the garage.
To provide an area for our visitors to wait before entering
the Main Door we built a "lean- to" style roof and
wall over the garage door area. The building breaks down into
seven panels at the end of the season.
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The garage door remains open and three
wall/window panels cover the doorway. Inside the front area
of the garage we constructed a movable set that could be rolled
to the outer edge of the doorway and back in when not in use.
This allowed us to create two small rooms and still be able
to close the garage door down during the week.
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The inside wall displays the Notices
and House Rules.
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Ok, how many other people see a face
image this picture? That is not one of our effects!
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Directly across the main entrance in
front of the garage is the Guard Station. We used a live actor
dressed in a hooded robe inside. His job was to keep guests
moving without verbal commands. He was only allowed to point
where they where to go. He hardly ever moved but when he did
most people couldn't tell if he was real or a prop. Several
people even touched his gloved hand as he pointed but still
weren't sure!
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Once inside the area in front of the
garage you became victim to the Barrel Prop located in the
first window. In the next window sits the props controller/
gate keeper. (no pic) He made sure that only 2-3 guests where
ready to go into the haunt and where waiting at the Main Gate.
Also shown below the lighting for the lean-to area.
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At the gate you where greeted by the
guide who was played by yours truly. Once I would let the
group in, the door was closed and the story line was started.
They where given short instruction and a lever was pulled
to open the main door. The door is pulled open with a bungee
cord concealed inside a wall like a pocket door. It rides
on a track above and uses a gate latch as a trigger. We installed
a pull down lever on the wall to release the door which slides
back into the wall saving space and freaking out the guests.
The lever is to the right of the lantern.
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Once the door opens you are greeted
by total darkness. While telling them to proceed down the
hall to the room at the end, each wall light was turned on
in sequence back to the two lights on the Split Wall. After
they would enter I would close the door and follow them in.
The lights where then turned off behind me as I walked down
the hall only leaving on the two Split Wall lights. They where
told to place at least one foot into the black circle which
would provide them safe passage. That freaked some of our
guests who where very cautious stepping on the circle.
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The circle provided a safe area away
from moving effects and kept the guests in frame while being
video taped using a Sony NightShot camera. See the black box
in the rafters up against the house? Cables connected the
camera to a monitor and VCR in the control area above. In
2000 we would like to add 4 more cameras to capture the guests
reactions throughout the haunt.
One view over and over again on a tape gets old fast!
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As the story line was told the effects
control person would listen for key words for triggering the
props. The first effect used was the Split Wall. Two thin
cords where pulled to release the doors which split open.
Then an inner spot light was switched on lighting up the corpse
hanging inside.
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Next the spot light when out and the
Head Light came on.
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The door to the Pond Room was released
from above and slides open in the same manner as the Main
Door. The guests would step into this room which overlooks
the pond and the back yard. The Stork prop stands in the corner
holding a lantern which is swing from a chain before the door
opens.
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At the back of the fenced in yard we
simulated a large dug pit. This is where we had supposedly
unearthed a large rotted wood crate containing the mummified
body of Mandrake Dunbar and several human skulls. One of the
areas founders who went insane 100 years ago killing several
of his close friends. He then disappeared with out a trace
until NOW!
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While looking out into the yard at
the "Shallow Grave" a prop was released from up above. It
would swing out and into the lattice wall they where looking
through. It looked pretty cool coming through the fog being
pumped over the pond!
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Next our guests where asked to step
back into the first room and then through a hidden door into
another small hallway. They where told to wait for a sign
and left on their own to find their way out. The wall light
goes out and the door is released in front of them. It swings
out away from them and bangs into the hallway wall which was
the spirit of Mr. Dunbar giving them the go ahead to continue!
Directly in front of them, less then two feet away is a drop
panel. It is triggered after hearing the door hit the wall.
The panel slams down exposing another corpse lighted from
above. We shot webs over both corpses to give them the look
of being entombed a very long time!
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You can see the mat on the floor in
front of the drop panel which controlled the Crate Prop. Stepping
on the mat triggered a three second delay, then the Crate
would light up inside and Mandrake Dunbar would pop up as
the hinged lid raised. Fog would bellow out through the cracks
and out the open lid around him. The lid remained open for
another three seconds before slamming shut and starting a
one minute reset delay. We bought the electronics from Terror
by Design.
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The next prop you come to was the Acolyte
who lit the way inside the slat walls area.
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After leaving the slat wall area you
where headed toward the exit. Behind you was the Guardian
protecting the stairs from drifters. Above was a suspended
Coffin Prop that most people never even saw. They where to
busy checking over their shoulders looking back into the darkness.
As they came closer to the open exit gate we had another live
person dressed in robe attire. She kept them from standing
around so we could start another group through.
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To keep guests from wondering into
the yard we constructed a widely spaced 6 foot high picket
fence. The whole outside perimeter was covered over with camo
netting.
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Leaving through the gate you would
come upon the Night Watchman prop. He holds a lantern that
is triggered by a motion detector. For a cheap effect we tied
a black string from the lantern back to the actor by the exit
gate. When the light was activated she would give the line
a tug which would rattle chains hanging around the light fixture.
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If you looked back at the deck after
exiting you would see one of last years props placed on the
upper level. We used a 4 watt low voltage light behind the
railing which cast a errie glow on its hooded face..
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We lined the driveway with glowing
skull stanchions from the exit gate to the Guard Station.
That was it!
Halloween night, it was every five minutes for three and a
half hours straight. Over the three nights we showed the place,
we took through nearly 275 guests. I never expected such a
good turn out. The Scare Crow really helped out...
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And now for a look behind the scenes...
We ran two foggers which covered 4
areas. The barrel prop used one fogger run through our newly
designed fog chiller and was activated by hand. The other
fogger was run on a timer on the upper deck. It distributed
fog ever 4 minutes through a blower box into three ducts.
One to the pond, one to the Crate and the last into a 20 foot
section of perforated corrugated drainage pipe. It wrapped
around the outer perimeter of the deck up under the floor
joists.
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Our sound was run through our new sound
system. We used three car stereos with auto reverse cassette
players. The sound tracks are recorded and mixed custom by
the Terror Syndicate.
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This is a shot behind the rooms in
the garage. Notice the access door for getting in and out.
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This shows the control area on the
upper deck. We inclosed three sides with canvas tarps incase
of bad weather. The ropes and strings controlled the doors
and props. We ran 4 controller boxes for a total of 16 switches
just for the lighting throughout the haunt. We use video each
year to capture our guests reactions. A monitor was also used
to view the room below giving the operator above better control
over prop release timing. Detailed instruction with material
lists for most of the props seen above can be found in Handbook
Volume Two.
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