Halloween

Halloween is just around the corner. I’ve been thinking about the haunts that Jeff has put on through the years. Jeff didn’t care if the haunt was elaborate of not, he just wanted to have fun scaring people. His first haunts was at his moms parents house. They had a picnic shed with a concrete floor and roof and was about 40 foot long. Jeff, with our help and some others helping to put on the haunt, would close in the sides with big tarps and we would hang the black lights and decorate the haunt. It was low budget but effective.

The last haunt Jeff did was awesome. He called it “Hauntmore Estate 07”. He spent lots of time and money on this one. It was made with 2 x 4s and OSB. There was 4 actors in this haunt.

Jeff was in the first room along with several dummies and you couldn’t tell what was real and what wasn’t. One person actually kicked Jeff and said “see he isn’t real”. Then Jeff jumped up and yelled “GET OUT!!”. That scared them.

The second room had a skeleton on a bed that was suppose to shake but broke during the haunt. There was a doll standing next to the bed eating a rat and there was a possessed girl floating on the wall. A werewolf actor would come out from behind a curtain behind them.

The next section was a 16′ long hallway that was totally dark. When you first go into the room there was leg ticklers run off an air compressor. Jeff had setup surround sound speakers down the hallway and created a sound track of a chain saw that would move down the hallway from one speaker to the next. People really thought there was someone in there with a real chain saw. There was this slimy feeling blood on the walls when feeling your way down the hallway. Near the end was an air cannon that gave a burst of air and a loud noise. There was a face protruding from the wall that was turned on when needed to help visitors find there way out. We had wireless remote controls hooked to the lights. There was an infrared camera mounted in there so that Jeff could watch every move the visitors made. It was also for safety.

The next room they entered had an animatronic in front of them that was activated by motion and moved it’s head and played scary sounds. A zombie actor would then come out of a coffin from behind them. This room also had a secret staff exit. One of the 4′ x 8′ walls was on hinges. Actors could use this for access to the house for restroom breaks without exiting the haunt in costume in front of all the visitors.

The last room had a person cut in half with one of the hands trying to pull it away. Also there was a drop panel with writing on it. While they were reading it Jeff would trip the lever and the panel would drop and he would come through the window and yell at them then jerk up the panel. Then the last actor (me) dressed like Jason with hockey mask and machete would come out behind them and chase them out the exit. The sign of a good haunt is when grown ups actually wet their pants. We had a few do that which made us all feel like we did our jobs.

Jeff was the photographer of the family. Since he was always behind the camera we don’t have a lot of pictures of him. He took over 300 photos of the construction and the finished haunt. I’m not going to post all those here. But I did put a few of the pictures from some of the haunts in the Photo Gallery if you would like to check them out. Also you can check out the pictures Jeff put on Flickr.
You can also go to the Haunt Forum to read what Jeff posted about Hauntmore Estate there. Sadly the links to pictures on his web site don’t work anymore.