Any other "Hallo-weenies" on here?

The wife and I are that childless couple that is a way too into Halloween. I think we have maxed performed the store bought stuff. Lots of animated stuff and sound activated things, but we are looking for some better home built ideas for next year. The wife is on Instructables.com and a few other sites, but you lot are a sharp, creative bunch and I was wondering what ideas you have.

The front.. With the ghoul baby pen... Mike Meyers and Jason actually move and are sound activated.

The cemetary in the front yard...

I built this coffin a few years ago...

The wife made this.

...and the "Hell Camino." There a fog machine in the back and red lights under it and in the drivers seat for effect at night.

Well, the Hellcamino is nice, but the GRM crowd is pretty much gonna mandate you build a pristine red Caddy and name it Christine...hey,you asked for it

Most people would expect Christine to be a Plymouth Fury.

Hallowe'en grinch here, sorry.

Check out my friend's business. http://www.gore-galore.com/ They make ultra-detailed stuff for professional haunted houses and theme parks. He's even made a few corpses for Court TV reenactments and a decomposed baby for Law and Order. I worked a trade show with them once and got to walk around in the costumes and scare the crap out of people. Good times.

Here's me in the Creeper Costume playing life size operation at another booth. This one is about 11' tall.

That's cool.

I can't help with any ideas though, all our decorations came from Big Lots.

Here's one with a normal sized person in the picture, so you can get a sense of the scale.

16vCorey wrote: Check out my friend's business. http://www.gore-galore.com/ They make ultra-detailed stuff for professional haunted houses and theme parks. He's even made a few corpses for Court TV reenactments and a decomposed baby for Law and Order. I worked a trade show with them once and got to walk around in the costumes and scare the crap out of people. Good times.

Offtopic, a job like that is no E36 M3, my dream. I LIVE for halloween. How does one even get to know people like that?

And to OP, how far are you willing to go? You ever act in your own sets? Willing to harass friends into helping you? Ever make a few gallons of fake blood?

You could do something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UjvHMXmtfI&feature=related

-Rob

Wow. That's wild. My wife used to be pretty into setting her house up for trick-or-treaters in her old neighborhood. Then she hooked up with me, we had kids, etc. etc. and I figured I'd drag some of the old stuff out of the attic this year at the kids' request.

So, all we had was a little graveyard in the front lawn, and I set a motion detector (X10) up to activate some lights and a couple blacklight fixtures on the front porch. Blacklight really fires up glow-in-the-dark stuff, like the life-size skeleton on the front door. I thought it was pretty cool.

Of course, it rained on Halloween and hardly anybody got to see the fruits of my labor. Ah, well!

mndsm wrote:

16vCorey wrote: Check out my friend's business. http://www.gore-galore.com/ They make ultra-detailed stuff for professional haunted houses and theme parks. He's even made a few corpses for Court TV reenactments and a decomposed baby for Law and Order. I worked a trade show with them once and got to walk around in the costumes and scare the crap out of people. Good times.

Offtopic, a job like that is no E36 M3, my dream. I LIVE for halloween. How does one even get to know people like that?

Are you willing to relocate? He might be hiring, and we could use some more car people around here.

I originally met him through mutual friends, and shortly there after we started building motorcycles together. We had the back 1/4 of his shop set up as a little bike shop and we'd build crap after hours. He's since expanded the business so we had to move the bike stuff to the yard barn. WAY OT, but he's now putting together a '65 GMC 2500 as a shop truck. Anyone know where to get the rear wheel cylinder push rods for that truck?

I love Halloween, but this year kinda sucked for me, I didn't finish my costume, so for the club I recycled a costume, I'm in the middle of a move with my new place not ready yet so I'm on my parent's couch so no deco or even pumkin carving...

Built this ~8 years ago

Using PVC and the plans on that site; http://www.horrorseek.com/home/halloween/wolfstone/PropsSpider/spimak_SpiderConstruction.html

I lived on a busy street and that was a hit for many years, unfortunately I had to chuck it when we moved 2 years ago and haven't gotten to build a new one...

Some friends of mine throw a Halloween party every year. That was actually where my girlfriend and I met, almost a decade ago. So, it's a favorite tradition!

They go completely berserk on the decorations, themed differently each year. This year was haunted bayou, and they actually built an entire shack out of discarded decking and stuff onto the front of their house, along with a pier, and we built an enclosure so their driveway could be filled with water and dry ice... They made three 8' tall papier mache cypress trees...

In reply to Mental:

So, here's an idea. You'll need a fish tank pump, some edges of some logs ( to simulate a cabin exterior) a few drip pans, some blood (real or fake, fake doesn't coagulate and smells less bad, and is far less likely to get the cops called on you) a piece of aluminum L bracket, some 2x4's, and whatever else log cabiny stuff you can come up with. Works on a window too.

The concept is this- Place fish tank pump in drip pan cleverly disguised at the bottom of your newly constructed log cabin wall. Fill with blood. Drill intermittent holes in the bend of the aluminum L bracket and cap one end so it doesn't run over the side/end. Run tubing behind wall, up to L bracket. Position L bracket so that drip holes will allow flow over the side of the wall. Fill trays/pans with blood. Turn on fish tank pump, instant bleeding wall. Replace log cabin section with cheap window pane to have a bleeding window.

I have more ideas..... do you have a chainsaw?

Yeah but do you give out good candy?

I love the pumpkin carving, the decorating and the general vvibe but don't care to dress up for it. Sadly after 4 years of going all out with decorations and having zero trick or treaters I just didn't have the heart to even try this year.

A few past gourds.

To the OP. I think as an adult what you've built looks amazing, you've got some great skills and talent, I'm really impressed. But, and you had to know there was a but coming. Around here I think people would, justifiably, complain. Your bloody legs and wrapped up body would scare the crap out of little kids, who are what halloween is really about these days. If it was in an area where only teenage and above could see it fine, but I think it's totally inapropriate for little kids.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: To the OP. I think as an adult what you've built looks amazing, you've got some great skills and talent, I'm really impressed. But, and you had to know there was a but coming. Around here I think people would, justifiably, complain. Your bloody legs and wrapped up body would scare the crap out of little kids, who are what halloween is really about these days. If it was in an area where only teenage and above could see it fine, but I think it's totally inapropriate for little kids.

Shock value has its place too..... don't need blood to scare the bejeebus out of someone.

Ditchdigger, love the pumpkins and gords. Those are cool!

16vCorey wrote: Here's me in the Creeper Costume playing life size operation at another booth. This one is about 11' tall.

16vCorey wrote: Here's one with a normal sized person in the picture, so you can get a sense of the scale.

That is soooo cool, site bookmarked.

mndsm wrote: So, here's an idea. You'll need a fish tank pump, some edges of some logs ( to simulate a cabin exterior) a few drip pans, some blood (real or fake, fake doesn't coagulate and smells less bad, and is far less likely to get the cops called on you) a piece of aluminum L bracket, some 2x4's, and whatever else log cabiny stuff you can come up with. Works on a window too. The concept is this- Place fish tank pump in drip pan cleverly disguised at the bottom of your newly constructed log cabin wall. Fill with blood. Drill intermittent holes in the bend of the aluminum L bracket and cap one end so it doesn't run over the side/end. Run tubing behind wall, up to L bracket. Position L bracket so that drip holes will allow flow over the side of the wall. Fill trays/pans with blood. Turn on fish tank pump, instant bleeding wall. Replace log cabin section with cheap window pane to have a bleeding window. I have more ideas..... do you have a chainsaw?

Love it. I don't have a chainsaw, but I can get one.

Osterkraut wrote: Yeah but do you give out good candy?

You don't go this all out and scrimp on the goodies.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: ... I think as an adult what you've built looks amazing, you've got some great skills and talent, I'm really impressed. But, and you had to know there was a but coming. Around here I think people would, justifiably, complain. Your bloody legs and wrapped up body would scare the crap out of little kids, who are what halloween is really about these days. If it was in an area where only teenage and above could see it fine, but I think it's totally inapropriate for little kids.

For some of them, yes. But the neighborhood knows who we are. It starts on Oct 1st, and is a gradual process. The hardcore stuff only shows up on the 31st. The kids that don't like it avoid us, but you would be surprised how many love it, even when it scares the crap out of them. Parents bring their kids and take pictures. We have been in this hood for three years and we start getting asked about it each fall. For the ones that are too scared, we happily bring the candy to the end of the driveway, and all the folks know it. We have had zero complaints here, in our last house in CO and the three years we built a small haunted house in our yard when we lived in Norman.

I understand what you are saying and I don't want to scar anyone, but I disagree that Halloween is just for the kids. We have quite a few fans in the adult realm and the teens as well. I think it's an all ages holiday.

ransom wrote: Some friends of mine throw a Halloween party every year. That was actually where my girlfriend and I met, almost a decade ago. So, it's a favorite tradition! They go completely berserk on the decorations, themed differently each year. This year was haunted bayou, and they actually built an entire shack out of discarded decking and stuff onto the front of their house, along with a pier, and we built an enclosure so their driveway could be filled with water and dry ice... They made three 8' tall papier mache cypress trees...

Oh the wheels are turning on that idea! Thanks!!!!

All I did was sit around with the lights off eating pizza and listen to the dogs bark at everyone walking by

Fun with chainsaws!

Doesn't take much to scare the hell out of someone with a chainsaw... our brains have been conditioned that when a lunatic has one, it's about to get serious. Removing the chain from said saw and revvin' it while running in the vicinity of people is guaranteed to get some runners. I've been to some of the best haunted houses possible, and I still get on edge when I smell two-stroke.

Additionally, I'm sure you know this, chainsaws make BIG messes when they cut things. Especially soft, fleshy things. (No, i haven't chainsawed a person, but it's a tradition in my wifes' family to carve the pumpkins with a saw. Usually the chainsaw, because it's the first saw we generally find and get going). All ya gotta do is add a little red dye to the center of your favorite gourded victim, and you've got a helluva blood and guts show. Stash a pumpkin fulla red and pumpkin goo in the center of a mannequin, and go at it with the saw. Bonus points if you have screaming effects. I prefer triggered by foot pedal.

Distraction is also your best friend. I almost got beat up at a haunted house this year for screwing with my friends. There was a hearse parked out front as a prop, and it was making noise. Naturally, we all assumed there was stuff inside bound to pop out. Me being a smartass, I went over and started looking inside. About the time I did that, I hatched a terrible, evil, not so nice plan. A friend of mine noticed me peering into the hearse, looking all interested. So he wandered over (his first mistake) and started looking inside (his second mistake). Knowing full well we couldn't see inside the damn thing, I kept looking as though it was something I could almost see. As soon as said friend was properly engrossed in it (and distracted) I let out a blood curdling scream. He jumped about 3 feet in the air, and spent the next 20 minutes swearing at me, as I was rolling around on the ground, barely able to breathe from laughing so hard. This translates into almost anything. Get your victims into something, and you've got sitting ducks. A window they can almost see into, something in the shadows, a rustling pile of leaves, simple stuff. Pop out behind them, make a loud noise, scream, whatever, and you've got a pile of scared people.

I have more ideas- things i've tried, etc. Drawing a blank ATM. Anything in particular you are interested in? Pirates? Zombies? Gore? Shock and Awe? Disorientation?

mndsm wrote: ...I have more ideas- things i've tried, etc. Drawing a blank ATM. Anything in particular you are interested in? Pirates? Zombies? Gore? Shock and Awe? Disorientation?

I remember the chainsaw trick back in my HS days. I had forgotten about it until you mentioned it.

We're not really into a discipline yet. Our guiding word is "creepy." I like the idea of a spraying victim.

awesome pumpkins!

mine from last year;

my son