Looking for scare tactics

[thegothicprincess]

I am trying to create some new scare tactics this year for my haunted yard. I do not have money to spend on any fancy expensive props. I also do not have access to a lot of actors.

What do you guys use for scare tactics in your haunt?

[Dr Morbius]

Without props or actors, maybe you could jump out from behind a bush and yell "Boo!"? Sorry, I don't use scare tactics. My display is more of a show than a startle.

[joker]

The two best scares I had last year (in our walk through) weren't that expensive, but did require an actor for each.

The first was in a hallway joining two rooms. I built a facade wall with some wood and cardboard and covered with that rock scene setter. I hung 3 somewhat scary looking pics evenly spaced on the wall. One was cut out in the back so that it was basically a flap covering a window.

The room was light by a single blue bulb using a cheap surface mount light fixture. I think it was like $5 at Walmart. We connected the light to a power strip so the actor behind the wall could turn out the light. Then she would lift the back of the picture turn the light back on and then scream at them. The losing of lights scared most of them, but when it came back on and she was right there in there face it got most of them twice.


The other scare was at the very end of the walk through. In a small non-threatening room/area where I stood up a 7' toe pincher coffin. About 3 1/2 feet off the ground I mounted a shelf in it and secured an orange candy bowl to it. We cut the back out of the coffin and had an actor behind. I used elcheapo black shower curtains to line the coffin to hide the actor, with an overlapping seamed directly in front of the cut out. When someone would reach to get candy he would lean and or reach out at them.

Neither scares did we intentionally touch anyone, but the guy in the coffin did bump heads once, got hit twice (reaction) and cussed out by an old lady...lol.

There's lots of ideas on here for building props. Do you have a theme for your yard? Seen anything you like? I'm sure there's plenty of folk on here to help you out.

[thegothicprincess]

I am going with a witch theme this year. I have built a pallet shack aka potion room. I have a cemetery lined up to do this year even bigger then last.

[Monk]

I tend not to use scare tactics either, at least not for the last few years anyway. I haven't done a haunt in awhile, it's been more of a display than anything else.

[ubzest]

dot rooms i think are popular, we do one every year. our actor in there just watched as people were walking thru thinking that it was a cool room but they were safe cause there was no-one in there, just then she would growl at them in a deep voice "get outta my room" people loved it! and they were nicely startled/scared.
the other thing we do sometimes is have a chainsaw on a chair, to make it look like our actor has taken a break or left, and just when they think their safe, our real chainsaw guy comes out! its a great scare. we have all kinds of electric tools around here, you could go after them with ahedge trimmer and they wouldn t know it , they would be outta there by then. It goes with out saying that the real blades are taken off our tools. and we use electric tools that way the actor can't get too excited and run after them, just go a few feet. sometimes just staring at people creeps them out.

[Spookie]

I don't know if you would call these scare tactics or not but in my witch's shack which is my front porch area, I'm planning on hanging a spider or two attached to black thread and run the thread though some eye hooks and tubing above and eventually to an area under the table I'll be sitting at to hand out candy. I'll have a pull ring under the table that will be where the threads end and as I pull the ring the spiders will climb/lower. Spiders made of a jelly-like material are great because their legs tend to move with the slightest of movement. Bought some of those last year at PartyAmerica.

I also have a small cage and a white Remote Control mouse (bought from QVC last year) that I'll have in the cage on the witch's table. When the kid comes to the table I'll activate the RC button and the mouse has a tail that lets you flip him so he will suddenly appear to jump in the cage. Hopefully that will surprise a few ToTers.

I'm using a plexiglass projection technique (see http://www.bigscreamtv.info/tv_tricks.html ) to project a ghost image into one of my scene areas (garage window) with a TV and iPod Video (instead of DVD player). I'm thinking I can do a similar thing projecting skeleton faces behind some of my gravestones by setting up one of those Gemmy skeleton face "window leecher" in place of the TV/video set up and can use a small piece of plexiglass there (the leecher's face lights up and fade in and out and then to black, cycle repeats continuously--runs off of batteries so no electricity needed--also pretty cheap, around $8 plus the cost of a fairly small piece of plexiglass). I tried it laying the leecher on the floor and tilting the plexiglass above it and turned off the lights and it works pretty well.

Anyway, that's about the extent of my "scare" tactics--the string trick being the cheapest.

I'm also working on an idea to make my realistic brown $3 mice from Big Lots run across my shipwreck. I guess if you don't like mice that might make you wonder if they'e real. Otherwise the big sewer rats might unnerve some.

[fg4432]

Sometimes the "quiet" will get people anxious. Waiting for the next "something" to jump out or get them. I will try to explain this as best as I can on how I set it up.

1st year (Garage) Haunt I used a "quiet" theme since it was only me and someone I had at the entrance. No music was playing or sound effects by the way.

First room (10 wide x 20 deep) was blacklight ghosts, masks, coffin, scene setter walls by walkway, with fog where people walked the right side of it. 2nd room was more like a U shaped hallway that was the front half of the garage (basically the in/out path of a garage staying by the walls 20 wide by 10 deep), strobe lights, hanging images of ghosts taped to walls and more fog only there was one thing I added. The back wall of the haunt was a narrow hallway, I placed high up in the rafters 6 incandescent blacklight bulbs (give off more purple color and plenty of heat so watch how close it is to anything else).

The whole back half of the garage was a giant sheet of black plastic. In that black plastic I cut 3 window holes about 8 inches wide and 18 inches tall. I covered those window holes with clear plastic that is not see through like saran wrap but more like Press N Seal product. You could tell if someone walked by but it would be a blur rather than the full outline. I placed a slow strobe at the back of the garage to shine through those windows into the hallway. Almost at the end of the hallway I did cut a 3/4 window, two verticals and a lower so the flap hangs down like it isn't there. I also placed a sheet of black plastic over the whole window (on the backside) so that the cutout would not be seen from inside. That is where I would jump out at folks and scream or growl. However, I lost my voice half way through it, I would recommend something to amplify your voice if possible or another person to take shifts.

After scaring people because nothing really happened until near the end, just as they turned the 2nd left to get out, I had a strobe light going from right to left pointing more towards the middle of the 2nd room. First strobe as you entered the garage was set to fast to disorient people, 2nd and 3rd strobe were set to slow. So as you were just scared by me and turned left to get out of the garage, you would see the strobe go off and all of a sudden there is a hangman directly to your left. Freaked people out that it was all of a sudden lit up. Then people would exit.

Funny thing though, a girl about 16 said she ended up wetting her pants, then later came back and asked to scare people for me from the window. I said sure cuz my voice was gone by then. Her and her friend ended up doing the scaring for about 30 minutes.

So there you have it and if you are totally confused how it was setup, I included a link to a picture to help.

2007 Haunt on Flickr - Photo Sharing!@@AMEPARAM@@http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3161/2838528924_c8e380c61d_m.jpg@@AMEPARAM@@2838528924@ @AMEPARAM@@c8e380c61d