Halloween 2009- how'd it go?

[Dark Angel 27]

I think this is where this thread goes. if I'm wrong please move it.

So, how'd it go?

For the most part things went okay. I donated the majority of my stuff to my cousin who put up a haunted maze for the kids. I wish to hell I'd taken pictures but I never got around to it.

It was mainly constructed with wooden pallets and scrap wood, but it looked great. I will see if i can't get pics of it from my cousins. Anyway, I chipped in the only way i knew how by loaning them my lights, fogger and all that i had bought for my own haunt that i cancelled because it was supposed to rain (which it didn't) :mad:

but anyway, in addition to all the fog in the maze, there were two strobes going at each end and all kinds of decorations and tunnels.

anyhow, in addition to that, they had my BIL(who was Jason), my cousin justin (who was Beetlejuice) and his wife in the 'scare zones' of the maze. I of course stood at the front addmitting the victims...er...kids:D

I didn't get to see all that happened but I heard all the screams and had at least 2 kids run out.

according to my BIL, there was a kid in there who was dressed as the evil Spiderman who had been scared by him and turned to run around and ran into a wooden post...that was the same kid that ran out of the maze and clung to me in tears.

there was another kid who was so frightened that she was hiding in one of the corners and was too scared to move and had to be carried out. I really felt bad for her and wish I had been the one to go in and get her.

and as usual there was a trouble maker. a teenage girl who was about 16. she was telling me that she was going to punch jason. I told her it was not a good idea and that she really shouldn't do it.

she did anyway. (the stupid idiot) i was told that she grabbed jason's mask and wouldn't give it back to him and as a result he wasn't able to scare the kids who went passsed him. and then she came around again and bragged to me about it. I don't like my BIL much but still I'm pissed that she did that.

all in all it was pretty successful.

My cousin justin decided to get one final scare in. I was in my sister's car talking and he came up and swung around infront of me out of nowhere. Now, I respect him and understand that he was pranking me but because of him I screamed at him using language I never use in front of anyone and ran after him. Now, I respect the fact that he was just pranking me, but it was an atomatic response when someone tries that with me. I'm not mad at him for doing it. But I also have a slight heart problem and I didn't feel good for the rest of the night.

Still a pretty good night all around and I know the kids had fun which is what really matters.

and lastly, here's my costume. (It's a witch's costume. I plan to post a better one of it when I get the chance)
http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc304/snapesgurl26/sexywitch.jpghttp://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc304/snapesgurl26/sexywitch3.jpg

so, how'd yours go?

[Creeper]

I had half of my animated props turn into static props, but this year I had a couple of friends helping me out in the haunt. One was the Freak-In-A-Cage which was a fantastic grand finale, while the other was a zombie stalking victims in the graveyard and in the backyard maze. I made entrances and exits in the maze for him and he was able to produce a ton of screams. These guys made the haunt and the props that did work were a great supporting cast. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time and everyone loved the haunt except for 4 who left crying.

[Dark Angel 27]

ouch. that had to be frustraiting. but the screams had to make up for it, right?

[HauntedHacienda]

Ours went great, got Tons of Pics, but just cannot access them.
Ours are on Adobe Photoshop, but cannot transfer them for access.

[Eeeekim]

the rain was a pain ( I was afraid to put some of my animated props out in it ) but it finally stopped then it was all good. I had few kids who were afraid to come in the yard. lots of oohs and aaahs, a few screams. one kid did some high stepping to get away from a animated zombie. it was great!

HauntedHacienda what do do mean by can't access them because they are in photoshop?

[fick209]

Things went ok for me with the exception of 2 workers coming down with flu day of. Weather cooperated awesome, little to no wind, temps in mid 30's. Didn't get tots from other towns making the trip over this year and I believe it was due to all of the adult parties going on in each town, they wanted to get kids home and get to their own fun. But we had an absolute blast and get tons of screams and a few who went running down the street as fast as their legs would carry them. Dog was disappointed though, no dropped candy in the yard this year:eek:

[Tracyish]

The Haunt of the middle school that I made most of the props for, and helped to manage/produce as a theaterical performace for the kids, had a few hickups, but was otherwise wildly successful.

We found out that fog machines will set off the fire alarm inside a school. :) In the gruesome dinner party it is probably a good idea to not not sit all the body parts candy down in front of your middle school aged actors at once. Middle school aged kids can scream loud enough to be heard a block away from the school. ;) And I should have invested in a video camera. It was totally awesome.

[DRLashambe]

We just had a small yard haunt, but my best friend and I had on suits with black sheer material, and black full length cloaks. Lots of jumping out and scaring the kids. Two different kids almost killed the whole setup when they grabbed on to my Cemetery columns for dear life while their parents tried to push them down the walkway...

[trentsketch]

Aside from only finishing half of the projects I started for the display and the torrential downpours from 5:00 to 8:00 PM, it went well. I think the family finally believes that I make waterproof props since nothing broke, melted, collapsed, fell apart, faded, exploded, or otherwise was destroyed.

The only issue I had, and I knew it would happen, was a bunch of parents that somehow thought I didn't want their children to go through the path set up in the yard. You know, the one that brought them right by the props I was cueing with a few different remotes for light, sound, and fog effects? Yeah, apparently it was ok to go across everyone else's lawn but my lawn. At least they weren't eating the fog or rolling through the electrical cords this year, so small victories.

I take it the weatherproof instruction sign is an essential next year.:lolkin:

As for not finishing everything, my yards will be drafted by December and in construction the day after Christmas. If 10 months isn't enough construction time to finish a yard, I have to be doing something wrong.

[Haunted Bayou]

I had a great night.
The sky was clear, the temps were comfortable and practically a full moon was in the sky.
I had around 260 ToTs that came through in 3 hours.

I made myself into a zombie and chased all the cars that slowed down to see my display. Everybody was entertained. Mission accomplished!

[Dark Angel 27]

congrats everyone!

a zombie chasing cars....okay....funny mental picture there....too bad you didn't capture it on film!

[Haunted Bayou]

Thanks Dark Angel. I wish I had film too. I was so busy that I was lucky to get pics at all.

People were pointing, laughing, acting along like they were scared. It was fun but boy were my feet hurting. I had huge, clunky boots on. I'll probably do it again next year.

[jdubbya]

Overall pleased!
Weather; crappy up until Halloween afternoon. Rain finally stopped and winds died down. The wind had really trashed some of my set-up so I had to do some reassembly on Halloween but it got done.
All of my helpers/scareactors did a great job and promised to come back next year as they had a lot of fun.
Didn't even bother to use the fogger due to wind issues and small fogger for witch cauldron wasn't working, in spite of working fine a week earleir. go figure.
Numbers were way down which was a surprise/disappointment. The folks who came were nice and appreciative. We had some great scares and a lot of people took pics and vid.
Really spent a lot of time on detail and layering of scenes this year and it didn't go un-noticed.
I think the set-backs from the weather were a major stressor for me and this detrracted from the enjoyment but once we started on Halloween night, it was great. Been jotting down ideas for next year; improvements/changes. Re-thinking the set-up and possibly changing the layout, as in scaling back a tad but not sure. Fun night once again!:)

[Devils Chariot]

A lot of stuff broke. bad batteries, broken or shorted wire that were inaccesable, some fogger problems, but since no one but knew what things should look like, no one noticed. yay kinda. next year we'll triple check instead of double check, and do more torture testing. Other than that, best haunt ever!

[Anitafacelift]

My Halloween went great. The weather was beautiful,.around 72 degrees. Of course,.3 out of 5 props decided to NOT work 10 minutes before the door was opened(they worked great 3 weeks prior),.but,.they were fixable and worked great. My spinning tunnel was a huge success until a young woman lost her balance,.threw her bag of candy which stopped the tunnel from spinning,.ripped off a set of rollers,.lol,.and caused a group of people to have to wait in the halls until tunnel was repaired,.but,.no biggy. Must of gotten around 300 peeps go through,.the street was crowded! Got quite a few compliments telling us this was the best haunted house ever. ;D Cool! Can't wait till next year,..might just open a commercial haunt,.IF we can figure out how to do it,.lol.

[Spooklights]

It went good. The rain didn't seem to affect the amount of TOT's, in fact we got even more than last year! Everything worked as it should have, and we had a good Halloween.

[Dark Angel 27]

sweet!