First Time Haunted House Questions

4389 Views 17 Replies 7 Participants Last post by IshWitch, Jun 14, 2007

ShadyHallows

Discussion Starter · Jun 9, 2007

Where to start? I have alot of questions being this is the first year we will have a haunted house, and I want it to come out as somewhat of a success. If you don't know the theme, its in another thread entitled Shady Hallows Storyline, anyways... I want the haunted house to be a tour and have a run-down evil house look. My area to build is 24ftx24ft which I'm trying to get 4 rooms/1 control room in. Before that there will be a trail somewhere around 500 ft long with maybe 6 scenes. Now that you have a little background, here goes the questions.

Walls-I honestly have no idea what to do for this. PVC comes to my head right away, but then the problems start. The ground is sand with of course dirt underneath it. There for, I'm not quite sure if rebar would stay in or hold up the pvc pipe. Another problem would be the possibility of people nocking the walls over. We don't have a huge budget, but remember dumpster diving can always be done.

Tour-How can a tour be run through 4 rooms? Should the guide explain each room? Should I have tv's telling the history of each room? What seems to work best? I want the whole haunt to be 10-15 minutes long if that helps.

Tips-Any other tips would be appreciated.

Thank you fellow forum members.

1 - 18 of 18 Posts

Lilly

· #2 · Jun 10, 2007

On your tour will the people be able to walk thru the rooms or just look in the doorway?
If you have good solid dirt under that sand the rebar should work but get them long enough so you can get them into that dirt real good you can always brace them fromutside too..plus dont forget to have your yard checked for buried lines firstbefore you do that!!!!!!
diggers hotline here maybe same by you it is free service here.

ShadyHallows

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jun 10, 2007

For the tour I was thinking of having people walk through the rooms with maybe a little story to each room. Then of course a couple small hallways for people to walk through here and there.

Hawks Hill Haunter

· #4 · Jun 10, 2007

I love the idea of having them walk through the rooms. If it's done well enough, I wouldn't think you'd have to "narrate" the rooms necessarily. I came across a site with instructions on making rooms so I'll check and see if I can find it again and post the link when I do.

Are you going to have actors dressed and playing parts in each of the rooms?

Beepem

· #5 · Jun 10, 2007

personally i wouldnt wanna be TOTing and be at one house for over 10 minutes. in the event of rebar failing, you can attach a Tee at the end of each pvc pipe and then another tee to each side of that tee, which will make you an H shaped base, but that would be like money to the moon to build. For my tunnel this year im just bending 1/2" PVC for the arch and doing 1"PVC with rebar into the ground for the flat walls. cover with lawn fabric.....i got it practually free at Big lots! if you have one around......its like 1/4 the price from home depot

ShadyHallows

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jun 10, 2007

There will be a different spot where TOTers can go to get candy. If they are to scared or simply don't want to go through they don't have to. It will be open for more than halloween also.

BooGirl666

· #7 · Jun 11, 2007

Hey Shady.... This will be our third year having a haunted house... We let people in 4 people at a time and we have it timed... When our witch actor starts screaming heeeellllloooooooo I let the next group in... Also we don't have a guide... But we have plenty of "monsters" that help people go in the correct direction and or warn people of steps.... I am currently trying to come up with a story line for our haunt and I plan on using it for the first room.. I've noticed that most people while in a haunted house don't listen to guides.. they are more worried bout who or what is going to scare them next... So anyways my suggestions would be make sure you only let small groups go in (the smaller the better), time when you let people in (either by counting or using sounds in your haunt like we do), and i don't think i would explain the rooms maybe just do a story line in the begining while in line or even the first room that leaves people wondering what they will see next.... Let people's imagination go wild in your rooms....Hope this helps.... GOOD LUCK!!!!!!

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ShadyHallows

Discussion Starter · #8 · Jun 11, 2007

Thanks, that is a great sugjestion! The only thing is the haunted house may be pretty short with only 4 rooms and a couple small hallways. Maybe I could do some kind of maze before the actual house? But then the question is, what could I say the maze was (like in the story line.)

BooGirl666

· #9 · Jun 11, 2007

Will this maze be? Meaning before the haunted house or before the trail...

BooGirl666

· #10 · Jun 11, 2007

Ok stratch that last post lol sorry i cant read lol.....
Maybe you could add in your storyline that the son loved to toy with people... Getting them lost in his maze of fear (whatever you would like to call it) was his all time favorite thing to do before he snatched them up and killed them....

ShadyHallows

Discussion Starter · #11 · Jun 11, 2007

This is how the setup will go, Trail, Maze, House. It may just be Trail then House. We'll see what the budget allows. Thats an excellent idea though. Thank you very much everyone!

Lilly

· #12 · Jun 12, 2007

good one Bg..
shady maybe some kind of fake hedges for your maze
unless you can get a slew of corn stalks

ShadyHallows

Discussion Starter · #13 · Jun 12, 2007

I can get quite a few corn stalks because my grandparents live on a humongous farm and they grow mostly corn. We had kind of a mini corn trail last year, but we couldn't find a good idea to keep the stalks up.

Sickie Ickie

· #14 · Jun 12, 2007

haybales on either side of the stalks.

BooGirl666

· #15 · Jun 12, 2007

Around me people use these green posts you use for chicken wire... I believe it's like 5' high... Maybe put them up every 10 feet or so and have rope or wire strung on them in two rows...Then tie up the corn stalks along the two rope rows to secure it.. I think doing that and maybe using sickies idea of hay bails along the bottom would help keep it all in tact too...
Ok was that confusing? lol

Hawks Hill Haunter

· #16 · Jun 13, 2007

What if you tied the cornstalks around a 3-5' piece of 1/2" pvc stuck into the ground?

So where in Minnesota are you, Shady?

ShadyHallows

Discussion Starter · #17 · Jun 13, 2007

St. Cloud, its about an hour north of Minneapolis.

IshWitch

· #18 · Jun 14, 2007

Look up Leonard Pickel's triangle theory for building walls for maximum strength.
http://www.accessatlanta.com/entert...tainment/stories/2006/10/25/1026LVpickel.html
http://www.hauntedattraction.com/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=28As

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