43 Days!

Time for an update!

The Time is nearing, October is probably one of my favorite months. We have the fair and thanksgiving and of course HALLOWE’EN! We have pretty much checked off everything on our list with the exception of finishing the candy supply.  We have come up with a few additions from the last post. I’ll mention them below.  Candy donations from Family members have been trickling in and piling up in the dinning room with close to 500 kids last year, donations are greatly appreciated.  If you’re reading this Thank you!

One of our bigger props this year and thanks to Amanda for this for a VERY early birthday present. She showed up to meet me for lunch one day and opened the trunk to her car with orange and black balloons inside, she had went and purchased the 6ft 6inch Werewolf from Home Depot. I had been eyeing this prop over the last few visits there. My youngest son helped me put it together that day when we got home. I was amazed with the quality of the product. It was all steel framed and very sturdy and actually took a power adapter rather than running on batteries.

He is motion activated and moves back and forth, the jaw moves and eyes light up and snarls and howls at the end of his cycle. It’s very cool, he stands in my dining room at the moment next to my computer desk. I often look up at it and think what an awesome prop it is and I can’t wait for all the kids to see it.

LED lighting is underway. I think it’s complete other than the final wiring.  I had originally thought I would make close to 25 spotlights, but after some more thought about it I’ve cut the number down to 12.  Not everything needs to be illuminated. Specific props will be highlighted.   Here is a picture of the final spotlight project

It’s a PVC 1/2″ T the LED is soldered inside to some network cable, that comes out of a hole on the side. Which will run to the two power supplies on each side of the yard.  The idea is with the bottom and back piece I can just insert them into the ground and they will be aimed at the props.

I was sitting on the couch a few weekends back showing the girlfriend some projection videos and what could be done with a 3DFX prop.  Debating on ordering the form from the states, and in fear that if Amanda went to pick up another package and had to pay custom fees again, I’d be in serious trouble or the package would just remain at the post office. We decided to use a mannequin that we had picked up last year, Didn’t really know what to do with it last year other than just dress it up.  So, we placed it on the yard and draped a sheet over it and aimed the projector at it and created an animated ghost on the front lawn, we had wanted to test it out to make sure the massive spot lights I have didn’t flood the effect out.  There is a still from the video below.

Video link to come

There are a few images that will be projected on to the form, I have to still build a box that will look like a tombstone to hide the projector from plain sight. (I’d also like to note if it rains on Halloween, I’ll be PISSED!)

Should have all the tombstone carved out this weekend, and each kid has made their own, so we’ll place them all in the backyard and get them painted and into the basement for deployment in a few weeks.   We usually start setting up after Thanksgiving.  I’m sure they’ll be more updates and pictures as things progress.  There’s also a new Hauntcast episode coming out at the end of the month, So I’m pretty excited for that.

End of July

End of July is here, Halloween stuff is slowly starting to lurk into the stores… I bought my Halloween mask from Halloween Asylum, should be here in a few weeks, cant’ wait to scare my family members with it… Pictures to come!

The Conjuring 2

I had the chance to go see The Conjuring 2 in theater this week, I don’t go to the movies often, I get too fidgety and the 40mins of trailers drive me nuts at the beginning.

I thought the first one was a really good scary movie. I was excited to see Vera Farmiga (Bates Motel) in it. There were a few good jump scares but I didn’t find it kept you on the edge of your seat as much as the first one.  I was pretty amused watching everyone else around me jump, but I rarely jump watching a movie. Someone had got up and their seat made a noise moving back and forth and the person down to the right of me turns around freaked out “what was that” There was a cool cameo of Annabelle near the end.  I really liked this scary Nun they had in the movie, I thought it’d make a awesome Halloween costume, I tried to convince my girl friend that’s what she should be next year for Hallowe’en but she didn’t look very impressed by the idea. Had its moments but wasn’t what I was expecting. Just your typical haunting / possession film.

 

NEW LOGO!

Thanks to my friend Robert, for the new logo for the site, he’s also helps me out every Halloween with anything that needs painting that is beyond my artistic ability. 🙂

Thanks Rob!

Product Review – AtmosFearFX – Night Stalkers

 

  I was given the opportunity to review AtmosfearFX’s Night Stalkers Digital Download recently. I had used products like Ghostly Apparitions and Phantasms in the past they were a HUGE hit with my haunt.  I had people lined up along the sidewalk pointing up at the window and some had actually stood there long enough to watch the thing go through the entire loop.  I had never seen something nor have the trick or treaters like this in a haunt before.  I usually aim the projector up at the 150-year old arch window at the second floor of my home it is clearly visible from the other side of the street that way.  I wanted to share with everyone a fairly inexpensive way to add something new to your haunt that will draw a lot of attention. This year I plan to use two windows, one at the side and the usual arch window.

For this review I used a 9 ft. picture window on the side of my house, I thought this would give it the best result as it’s a larger window at ground height. Unfortunately, no one was walking by walking their dog as I was really hoping to capture someone’s reaction. Although my neighbors likely wouldn’t be surprised.  When you get the digital download they are broken out into scenes, so you can customize your haunt vision. There are options to have it with fog or without, or if you would like Vertical or Horizontal.  Options for Window, Wall or TV for whatever your application. There are various scenes some longer than others, I tend to use the startle scenes for my haunt they pack a quick scare.   The Night Stalkers resemble an 80’s early 90’s slasher tribute, Masked Villains with a tool shed weapon chasing a scream queen around.

I use a cheap shower curtain from the dollar store to project on, I find these are thin enough and provide the best effect and NEC NP600S projector, this projector is pretty bright and I found even the cheaper ones provide a good result with this, as you don’t want it overly bright.  I love these products and am always anxious to see what else AtmosFearFX is going to release, I encourage you to check out the product lineup on their webpage.  They even have non Halloween related materials and kits you can purchase to project on to your windows.  This is a key feature to my haunt and couldn’t imagine it without it.   Thanks again AtmosFearFX for such an awesome product!

You can purchase products on their AtmosFearFX Webpage

Here is a Video of the Night Stalkers projection I used.