Haunter's Haunted Blog

To add some creepy ambient sounds to my pirate yard haunt, I decided to purchase the Haunted Pirate Ship CD of sound effects from Poison Props.



This 70-minute single-track designed by Adam Johnston, a 2-time Emmy Award winner for sound editing and owner of Poison Props, is filled with creepy sounds of a creaking ship, lapping water, ghostly moans, and a distant bell and fog horn. Note that there is no background ...

Several years ago, I purchased a Talking Skull Kit from Cowlacious.com for my Halloween display. I liked it so much I wanted several more talking skulls, but I also wanted to create a multi-channel audio program incorporating the Scary Terry board.

I had an extra 5.1 channel DVD player lying around the house, so I tried my luck at creating a multichannel audio DVD so that I could split the audio to multiple channels for individual talking skulls. Alas, I found out that it is impossible ...

I just aged a bucky and Lindberg skull using my new favorite aging medium: Minwax Gel Stain in Aged Oak (602).



I applied a very light coat of stain with a rag and quickly brushed it off to create an antique look to the skulls. I used a brush to apply the stain into crevices, around the teeth, and hard to reach areas and quickly wiped away any excess. To create a light dirty look to ...

One element that had been missing from my pirate-themed yard haunt was a skeletal helmsman, as seen in the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction. I had extra bluckies (blow-molded skeletons) lying around, but I didn't have a nautical wheel, a motor, or the expertise on how to animate this prop.

After scouring HalloweenForum.com, I came across several home-fashioned helmsman props and ideas on how to incorporate a windshield wiper motor to animate this prop.

I started ...

Once the fabric is attached to the board and trimmed, you can mount the swords. Push the wire from the bottom through the hole and the fabric, wrap it around the sword, and push it down through the fabric

and the next hole. Wrap the wire tightly to secure the swords.

A trick for hiding one of the wires is to position the bottom wire for the bottom sword at the spot where the top sword overlaps the bottom sword.
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