Thread: HGTV Halloween Block Party 2011 - anybody watch?

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I just happened to be channel surfing and caught it tonight. I had no idea it was going to be on. Even though I didn't much care for the last two years, I'm glad I caught this one because I enjoyed it. I still prefer to watch "real" people and their haunts, rather than designers with Hollywood budgets, but this one wasn't bad.

I liked the yard for the "monster lab" house and the interior of the "haunted hotel" house. I didn't care for the "witch hunt" house at all.

If you missed it, look for a repeat. I'm sure they'll show it again this week.

I watched it. I liked that they were average houses and everything they did could be done by any of us.

I watched it as well and it was good Loved the Monster Lab too it is suppose to be on again at 3 am Central time Sunday

I was flipping thru channels and saw it by chance although someone had listed it under the Halloween on TV thread. I really need to check through these listings more often. Anyway, I too found this year's show to be the most enjoyable.

I'm glad Madame Leota that you started this thread because I wanted to ask a few questions about it.

First, when the "witch" house asked about the way that the designer was going to attach the boarded up window look, he said it was like sandwiching the window between boards on each side. It looked to me that both sides of the sliding window moved so he could do this. Is this a correct intrepretation? We have a few windows that slide sideways but one side of the window is fixed and so don't see how this would be possible on ours. Just wondering if I was missing something?

I guess that house didn't have any smoke detectors inside because with the fogger in the garage the way it was I was sure the dectectors would have been set off. Think I remember reading on the forum that even if set too close to the house and it gets pulled in thru the eaves into the house it could set them off. Am I remembering this correctly?

Second comment is regarding the Psycho house being done by the interior designer. How stable did it look to you guys with that facade up there on the roof? I could see this facade being applied to the side of a dormer section of the roof like I think TK421 did on his roof because you would have some additional support behind it. With no support that I could see on this roof however, it looked like a massive heavy accident waiting to happen. Think the designer even alluded to this which in itself was pretty scary. What did you guys think?

I know what you mean about the boarded up windows. I thought it was a lot of trouble when they could have just attached them with velcro and called it a day - no construction required.

As far as the fogger in the garage, I'm sure they could get by with it for TV. I don't know if it would actually set off alarms or not, but it didn't make much impact either.

One thing I really loved was the "angry villagers" banner over the garage door of the monster house. That was really cool! I wonder how much something like that cost.

I only caught the last 10 minutes of it.

I caught parts of it. It definitely gave me ideas. I've also gotten hooked on all the Halloween shows on the Food Channel which is ironic because I don't cook!

I dug it; there are always a few good ideas on these show and this year the final designs were awesome. I am going to totally steal the fish tank bubbler idea next year.

I watched it last night, and I have to say I was disappointed. The designs were decent (Monster Lab had some great stuff), but I really think the show overall has gone dramatically downhill.

I think (?) that the show debuted in 2009, and that episode was, by far, my favorite of the three that have been produced. The first episode actually focused on how the designers transformed the houses. I took away at least three ideas from that show and applied them, with great effect, to my own decorating. I felt like, with that show, the designers and families took a back seat to the actual work, and that the episode was created to inspire other home haunters.

This year particularly, the show seemed to focus on the personalities involved rather than the how-to and design aspects, with emphasis on the "high-stakes" (lol) competition between the designers (something that was, as far as I know, totally absent the first two shows). I detest all this kind of manufactured "drama" that these shows are now pushing, attempting once again to recreate the done-to-death reality TV catfight formula for drawing viewers.

Additionally, the designers apparently had access to all kinds of unique props this year to beef up their designs (the trees and bushes in front of the Monster Lab house, for example, which looked amazing, but they just had those trucked in...almost felt like they were cheating, lol...), but I don't think the final product was necessarily better. I preferred the more simple but resourceful props that the previous designers were able to come up with for their designs.

Since the first episode, I've awaited each new episode with bated breath, hoping to take away more good ideas for my own haunt, but I'm coming away more disappointed with each episode. :-(

As a final thought, I agree that the boarded up windows for the witch house were awful. No detail whatsoever - just looked like pieces of vinyl tacked over the windows (which is what it was, essentially, lol...).

Originally Posted by DjIronic

This year particularly, the show seemed to focus on the personalities involved rather than the how-to and design aspects, with emphasis on the "high-stakes" (lol) competition between the designers (something that was, as far as I know, totally absent the first two shows).

I am with you here, far less how to do it this year than the last two though I felt the final products were much better this year.