Thread: HELP!! Halloween tragedy

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We have done a large graveyard in our front yard for the past 3 years now and I have added to it every year. To date I have made 36 tombstones out of pink foam board. We have a black "iron" (wood) fence with a large Ravenswood Cemetery sign.

We took it all down the first week of November, placed it in storage, went on with Christmas and the new year. Last night I went out to get a cooler from our storage building to find something shifted, fell and crushed every one of our handmade tombstones. All of them are either crushed, snapped in half, punctured by something or so marred up they would need complete paint stripping, re-painting and weathering.

I haven't got the time, money, nor the patience to do 36 more tombstones before next halloween. Unfortunatley (or fortunatly) we are the one house on our block that people cant wait to see what we do every year and what additions we have made.

I need quick, and easy ideas to fill a fairly large yard. Any ideas are welcome. I would hate to dissapoint the TOT's this year.

Marc V.

Oh, wow. You must be sick! I feel sick for you. I can only imagine finding that much work ruined!!! I'll think on a new idea, however, are you sure you can't use the broken ones? Older cemeteries around here are full of broken tombstones. Or, perhaps a vandals theme using the broken stones covered with spray paint and graffiti and then a body prop of a punk holding a spray paint can dead or half sticking out of a grave and a zombie or ghost or two close by...?

Sorry to hear about the condition of your stones. I've had a few tombstones get a little beat up. It might save you alot of dollars and time if you try to make them look old, and weathered. Try some foam adhesive to put back as many of the pieces as possble. Darken, and roughen the crack lines and make them look like there supposed to be there. Repaint some of the pink foam and place broken chunks at the bottom of partially erect stones. Add lots of moss from your dollar store and cover some in spider webs to hide glaring defects.
Do you have zombies in your cemetary??? In your haunts backstory could you "blame" the tombstone destruction on zombies or wild animals?

Good Luck.

I feel very badly for you as well, I was going to suggest the same as chinclub, try incorporating some of the broken tombstones into the cemetery. You maybe able to repair the punctured ones with wood filler and touch up the paint. We are changing up our Haunt this year to make it more friendly for the wee ToTr's. We are moving our cemetery to the side of our house, leaving the front open, our plan (right now at least) is to fill it with lit, carved pumpkins. Our Pumpkinrot style pumpkin will lord over her brood of JoL's. Maybe you can try something like that?

I can only imagine the horror, that sounds terrible.

Several have already suggested the decaying cemetery theme, which I agree would be a neat idea.

If you want to move completely away from the cemetery idea, and go for something completely different, try these ideas:


A "Journey to the Center of the Earth" theme with a grand victorian-era earth drill erupting up in your yard. Just build a 1x1 wood frame and cover with 1/2 or 3/4 styrofoam, then add details and paint. You can get as creative as you want with fog machine steam, moving parts, etc.


Crash a train in your front yard. It's the same idea as th earth drill, just build up a frame with strips of wood and cover with styrofoam sheats.


A pumpkin patch with scarecrows can always be effective. With good lighting, it can look very creepy, and you can get as many pumpkins as you want to cover as large an area as you might have.


Or how about a steaming hell pit? just build up a little dirt around a fog machine or two and scatter debris around the pit. A couple of red lights from within the pit will help it look hellish. You could also put a couple of ground breakers around to enhance the look.


Perhaps an alien craft crashed to earth in your front yard? Hey, it could happen.



If that doesn't work, just forget the front yard and set your house on fire.

In the end, it would be MUCH faster to fix em up versus building all new ones....I think you'd be amazed how fast you could get them at least usuable again....One thing I've learned is paint covers up alot.....I would glue them back together, maybe a little filler here and there and a repaint.....Still time consuming but nothing near like starting over....Sorry to here this and Good luck.....ZR

Ouch! Sorry to hear it. Maybe you can salvage some of them. There has to be a way. Then, depending on how large the yard is, add some stuff to break up the tombstones, effectively filling the area? Maybe one big item, right in the centre, or a few on the outskirts. Zombies or Skeletons rising out of the ground, maybe still in their coffins? If you had a big stand alone prop, that would probably work great for breaking it up.

Look what one member did with the broken tombstone look.
http://www.hectorturner.com/halloween/tombstones2.html

Originally Posted by Spider Rider

Look what one member did with the broken tombstone look.
http://www.hectorturner.com/halloween/tombstones2.html

That's a good idea. A cemetery of demolished tombstones could work with the 2012 end of the world theme. Even the dead aren't safe.
Whatever you decide to do, I'm sorry about your tombstones.

Oh man what a bummer! Love all the ideas thrown out here so far. My thought is if you're trying to fill up a large area, could you make a large countdown sign? Maybe have that in the foreground & then behind it you could have some broken stones & bodies scattered about around & behind it.

Good luck whatever you decide!