Thread: Small haunt

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Hi everyone,

For the last few years I've done some outside decorating for Halloween - a flying crank ghost, tombstones, etc. But my goal has always been to have a walk-through haunt. But right now I just have a two car garage to put it in. I would think I would just have room enough for a small hall leading in, one small area for a scene then a hall leading out. Has anyone done this? I'm just not sure if it would be worth it. It would be a lot of work and I've worried it may be kind of lame - all that work for basically just one scene. I'm afraid the kids would be disappointed. This of course would be free - just something to entertain the neighborhhood kids. Anyone have any experience with this?

JUST a two car garage? That's just fine! It's not the size, but what you do with it.

I once had a haunt go through a carport (to be fair, the walkthrough haunt was through several rooms of my house and ended up in the carport). But it worked out fine. I took black netting (I think it was just the enormous rolls of garbage bag material... it already had pre cut, half circle holes in it) and hung that in a maze like pattern through the carport - it was narrow and had 3 turns (1 way to go in, left turn, right turn, left turn to the exit -- each 'straight' section was only 8ft or so).

I made it as uncomfortable as possible for the tots -- the walkway was too narrow to walk side by side, so already the kids that felt safe with their friends were now singled out in line - no hiding between friends!

The precut holes in the netting/garbage bag material were awesome. My friends father had some mounted animal heads. The scare was simple - as the tots walk by, shove the head through a hole.

At the 'turns' in the maze, we'd have small props - one was a head in a crab basket that we'd drop as they came by - the crab trap has four sides held up by string, so when it drops and the string slacks, the sides open up and the head came tumbling out.

another corner had someone dressed in all black who'd jump out...

anyway, you can make it work somehow - even if it's just 1 scene - just make that one scene something the tots will remember!

IMO, anything you do for the neighborhood kids won't be considered lame. Chances are, they (and their parents) will love it! I only wish we had a two car garage to work with, but we also do a walk through down our drive, past a partitioned covered patio where we make two separate scenes, and to our one car garge where we hand out the candy in yet another scene. It's a big hit and gives the kids a 10 minute experience.
If you're able to clean out the garage fairly well, you can hang tarps/sheets from the rafters to make walls and hallways in a maze format. We have friends of ours that do this and it's really elaborate. Some subdued lighting, fog, and a soundtrack will create the mood. Good luck with this.
Welcome to the foum too!

I agree with everyone here. Why limit yourself to your garage? Set the whole scene using your yard leading up to the garage. Kids love it especially if you are the only one on the block doing it. No matter the size, you can still give kids a good scream. I personally also only have a two car garage, but have since build module walls to extend the haunt to outside the garage. Now this took me many years to get up to, but this is something you can aim for.

Thanks for everyone's input. Maybe I will give it a shot. I thought about the modular design and taking it outside but that's definitely out this year - not enough time. How does everyone make the hallways? My ceiling is finished so there are no open rafters. I would like to avoid putting a bunch of screws in the ceiling. Any other alternatives?

Does anyone know of any walkthroughs posted on the internet of any small garage haunts. I would like to see some daytime shots so I can see how others have set it up.

Thanks to everyone for their help.

For walls, we always hang rolls of black plastic, then attatch it to the rafters with a staple gun, then reinforced by several loops of fishing line(were so awesome, lol).

I would try www.hauntworld.com
Then go to the forum and look at home haunting. Members always post tons of pics of their walk-throughs.

Yeah as mention above.......last year we use our sideyard,garage, and front drive with outr big inflatable H. House, this year because of the daylight we are only using the garage and front drive with blown up house again and it is plenty, you want them in and out to go to the next house so smaller is better,the first year we only use 40 % of our garage and it was a huge hit.....one room with fog,strobe, blacklight,cobwebs and 5 actors, this year will be similar but we will use 75% of the garage with 2 rooms. We will only use 7 actors instead of 12 like last year. Our Garage is 20 x 22 plenty big. Sorry about the 35mm pic quality.See our maze pics here.http://community.webtv.net/boswell7/doc0

Originally Posted by ChiliPete

Hi everyone,

But right now I just have a two car garage to put it in.

'Tis not the size of the wand ... but the magic within it that counts!


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We also create a haunt in our 2 car garage (leads inside though where the haunt continues because we make guests go through all that to get to the party). But in our garage we build several walls/hallways with 2X4's and then cover them with black plastic, scene setters, etc. First hall is pitch dark with a strobe light and skeletons hanging from above, then you turn the corner into a haunted library type room (old table with candles, webs, picture frames, an old rocking chair with an actor in it, fake window with spider web curtains, clock with 13 hours, etc. That room;s walls are covered with peeling plaster and wicked wood scene setters, then you turn another corner into a long hallway of haunted portraits with stone wall scene setters and torches hanging between the pictures. At the end of the hall there's a bloody sheet hanging that guests have to push to the side to get through and then on to a bloody scene before you enter the house...quite a bit for a garage area.

For the ceilings, we actually take advantage of the 7 foot tall 2X4 framed walls and we tack creepy cloth, webs, etc. across the top, so it makes them feel even more closed in. We also nail small boards across the top to hang flame lanterns, etc. Hope that helps...good luck

I would think that most of us here started out with small haunts. In my case, we lived in an area where the lots were huge, and the kids had to cover a lot of ground just to get from one front door to another. As a result, the neighborhood didn't see a lot of TOT's. I started one year as myself, alone, standing in a darkened Foyer dressed as Dracula holding a candle with some scary music playing. I got 45 kids. Seven years later there were 12 of us in the show with fog machines, strobe lights, black lights, strobe lights, Dental appliances, Sound Systems,Contact Lenses, Movie quality costumes, live Rats, a real Human Skeleton, 1,400 kids coming through over two nights and TV crews doing live "On Air" interviews outside. These things have a way of getting away from you.