Thread: Lincoln, NE haunter

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Just joined. I'm working on a little cemetery in the yard next to my apartment building for this year. Something dark and old-style gothic that might make the adults feel a bit creepy...

I have some ideas (probably more than I'll even get close to doing), but naturally I'm interested in anything that would make my little cemetary something special.

Any ideas?


(And if anyone out there is from my area, I'd love to hear from you>)

cf

Greetings, it's good to see another haunter from Nebraska. I'm in Minden, NE, not too far. Good luck on your cemetery.

Gothic reminds me of:
gargoyles, spires, lots of pointy things on architectural props, symmetry, buttresses, religion (lots of Renaissance and Romanesque churches were shaped like a cross) and height (tall columns, tall tombstones, fencing, etc).
Gray, black, green (like statue of liberty green - from copper) colors. Stain glass windows, monks, chanting, statues of religious historical figures.

How much money and effort are you planning to invest for under 40days to go?

hmmm, i'm thinking monster mud reaper or monks. do a search for monster mud!

Ahh--excellent! In fact, yesterday I made a visit to the party store and bought three $10 robes and some masks to do the monks. I was considering doing them as statues using paint, but monster mud might be just the ticket!

Thanks for the suggestion!

Originally Posted by DeadTed

Gothic reminds me of:
gargoyles, spires, lots of pointy things on architectural props, symmetry, buttresses, religion (lots of Renaissance and Romanesque churches were shaped like a cross) and height (tall columns, tall tombstones, fencing, etc).
Gray, black, green (like statue of liberty green - from copper) colors. Stain glass windows, monks, chanting, statues of religious historical figures.

How much money and effort are you planning to invest for under 40days to go?

What you're describing is precisely the direction I want to go. I've been collecting halloween gargoyles for several years. I've got a bunch of 'em of various sizes, with most purchased at least in pairs (love the symmetry, just as you pointed out), with two big ones I want to put on the entry columns I'm working on right now.

I have a pvc fence about 75% finished--cut, painted, and awaiting assembly (been working on it awhile), and a good selection of store-bought tombstones (I mean good ones--one is a 5-foot-tall "death embracing the cross", another is a four-foot-tall "crusader's tombstone"--and not a one that says "boo!" on it.) If I have time I might make some myself out of insulating foam, but if I don't get that far I'll still be okay.

I have a pretty good yard spook I bought at Nobbies for $29. I'd like to animate her somehow, but I wan't have access to electricity (it's an old apartment building with no outside outlets). If I could do something quick and dirty to make her lunge out of the bushes using bungee cords or something like that, that might be fun. Not sure how to build it yet.

A little crypt would be great, but I'm not sure how practical it would be to try to build one without help. How hard are the architectural props you have in mind?

Thanks for the reply. Some good ideas to think about--even if some of them are for next year!

Well, wasn't sure what you had already.

I think the columns are great along with the fence. I definitely see monks! I made some cheap ones out of pvc and chicken wire - I wrapped it in brown and tied a rope around his waste. I didn't even put a mask on him. His hood was draped down too low to see inside (unless you're standing right under him - he was about 6 1/2 ft tall).

I really wanted to find a link to a site, but I can't find it anywhere! On the site, this guy (who was in movie production or something similar, so had a LOT of experience) made cathedral ruins in his driveway. I mean, super assembly out of wood and metal, lots of people to help set up, wiring, lighting, and such. It turned out *curse word* awesome.

He draped moss over them - it looked like a church had burned down and the only thing left were 6 or 7 columns that had a few archways - some broken, some connecting, some just stubs sticking out from the top. That was the first thing I thought of when I read your description. Granted, that's a month+ long project and $$$.

Are you dressing up to scare the toters? Do you have others helping? Is it a haunted walkthrough or just a pathway 'scene' up to your door?

Originally Posted by DeadTed

Well, wasn't sure what you had already.

I think the columns are great along with the fence. I definitely see monks! I made some cheap ones out of pvc and chicken wire - I wrapped it in brown and tied a rope around his waste. I didn't even put a mask on him. His hood was draped down too low to see inside (unless you're standing right under him - he was about 6 1/2 ft tall).

I really wanted to find a link to a site, but I can't find it anywhere! On the site, this guy (who was in movie production or something similar, so had a LOT of experience) made cathedral ruins in his driveway. I mean, super assembly out of wood and metal, lots of people to help set up, wiring, lighting, and such. It turned out *curse word* awesome.

He draped moss over them - it looked like a church had burned down and the only thing left were 6 or 7 columns that had a few archways - some broken, some connecting, some just stubs sticking out from the top. That was the first thing I thought of when I read your description. Granted, that's a month+ long project and $$$.

Are you dressing up to scare the toters? Do you have others helping? Is it a haunted walkthrough or just a pathway 'scene' up to your door?

Right now I'm on my own. Hard to get a lot done that way, but on the other hand I don't have a lot of arguments about content and theme, either. (Several years ago I put on a party with a female friend. She kept putting in the whimsical "BOO!!!" stuff to "balance out" my more scary-oriented stuff. Really ruins a good head-in-a-jar when somebody puts a little smiling Frankie with a happy halloween sign right next to it.)

And yes--I am planning to haunt the cemetery myself. I've doing it simple--black robe and cowl--and I'm planning to provide little tours of the graves and maybe do some tarot readings (well--it may turn into something a bit darker than that. I'm working on some pretty unsettling material for any adults who might care to visit . I wish I had somebody to give out treats to the toters. Seems out of character for the role I want to play.) But anyway, if I'm not out there my decorations are liable to "walk away" while the night is still young.

The area I have to work with includes the front approach to the building and a side yard, which is much more interesting because it isn't very well lit and includes two not-entirely-healthy trees. The area is between two apartment buildings and gets almost no sunshine, so there's no grass to speak of. The yard is divided from next door's building by a six-foot wooden fence, which means at night there's a lot of dark space and shadows back there. Fairly spooky, all in all. So I want to extend the cemetery back into that area. If I have a spook lying in ambush, that's where she'll be.

More a little tour than a real walk-through, I guess.