Thread: legacy of your home haunt

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I'm 32. In junior high our friend's older brother had a few friends help him haunt their front yard during trick or treat. We picked up the torch when he graduated and did a pretty good scene for a couple years- rented a pro fogger, strobe light, and as time went on we built many props and added things like dry ice in the fountain, colored spots, blacklights, etc. It was at the end of the street on a long uphill and the music we blasted carried all the way down the street. We usually had 6-8 people acting. The last year we did it was 1995.

We've all moved out and on since then and his mom said EVERY YEAR 13 years later people still ask her about it. Now people who we were scaring back then are bringing their kids and telling them how scary that house used to be.

I was just wondering if anyone else has witnessed anything like this with their home; people disappointed if you had an "off" year or something. I think it's strange people still ask about it all these years later.

Incidentally, if anyone is interested i have a video from two of the years on my facebook- search michael torchia from ohio

I am considering asking him to do a reunion haunt there next year, albeit on a smaller scale. I'm going to take a couple things to my dad's house this year (down the street) to test the waters.

I'm not surprised.

One of the main reasons most of us on here do our haunts is because we have great memories of TOT and the houses that went the extra mile with the decorating. I remember houses from over 20 years ago, and

Sounds like your haunt became a legend. Very cool, and you should be very proud.

I hope you have fun if you decided to get back into decorating!

I'll weigh in on this, only because we almost had to cancel our haunt this year due to high school football. The first thing we thought of was all of the people (close to 500) who show up each year, and what their reaction would be to seeing no display and no one home. After doing this for several years and having built up a "following" of sorts, taking time off, even for a year, might disrupt the momentum. So many people thank us each year for setting up our display that not doing it would be a disappointment to many, I'm sure, especially us! Realisitcally, many of us who set up haunts or displays, will have to scale back or stop altogether one day, for any number of reasons. Props will be sold off or handed down to kids, hopefully to be used in another haunt. I guess when this happens, a house that was once known for it's great efforts becomes a nice Halloween memory for the many who got to see it.
I think a "reunion haunt" is a cool idea. Try to advertise a bit and see if you can bring back some of the adults who enjoyed it as kids.

Originally Posted by Frankie's Girl

I'm not surprised.

One of the main reasons most of us on here do our haunts is because we have great memories of TOT and the houses that went the extra mile with the decorating. I remember houses from over 20 years ago, and

Sounds like your haunt became a legend. Very cool, and you should be very proud.

I hope you have fun if you decided to get back into decorating!

I agree. Part of the reason I decorate is because of the memories I have growing up. One of the scariest houses was a small tudor house that had a small screened in porch in the front. They had a 25 (or so) watt yellow light sconce on the wall and a fanned out broom stick hanging next to it. This was not actually a decoration, as it looked like this all year. We never saw anyone that lived there, but we always thought it was a witch.

I'm now 37, but in my 20's it seemed that decorating died down. Since i've been in my house 6 years now, my graveyard grows every year ( i have about 45 stones). I notice that more peolpe in my area decorate now, than when I first moved in. I hope i'm setting a trend!

WE had one house down the street at the bottom of a dark cul-de-sac that had a long wooden deck/walkway to the door. A guy would sit in the house and pull a piece of fishing line connected to a blow up skeleton sitting in a chair. No noise, no soundtrack, but completely caught us off guard. That was 20 years ago and i still remember it plain as day. Last year the house went up for auction and we walked around it in the fall and i had some serious flashbacks!

I have been struggling with the notion of discontinuing my haunt.

On one hand, I LOOOOVE providing TOTs with Halloween memories that will last a lifetime. I love being 'that house.' Being the neighborhood legend feels great.

On the other hand, it has just gotten to be more of a chore than a pleasure. With more and more TOTs each year, managing the crowd and buying treats is beginning to be something I dread. The ungrateful TOTs get on my nerves a little more each year.

I want to take a haunt hiatus... but thinking about the disappointment it will cause gives me second, third, and fourth thoughts.

I would say hosting a home haunt is definitely a labor of love. Esp for those of us that really only set up for Halloween night. You spend weeks, maybe months preparing for a 2 hour show. I have many times debated cutting back, but i don't think i could deal with the disappointed tots. I have been very fortunate to have the resources to fund it each year and continue to come up with new things. I have done a much better job this year of maintaining a lower overall stress level and trying to have some fun along the way. I even managed to find the time this year to donate my time and some materials to a local organization by building them a pneumatic prop for their haunted tour.

I've been in my house for almost 10 years and have had a haunt at least 7 of them. My girlfriend and I have talked about selling both of our homes and buying another to start things all over again this next year. I do know that if we buy a house, that it's Halloween potential will be a definite consideration .