Thread: Need haunted house theme ideas

Tweet

Been brainstorming like crazy since we need to have our new haunt layout in place by the end of this month in order to start working on props. We have an enormous old barn to work with. Last year was our first year and it was a success - we did a tour of a "historical home," the original house of the landowner for our HOA who went insane. We built out the inside to look like an old house and had a "tour guide" from the local historical society who kept insisting it wasn't haunted (while we had props and gore everywhere). Very easy to do and keep with the theme, which kept it real.

We need to switch the theme up this year. We're short on actors, so most of the scare will be effects and props. Which kind of ditches the insane asylum idea. I'm toying with doing an old hospital. Also liked the idea of an abandoned school (most of the folks who come through are kids) - but I'm stuck on scare ideas for this theme. We thought about doing the layers of Hell, but I don't think I could do it as well as I'd like to on a tight budget.

I tried Google but there doesn't seem to be much out there! Any new ideas are welcome.

Stacy

I want to help here but this is hard. Im tempted to say go with the old abandoned school idea but that is because I work in a school. Trust me when I tell a school is not that far from an insane asylum

Could you take some pictures of your house and barn to give us some ideas to work with?

Old hospital is a great idea. Have a surgery room,morgue,medical waste,incinerator all kinds of things done on a simple budget. Like the morgue doors on the wall for the bodies could be made from foam then make your own handles. Medical waste isnt to hard bags of fake organs and blood and trash cans with those stickers on them etc. Surgery room just some lights a old ugly wooden table restraints you know stuff like that. Maybe even a fridge filled with objects and body parts. Lots of jars with hospital things and fluids. All kinds of things you can do with hospital theme

EDIT call it the organ harvest

If most of your visitors are kids, what about some "scaryfairytales"...a macabre take on some popular nursery rhymes and fairytales?
Little Miss Muffett cocooned by the spider..
Little Red Riding Hood with Granny as a Werewolf..
Hansel and Gretel about to be cooked by the wicked witch..
A particularly messy and gory take on "Humpty Dumpty"...

Just some food for thought..I'm sure there are plenty more that can be adapted for a Halloween theme.

Old barn...First thing pops in my mind is Urban Legends....ZR

Have alot of gory props? Theme it as a Halloween Prop Store..except the props were taken from the graveyard! (Gee, just like some of mine!)
OR...how about The Mall From Hell! featuring really strange stores (I did this as a painting once)
High Speed Cinema with high speed blender snacks...see the hoses from the big machine that have those face mask attachments? Put it on, here comes your snack!
High speed Cinema runs their projecter at a higher speed too!
Wierd Hair Bondage.
Weapons Without Partners.
Zepplin Weinies on a Telephone Pole( snack)
Ye Olde Rubber Beak Plastic Surgery Shoppee
Mutant Mutillations Tatoos
You could build a forced perspective aisle away from the main room filled with "stores" and Services to merely look down, not actually walk passed.
Lots of FUN!!

My Ultimate Mall picture had a large skeleton standing behind the picture (it was long and narrow ala "Cinemiscope) with out stretched arms , hands griping the edges and his head knodded via a very small motor .

You guys rock. Great ideas! We decided to go with the hospital theme. We have a huge room at the exit (we made it into a dot room with the last haunt), I think a morgue would be perfect in there. Time to start looking for sales on gloss white spray paint!!!

Stacy

Hospital theme is a good one. If you have little kids you could make an interactive section with faux body parts and such.