Thread: Ideas for Cemetary "Filler" ???

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The main theme for my Halloween yard display is a cemetary. I have plenty of tombstones, Mausolem, raven with red lights, Cat with Yellow eyes, " new graves" and of course fog and sound. But it still seems a little "empty". Anybody have any good, inexpensive ideas for some "filler" for the cemetary in the yard? I'll attach pics to give you an idea of what I mean be kinda empty. Thanks!

What about plants and grasses?
Fake weeds around the tombstones, dead brush, dead flowers, dead vines, tree stumps.
You can purchase fake foliage from a craft and/or floral store.
Sometimes dollar/99cent store carries stuff.
Just stick them in the ground ,no need to water.

Originally Posted by Wyatt Furr

What about plants and grasses?
Fake weeds around the tombstones, dead brush, dead flowers, dead vines, tree stumps.
You can purchase fake foliage from a craft and/or floral store.
Sometimes dollar/99cent store carries stuff.
Just stick them in the ground ,no need to water.

All great ideas, thanks! I try and let my grass grow for a while to look old and unmaintained but I definately need to throw some leaves and branches around and stuff.

Where's the coffins with skeletons and bones?....Maybe a caretaker...My stuff felt like it was missing something until I started adding characters...Maybe that's what your feeling it's missing?...ZR

Originally Posted by ZombieRaider

Where's the coffins with skeletons and bones?....Maybe a caretaker...My stuff felt like it was missing something until I started adding characters...Maybe that's what your feeling it's missing?...ZR

Another good point. I have characters but they are for my other theme of classic horror killers. Guess I need to add some more " graveyard characters " and add a coffin or two. Just a pain in the butt to make and more importantly, find a place to store.. lol I'm al ready out of room.

You'd be amazed how much a toe pincher with even a blucky in it with a strobe changes things...Yes, Pain in the butt...No more than making tombstones, or fencing though....ZR

More zombies! You can never have too many!
And lots of dead foliage and spider webs. That should fill it in nicely!

Moss or other distressing on the fence would look nice. Maybe some torn/ripped black plastic hanging from various things.

Keep in mind that more does not always mean better. You don't want to end up with a cluttered look. A few simple additions should breath some new death into your cemetery.

Love your house and yard. The tombstones look terrific BTW. Looks like you have a decent size yard to work with and some nice props already. Do you have a picture of the yard taken at night? During daylight you take everything in at once so it's a bit hard to comment since it's what you see at night that should probably be the focus.

I looked over your pics, and I think I'd go another way. Instead of spreading out the graveyard to both sides of the driveway and adding more tombstone filler, I'd centralize the graveyard and try moving the stones closer together, focusing on getting them lit properly at night, and expand your other props in other sections of the yard more in scenes that would shift the ToTers view from scene to scene as they walked down the sidewalk, up the driveway and to your front door. I would space the scenes out more between each other and add more detail to each of them, so they don't stand in isolation so much.

You didn't say what kind of lighting you used. Maybe the use of motion sensors to trigger lighting for the various scenes would help shift the focus.

If you wanted to add more cemetary filler, I'd suggest adding a grounds keeper (deformed human or skeleton or ghoul) holding a lantern, maybe use a shovel stuck in the ground around a fresh grave instead of a rake (digging up a grave seems scarier than raking), maybe add some zombies as some suggested but have them picking through a gravesite, add a woman's hunched, kneeling ghostly figure at one of the gravestones (you wouldn't even have to show a face or any body detail) dressed all in white and covered with whispy sheer material that could blow in the wind. You could set up a motion trigger to play a woman's weeping voice as ToTers near.

Since you already have a fence around your yard (great for keeping unwanteds playing with your props) maybe you could cordon off the cemetary with a low lying walled section. A cheap solution might be to get simple wooden stakes for anchors that you attach some wood or foamboard to and if you don't want to paint it to look like brick, buy some scenesetter brick and staple it on to cover and create the same effect. Don't forget to add some spider webbing where appropriate.

Seeding the yard with a few (not a whole lot, mindya) skulls and bones is always good--makes it look like someone (or something) has been up to no good in the cemetery. If you want you can make 'em look slightly gnawed on. Something like a single torn, bloody shoe near the entrance might pick things up a bit as well, get 'em wondering what's going on here.