Thread: Anyone ever done an Indiana Jones / archaeology-themed yard haunt?

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Seems like the main themes for Halloween yard haunts are:

1) Haunted House
2) Pirates
3) Creepy Carnivals (although I've never seen one personally)

Has anyone ever attempted an Indiana Jones / archaeology-type yard haunt? e.g. haunted Mayan temple / cave / ark of the covenant effects (fog, projections, spirits)? What about simulated blow dart gun promenades (short bursts of air). Or maybe even Egyptian themed. To me, this would be really different. And a big differentiator if one lives in a place with a ton of people doing classic haunted-house style yard haunts or the increasingly popular Pirate theme.

Would love to see pictures of videos of non-traditional yard haunt themes.

I planned on but never got it going. My son voted it out.

One of the things I was going to have was a huge paper mache ball rolling on a track. Might think about that.

What a great idea. I think the possibilites for this are huge. I have seen a few egyptian themed haunts too. I like the "different" factor. I have a western/mine theme yard haunt that I have done for the last 5 years. I am always finding new things to add and switch around. I have a few pics in my albums and a few more on my signature link (Photobucket), if you'd like to look.

I looooove this idea. If I hadn't already decided on aliens as my next theme after a couple of years of zombies I might do this too. There's a lot of really cool things you could do too, like that room that almost squashes them flat, or the mayan's, (were they mayan's??) that were ripping hearts out. I really like the ark idea too. Yea i say roll with it because I don't remember seeing a theme like that on here, or in any pro haunt I've been in. Good idea!!

I've got one on the drawing board, calling it Skull Island for the moment. Still a ways off and in the process of gathering props and such. I can tell you what I have in the works so far if that helps.

Halloween Assylum had this jungle guy mask that I bought a year or two ago that kind of got me hooked on the idea. I picked up this giant, giant animated skull from Costco two or three years ago that will be key to it. Also found a large hollow clear plastic resin skull with LED lights at ROSS DRESS FOR LESS a year ago that I'll switch out for a blinding bright white light inside for my crystal skull design. Somehow will trigger the light for when the ToTers get too close. Both skulls should be in one of my yearly store albums BTW.

I'm going to experiment with the $10 Walmart skellies bought last year to see if I can turn them into monkeys with the help of a heat gun. Found a great monkey mask that fits these skellies perfectly at a Diddams last year and figure a little fur fabric strands glued to the skeleton frame would be a nice touch. Will probably have to use some molding clay to make a monkey tail. I now have two large snakes to add to the jungle theme and hang them with one of those mister stands (pic in one of the albums of this). Would love to trigger one of the snakes to spit. picked up some clearance skull torches at Spirit last year as well as about a dozen of their lit hanging skulls. I'd love to make a giant paper mâché round boulder to use inside of the Crystal Skull room ala the boulder scene from the Raiders movie. Kids will also have to walk across a bridge of snakes. There's a DVD out that has snake projections I'd love to pick up when I can budget it in.

Can't remember what else I have in the works. I'm waiting until we have our yard done so I can make full use of the front, back and side yards. I'm trying to combine my favorite themes and work them into a story theme. I'd like it start out with a shipwrecked pirate vessel, then traveling through the jungle to Skull Island, and finally having to pass thru the Egyptian tombs to get their pirates' booty of candy. Have a number of props and accessories already for that part of the haunt.

This year will most likely be gothic in nature, then hope to follow with the zombie town/carnival theme and then the pirate/Skull Island/Egyptian tomb theme. I also want to do a mad lab one year and have parts of that in the works as well.

Wow, sounds great everyone! I've only done 2 seasons of yard haunts so far. This year (Season #3) will be "classic" as well. But after I get that down, I really would love to do something different. Great ideas here. Keep them coming! :-)

I love the mining theme. Forgot about that. Also forgot about alien themes.

One of my favorite Disney rides--very possibly second to the Haunted Mansion (hard act to follow)--is Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. The mining theming is incredible. I nearly always see some new detail every time I ride it. Would love to see more mining-themed yard haunts. May do one myself some day.

On another former there is a member from Canada that does a low-budget haunt in a mall every year to benefit a non-profit group. A few years ago he did a theme like this.

I'm working on something similar, although mine's more of an "adventurer opens tomb and unleashes curse" type of thing. I have a talking "gold idol" (talking skull) and a couple of very dead adventurers.

We did an indiana jones maze 2 years ago, painted the walls like they were a pyramid, a lot of snakes, stuff like that, last year it was a "goonies" maze, which easily transitioned into a pirates maze this year.

My friend (and his giant crew of friends) did this theme. I was in charge of the air dart hallway, so I can provide some input, if you wanted to try that. Basically just used PVC with a bunch of tees and endcaps with holes in them. This was hooked up to a couple solenoid valves, and a little microcontroller/relay board I built for the purpose.

They also had an awesome dead-end effect. Visitors walked down the hallway to a dead-end. Then, after saying some magic words, a garage door opener pulled the wall in front of them out of the way.

At the end of the display, they had a VSA routine involving a 6 1/2' cobra lunging at the ToT's, sending them scampering through a character-sequenced, and smoking Stargate. The Stargate was particularly cool

- Hook