Thread: Haunters, I need help!

Tweet

I have been actively decorating my house for the past few years and throw a big Halloween party every year. I love to do it and get lots of ideas here on the forum. I now am know as the "Halloween Girl" and so this year they asked me to be in charge of the Fall Festival and want to do a Monster Bash Dance as well. Last night at the Home and school club meeting the principal thought it would be great to add a haunted house to the mix too! Sheesh, now I am feeling overwhelmed but I think the haunted house would generate more $ for our school which is always great with this economy our fundraisers have been less than years past. I have never done the haunted house thing before...So, that is why I am asking you guys for some help and ideas. The room is the library which is a good size but not huge. We need to be able to put it up fairly easily and with a very small budget. My questions are: How much light do you really need and what do you typically use?, what are some low cost barriers and also scare tactics that can be used? The school is elementary students (K-5). The dance will have some fun crafts and stuff for the younger or less brave souls, but really want to entice the older group to come and participate. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

You could always use black visqueen (plastic) for walls. Craft paper from the school could be used to darken the lights. Tape sheets of if in front of the fluorescent fixtures. Some small strobes here or there and you should have a good scray environment for K-5.

Add blue lighting ( you can buy up-lights cheaply from home depot ) around the room. Hilight features with red & yellow lighting. This will create a creepy atmosphere immediatly. Creeply cloth & cargo nets and cheese cloth ( cut holes in the cloth) or sheets are also great. Drape it all over to make the library look old. You could also build walls with pvc if you don't want to use wood. PVC is cheap and easy to work with, you can get fabric to drape at Joanne Fabric ( 50% off coupon ) relatively cheaply or use plastic for walls. If you can afford scene setters they are a great way to get started quickly. Check out dollar stores, drug stores, walmart, kmart, target and online for props ( Dollar Tree has hands, feet and often internal body parts ) The Higher prices Dollar Tree ( I forget what it is called) may have lanterns.

Check out this forum on how to make a fcg ghost. You don't need the electronics just the tutorials on ghosts. It can be made easily with a head form ( beauty supply store), cheese cloth & coat hanger.

Check out shindigz.com & stumpspart.com also for some decorating ideas. They are prom companies but also do halloween, you may be able to recreate what they have at a better price by making it yourself.

For scare tactics for k-5 I would literaly just have some actors with costumes, stand really still, like the scenery and yell boo when they go by. Kids that young may be too sensitive for real scares

And of course check out halloween forum, the haunters here have great pictures posted.

PM me if you need to bounce any ideas, I have a 7th grader and have been haunting our garage since 4th grade.

good luck

Also, for walls you can use old boxes draped with fabric to separate areas of the room. You can get free boxes at stores if you look and ask.

pre-school kids are short so the wall won't have to be so high. Just make areas in the room. If they can see over the wall it will just make them excited about what is to come.

Thank you both for the great ideas! Thinking of having a larger section as they first come in and doing some creepy images and maybe some gross things to "feel". Then a large prop or costumed volunteer as they go into hallway that is built of refrigerator boxes draped with black plastic. This way we don't have to have as much room to fill and keeps the kids feeling scared in the smaller area. What kind of things can we do from here? Maybe hang the creepy cloth so they have to movethrough it like spider webs? I think I will cut some holes on the bottom so that we can have strobe lights on the other side creating the flashing effect, but not too harsh. Maybe some volunteers can brush the kids legs as they go through with furry "tails" through the same holes the light comes through. Any other thoughts? Want them to have a bit of a scare, but as you said, not too Gorey since they will be on the younger side.

Here's some suggestions on getting some of your items free:

In the town I live in we have a clean-up twice a year in which the city will come by and pick up all they stuff you throw away that wouldn't normally go in regular trash. Our fall clean up is just a couple weeks away. I'll drive by people's yards looking for things that could be used for Halloween. I got all my wood to create a fenced area for my graveyard that way so I only had to pay for the rebar.

You might also keep an eye out on Craigslist in the free section and join your local freecycle group (through Yahoo).

Good luck!!!!

Originally Posted by Addicted2Boo

Thank you both for the great ideas! Thinking of having a larger section as they first come in and doing some creepy images and maybe some gross things to "feel". Then a large prop or costumed volunteer as they go into hallway that is built of refrigerator boxes draped with black plastic. This way we don't have to have as much room to fill and keeps the kids feeling scared in the smaller area. What kind of things can we do from here? Maybe hang the creepy cloth so they have to movethrough it like spider webs? I think I will cut some holes on the bottom so that we can have strobe lights on the other side creating the flashing effect, but not too harsh. Maybe some volunteers can brush the kids legs as they go through with furry "tails" through the same holes the light comes through. Any other thoughts? Want them to have a bit of a scare, but as you said, not too Gorey since they will be on the younger side.

One of the other things I do which really creeps the kids is a spider area. I take plastic fencing ( like deer fencing with squares ) and tie strips of black furry yarn. I place this in the enterance to my spider area and the kids have to walk through it. It tickles them and they can't see through the wall of yarn so it creeps them out. Right after that I have spiders, bugs & snakes. You have to hang the yarn from something but it is a great effect. At dollar tree I found yarn with multi colored dots and it worked great.

If you have the spiders, use fishing line to hang down. They can also walk or crawl through pool noodles hanging down. You could attach a bunch of white clown gloves to the inside of the box and have a volunteer reach out with a real hand in a glove. Not too scary but unexpected. Dollar tree has clown gloves.

ohh, I like the black furry yarn idea.

Yes, yes, yes! More please!!!!! Great ideas! I can definitely do this without too much $. Once we get the basics we can build on it each year. I love this forum and all the help from the members.