Thread: Garage Haunt Walk Thru

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Maybe someone can help me out. I'm going to extend my graveyard outside my house to the garage to let trick or treaters walk through it. Is there any suggestions on how to make a garage look like a graveyard and to give it a creepy spooky look. I think I'm going to make the exit into a spider pit, with webs, spiders, bodies, and bones everywhere, but I can't think of anything to start the process from the graveyard to the garage. Thanks.

Well, I'd start with setting up tombstones, scattering a thin layer of dirt on the floor and adding a fog machine to help conceal the floor. Lighting and fog are going to be key elements I think. Oh, make sure the cars are gone!

The good thing about the garage is you won't have to worry as much about the wind blowing your fog around. If the Tots are going from your garage into your house you may not want to use dirt on the garage floor, at least where they are walking, in order to avoid it ending up in your house. Maybe leaves or the fake grass carpet as an alternative. If you do use dirt or leaves, you may want to lay done a thin sheet of plastic first to make clean up easier.

For the walls you could string black material along the walls and have someone with artistic ability paint outdoor graveyard scenes to enhance the tombstones you set up. You could line the wall with foam boards and carve them to look like the outside of a stone building or maybe the inside of a dungeon.

I've been thinking of how to dress up a garage for a upcoming party. Here are some thoughts:

1) You're probably going to need to cover the garage walls. Typically, people use black plastic, but I've always been disappointed with how plastic reflects light and spoils the effect. This year, when the summer season ends, I plan to look for big rolls of black landscaping fabric that will be on clearance. I figure the fabric will soak up all the light, and will probably be easier to reuse for next year.

2) The garage will give you the opportunity to control everything, including sound if you can hook up a proper stereo system. It would be especially cool if you could include a woofer and surround sound speakers with appropriate sound effects. In another post on graveyards, I recommended "Night Creatures" from Disney's Halloween Songs & Sounds which can be found for 99¢ on iTunes.



Here's the link: iTunes Store - Various Artists - Halloween Songs & Sounds

3) Using the fog machine is a great idea, as there will be little chance of wind blowing it to ruin the effect. I would suggest adding a chiller so the fog lies close to the ground and hides the concrete floor. Perhaps add some fall leaves to the entrance where people will transition from the outside into the fog-filled garage.

4) It would be cool if you can give the impression that everyone is "outside" even though they are in the garage. Perhaps a toy planetarium could work to broadcast stars along the ceiling area. Use your tombstones and scenery appropriately to hide the device.

5) If you have the time and space, perhaps consider a backdrop with silhouettes of trees that is backlit with blue light. Use a few dead limbs standing upright in front of the backdrop to add to the illusion of depth. This is the kind of trick that theaters use for stage production. Here's an example:



6) I'm a big fan of the "flying bats" that are sold around halloween — particularly Menard's. They don't look real in the package, but when you hang them from fishing line, they flap their wings and travel in circles in a very realistic manner. They look like this in the package:



*Be sure to use heavy duty AA batteries in the bats — possibly the kind meant for digital devices. I went cheap one year and they all died out after 2 hours.

7) Finally, my biggest advice would be not to make the tombstones hokey. I think you know what I mean — bad-looking white bead styrofoam, hacked away with Xacto knives, solid battleship grey and corny inscriptions (I.M. Dead) with letters so big they fill the thing from top to bottom. Get yourself some pink or blue foam insulation sheets, a hot wire foam-cutting tool from a hobby shop, print out epitaphs from your PC as guides to carve, and finally paint them so they look weathered. There was a great, great website by a woman who made these props a thing of beauty. You'd swear they were the real thing. I'll post if I can find it again.

Sorry about that last rant. Cheap-looking tombstones are a pet-peeve of mine.
Hope that all helps.

This is the first year I plan on using my garage as part of the haunt...for the entance, I'm building a "wall" across the garage door opening and will mount these two big skulls on either side, so ToTs will have to walk between them.

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It should look pretty cool at night

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My suggestion would be to design the garage to resemble either the inside of a crypt or catacomb either would be suitable for incorporating your spider idea, or you might consider a mosoleum. Either way I am a beliver in trying to make thing seem true to life. If you have an inside venue then decorate it accordingly. If budget and time permits you may consider adding the outside facade of the crypt etc. on the outside of the garage,to be used as the entrance.