Thread: Any ideas for pneumatics in Haunted Farm setup?

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We like to theme our displays, switching themes every few years, and this year we're doing a Haunted Farm. It will have a gross farmer's market stand, facade of a barn, chicken coop, pumpkin patch, and scarecrows. All the planning is going really well so far, but we can not figure out how to work in our pneumatics! We have a barrel jumper and a few other cylinders that aren't currently hooked up to anything. None of them have a very long throw, the longest being 14" in the barrel. Does anyone have any suggestions for pneumatic props that might fit into a farm theme? We have wracked our brains and haven't thought of anything!

I like the idea.

Definitely the nasty scarecrow pumkinrot style with movable head and/or arms,

Maybe something like a "monster in a box" but utilize a storm cellar type structure

A garden of body parts?

I want to incorporate a spitter type enhancement to a prop this year, maybe you could do the flatulent cow with one?

A haunt theme weather vane.

I went though a haunt that was farm focused and it was great. Called "The Slaughterhouse.' One if the first scares was when the actors were yelling at you from behind the kitchen table. While you were distracted, a giant pig (I mean friggin' GIANT!) pig leaped at you from under the table.

The best scare in the house was when they had you go outside into the back yard. There were all kinds of backwoods 'farmers' jumping at you with chainsaws and such. There was something about making you go outside and walk on the dirt paths in the dark of night that just scared the heck outta me. That and those chainsaws.... One of the best houses I've gone through.

Pneumatics. I've never worked with them but love the motion. You said you are doing a barn facade. Can you work in a hayloft and have the cylinders throw open the loft doors exposing some lit scary creature up there among the hay?

How about some hay bales and a creature that jumps up from behind them? Or maybe some ghoul working your market stand can pop up from behind the counter when people get closer to inspect the "fruit and vegetables"--wanna buy some???

Maybe you can have a giant spider web a la Charlotte's Web, that spells out something halloween-like and have a large spider shoot out from the base of the web across the ground just to give people a jump. I bought the Spirit Zombie farmer and wife last year and am considering doing this but without the jumping spider this year.

I've never worked with pneumatics either, but I thought of a few things:

The barrel- surrond it with straw and attach straw to the top to create a haystack jumper. (basically just hide the barrel in a haypile)

A tool shed where the tools (fake for safety) "pop" off the rack at the patrons short throw would work well here just enough movement to make one think they're about to get hit with something.

A barn or shed with lots of chains, hooks and fake sharp objects harging from the ceiling. on some of these hang a body or torso prop, then attach your cylinder to the chain end at the ceiling. with quick in and outs of the short throw cylinder, it should make the torso "dance" or jump on the chain.

Are cylinders waterproof? If so you could do a haunted well with water and a cylinder attached to a cup or container, something that would throw water in the air or bubble it up.

Hope that helps give you some ideas.
Spanky

What was that movie called where the farmer planted people up to their necks with burlap sacks over their heads and when it was time to use them for making sausage,he would yank them out by their necks with a tractor? Was it Motel Hell??? That was always creepy to me but I don't know how pneumatices would work...I just remember those sacks moving in the garden.

Thanks for all the good ideas...definitely food for thought! It wasn't pneumatic, but we did make the Skeleton Grabber (from Michaels) into a scarecrow. So far, so good.

How about a rocking chair 'granny" that stands or lunges forward or a head snap?