Thread: I need some suggestions for a haunted house

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Hey, im setting up a haunted house this year, and i want to know, which ideas have you all done that have been successful? I've never set my own up before, so I would like to know what kind of lighting you use, props, etc...any suggestions?

Are you looking at setting up a walk through type haunt or are you looking to decorate the front of your house? What props do you currently have? If you are just starting out I would first decide wether you are going to purchase props from the stores, are you going tro build you own? When I first started many many years ago, I started with a few latex props, some tombstones and a cemetery fence. Lighting was simple flood lights staked throughout the yard with enough light to read the tombstones but not so much light that you could see the extention cords running everywhere! I guess you need to figure out what direction you want to go in and go from there....zombies, clowns, monsters, etc.

as far as lighting I use alot of flood lights ........green,blue and red .......no white spots ..........on covered and indoor areas I use blacklights and colored compact bulbs.again colored red green and Blue......for props I use alot of static props ...this year I started some animatronic stuff and Im hook.but static props positioned the right way can be very cool ..............are you gonna make you own stuff or buy .........thats the big question ..............but Ill tell ya if your going to build anything ...build a Flying Crank Ghost..................I did one this year and I kicking myself for not doing it sooner .....................anyway good luck ...............and your in the right place for advice about haunting .........

Im sure there are some who will disagree but to me nothing beats scare actors. I did a haunted house for 3 yrs with static, pnuematic and animatronic props they were fine but none of them got the scares that real people did.
Suggestions...simpler is better and dont kill yourself over details that only you will notice.

I agree........well said ..........

Thanks for the advice. Sorry it took so long to reply. Anyways, i'm planning on buying most of the props, but i do want to try my hand at making some. I don't want to go overboard in the spending area, though. No more than 200 dollars at best. I'm already equipped with a decent fog machine, timer and plenty of juice. The black light ideas sound awesome. I bet it'd turn the fog purple, which would be awesome. Im kinda interested in this flying crank ghost....gonna go look that up right now. I also have several tombstones and nice SFX and a good music loop set up now.