Thread: DIY's Halloween Fright House: Secrets Revealed

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Did any one catch DIY's show that revolved around a Houston, TX haunt "Thrillvania" last night on TV ("Halloween Fright House: Secrets Revealed")? The crew was redoing an older carnival setting and updating it to include 3D walls throughout. They were using ChromaDepth paint, like we've seen in Terra's work and a few others here on the forum.

One effect they had, used a regular picture frame which they took the glass out of and applied a dark tinting film to and reinserted into the frame. As the hauntgoers went past, the backside of the frame where an actor was, was illuminated with the actor making some scary facial movements. The effect from the hauntgoers side was pretty nice and haunting in quality.

They had some rooms where they installed some vacu-formed wall panels. Some drop down panels, a narrow hallway with painted ChromaDepth multiple door frames with sliding doors for the actors to pop out of, they even used a bunge movement to contribute to the 3D effect of the Chroma paint with an actor. They had a room with painted hanging PVC pipes that swayed as the hauntgoers had to wade their way through them. I think there was a distraction also for them to focus past to get out of the room. They built a vortex tunnel in one area, also had an endless tunnel shaft with a TV running a DVD of flames at the other end. They showed the basic construction and plan for this along with the effect. It was suppose to be a shaft of molten lava (done in ChromaDepth paint) with flames errupting at the bottom of the shaft. They showed how they ran the sprinklers in the haunt, how they did the fog (including how they made their low-lying fog) and how they used a snow machine in one of the rooms.

I know there were more effects to relay but can't recall everything. According to their website page it will only reair one more time, on Halloween night. I think those who get into the construction end of their haunts would enjoy this show, but it had stuff even the casual haunter would find interesting and could take ideas from.

Hey Spookie, I saw the episode. I heard about it a few weeks ago from my buddy Karl who runs Twisted Monkey Special FX. Apparently he's been talking to those guys out in Terrell quite a bit, not sure if he got any of the business from it though.

By the way, the park is in Terrell, TX, not Houston... about an hour east of Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex.

I thought the program was quite good overall. I wish there were more programs like this. I did notice that they did not fully explain the details on the drop panel, and some other DIY projects, which are obviously aimed at home haunters, not pro haunts. So they kept most of their secrets.

Ironically, the man who started it all was Lance Pope (with Verdun Manor, which is on the same property), and while I am glad they dedicated a portion of the program to his memory, I kind of wish they would have shown more about him...

I am extremely lucky in that I got to work on and repair many of Lance's props that originally were in his haunt. I remember one prop of an electric chair victim who would shake as "electric current" ran through him when activated, when it broke and I pulled him apart, I got to see the genius of Lance's work. His stuff was literally mind boggling. The genius was in the simplicity. I modernized the prop a bit, switched it from electric to pneumatic, but tried to keep it true to form as it was orginally intended. To be honest, it can be quite intimidating to work on one of Lance's props, especially with other pro haunters looking on to see how you are going to fix it! Creepily enough, this particular prop had silicone hands which had been molded from Lance's hands, so that was a little off-putting as well...

I still go out there every year (going this Friday in fact). I still say hi to Sue (Lance's mom) as she usually works the ticket booth, but I don't really know any of the newer folks that are running it now.

I DEFINITELY recommend this haunt to anyone who can make it out. Even if you are a few hours away, it is worth the drive and WORTH EVERY PENNY!

Hmmm. I see a possible road trip in my future.

I loved it....and I hated it.

DH and I run our own haunt, with maybe 1-2 volunteers (ie, not skilled professionals). It broke my heart to see how fast they put that thing up. The painting alone would have taken us 3 months to do, it took them hours! It gave me a lot of "what ifs"....

I'm not a fan of the paint, but ooooohhh did I love the vortex. We had sidelined that idea because it would take up so much of our haunt space. But then I got to thinking....we COULD stage it outside....so can you guess what our big project next year will be?

Stacy

Originally Posted by SkeletalRemains

Hey Spookie, I saw the episode. I heard about it a few weeks ago from my buddy Karl who runs Twisted Monkey Special FX. Apparently he's been talking to those guys out in Terrell quite a bit, not sure if he got any of the business from it though.

By the way, the park is in Terrell, TX, not Houston... about an hour east of Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex.

I thought the program was quite good overall. I wish there were more programs like this. I did notice that they did not fully explain the details on the drop panel, and some other DIY projects, which are obviously aimed at home haunters, not pro haunts. So they kept most of their secrets.

Ironically, the man who started it all was Lance Pope (with Verdun Manor, which is on the same property), and while I am glad they dedicated a portion of the program to his memory, I kind of wish they would have shown more about him...

I am extremely lucky in that I got to work on and repair many of Lance's props that originally were in his haunt. I remember one prop of an electric chair victim who would shake as "electric current" ran through him when activated, when it broke and I pulled him apart, I got to see the genius of Lance's work. His stuff was literally mind boggling. The genius was in the simplicity. I modernized the prop a bit, switched it from electric to pneumatic, but tried to keep it true to form as it was orginally intended. To be honest, it can be quite intimidating to work on one of Lance's props, especially with other pro haunters looking on to see how you are going to fix it! Creepily enough, this particular prop had silicone hands which had been molded from Lance's hands, so that was a little off-putting as well...

I still go out there every year (going this Friday in fact). I still say hi to Sue (Lance's mom) as she usually works the ticket booth, but I don't really know any of the newer folks that are running it now.

I DEFINITELY recommend this haunt to anyone who can make it out. Even if you are a few hours away, it is worth the drive and WORTH EVERY PENNY!

Lance Pope is hands down, one of the best haunters who ever lived. He has influenced many of the Haunt Owners in the DFW area, which has more haunts per cap, then anywhere in the country (25 to be exact) and haunters all over the country and not to mention, myself. Everytime I talk to a vendor in the bussiness, his name in brought up! I was fortunate enough to go through the very 1st Verdun Manor that Lance did in Arlington TX, back in the late 80's as a young child. It was my 1st haunt, and the reason why I do what I do today. I wish I could have met him.

As for the episode, it was great to see how Lady Cassandra's was renovated and is the measuring stick for how 3D haunts are made. Many haunt owners from around were there during the build to see how to effectively pull off a 3D haunt like this.

I was there opening night back on the 24th of September and was very impressed with the set up. I plan on going Halloween Night as well (a tradition of mine every Halloween). Thrillvania is hands down, my favorite haunt.

Skeletal, nice to meet another fan of Thrillvania and Lance!

Originally Posted by Frankie's Girl

Hmmm. I see a possible road trip in my future.

Indeed!

DFW is a great place to visit lots of Haunts!

Check out: www.dfwhauntedhouses.com

I watched about half of it because my DVR only recorded the first half. Bummer! Anyways, I am going to Thrilvania on Friday night.

Sorry about the typo of Houston and thanks for correcting it. Not sure what I was looking at that had me typing in that city but really pleased some people had a chance to watch the show and have actually been there. I have a girlfriend who move to Texas and lives in the Arlington area (only visited her once a number of years ago) and will have to ask her if she and her boys have been out to any of the haunts there.

I hope anyone reading this who didn't get a chance to catch the show will be able to pick up the repeat.

Amen MrNightmare! I never met Lance either, but my buddy Gary was great friends with Lance. Lance gave Gary many of his props from his earlier days, and that is how I got to work on them later on down the road.

It's funny, really, about the comment about DFW having the most haunts per cap. In most towns across America, you pick which night to go hit the haunts. Here in DFW, you gotta pick which haunts to hit on which night, so you can see them all in one season!

Hey MrNightmare! I grew up in Mineola, TX and I also went through Verdun Manor when it first opened. I loved it!!! I graduated in "91 and went through it every year before I moved away....didn't it start in '89?