We started our set-up later than usual, therefore were rushed, and it felt a bit hellish at times too . But I'll take that over your boyfriend's kidney stones any ol' day - zowee, I heard that can be very painful! I hope he's feeling better. I did our Hell display in the dining room, which has a large window on the front of the house. Unfortunately the few photos we took didn't do it justice. One is attached below. LT Scare's glowing hot coals technique worked great for the lava effect in the foreground - it almost seemed to move and flow. And the demon's side to side head turning looked cool, but he was mostly silohuetted with the projected flames playing behind him on a curved screen I made. It made me laugh, thinking of how it'd go over in the bible belt - but the much simpler to make breathing grave was more popular with the ToTs. Ah well, go figure. Yep, we try to learn and improve our display every year too. That's what it's all about - that and having fun with it.
getting everything set up certainly fit the theme! It went okay for a first try I suppose. The neighbors enjoyed it and I caught some passersby pulling over for pictures. Unfortunately, my road is too dark with no sidewalk and just not good ToT territory. Also, I really wish I had a better sense of how to map out what I see in my head. I will know better now what I need to do for next year. It would also help if my boyfriend does not have 20 kidney stones and two surgeries in the middle of October! Hell part II is already in the works. How was your display?
Hi Miss Phantom. How did the Hell theme go for Halloween?
Hi Miss Phantom! Thanks for the laugh about the "icing on the cake". That's the mark of a true Halloween fan! The Hellmouth is something I'd seen before on Halloweenmonsterlist.info Here's the link to the Hellmouth tutorial, if you're interested. http://softlyspokenmagicspells.com/h...hellmouth.html They had dug a huge hole in their yard to hide it. My wife, Gromit05 here on the forum, liked the idea but not the huge hole in the yard. And since I'd be the hole digger, and hole filler after Halloween, I'm inclined to agree with her. I'd designed a smaller version that fit into a 4" pipe could be sunk into the yard, but have since scrapped that and am leaning toward going up instead of down by making a small "volcano vent" out of GreatStuff that houses everything, including a fogger, and just plops down on top of the lawn and is less suceptable to rain issues (yes, that can be a problem at Halloween in Houston). And if I can find some glow-in-the-dark or maybe neon sidewalk chalk, I'd like to write sayings like "I had meant to be good", since the pathway to Hell is paved with good intentions. The Hell theme really has a lot of options. I'll bet word of mouth spreads about your display and you start getting more than two ToTs in following years. That's how its gone with our set-up. Regardless, I'm sure you and your guests will love it! Cheers! Demon Dog
Hell mouth? Like a gate you mean? Great idea, Demon Dog. My boyfriend took an overhead projector and rigged up an LCD monitor to it so I can project flames out one of my windows. It won;t be seen form the road, but my party guests will love it. I was so inspired by the "my house caught on fire" guy's window and it made flames seem do-able. I'm in New Jersey, south of Philly, and I get all of 2 ToTs, so this is all really just for my amusement. My dad said I'm gonna cause accidents on the road. I said, "icing on the cake! live props!" Just kidding of course.
Really like your idea of a Hell theme. We're going to try a window display of a demon manequin with fire burning around him via a looped projected image from Hallowindow. We live in the Bible Belt, so I think the scare factor should be good. When I have the design a little further along, I'd love to share ideas with you. For your large yard, I think a hell mouth or two could work well. Cheers, Demon Dog
