Oh, forgot to mention, we wanted some really upsetting pounding music to be constantly playing in the cabin, sort of the like the type in this video- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZQXD-r1dYI&list=LLFno1H2VZwsyMWkSIzcELeg&feature=mh_lolz. If you know of any more songs like this let me know!

 

Ok... I guess if that passes as music you're on the right track for a haunt... I'd be afraid to go anywhere near the joint. On the other hand... I recall an old montage of short movies in which one of them had a meteor fall from the sky and a guy goes outside and touches it. Over the next few days the meteor has something that starts to grow out of it (moss or grass or mold) and it takes over the guys yard and house... at the same time the guy is transformed into a mossman or something of that nature. The last scene has him sitting infront of a static TV... I think that would be the easiest thing to pull off and make it scary as hell. Dress the guy in a gillie suit and have a couple of people outside in "biohazard" suits and fake geiger counters. Throw some swampy style moss around the floor and some camo netting up for dividers. Play some swamp sound effects and have the TV's cycle in and out of tune. For the ultimate scare have there some vines hanging down with bodyparts wrapped up like something dismembered a ToT.

Just my take. I noticed you had a big ring in the middle of your drawing. If it's just a void you were trying to do something with Make that your meteor. and design a fake sky for above it so it looks like the thing came through the roof. And Dont Forget The Fog!!! lots and lots of Fog.(ok not lots and lots but a good amount of ground level fog to make it a bit more eerie. Also if you want to make the walk through a bit more troubling texturize the floor. Egg carton foam... peanut shells.... what ever you can find that gives it a different feel and sound. Just be careful of injury potential.

 

The scene you're thinking of is from the first Creepshow film, directed by George A. Romero, and the actor was in fact THE Stephen King! I do like the image you're going for though. I'm very into the idea of building fear up before even actually entering the cabin, and if I could have the walls actually shake from the pounding of the music that'd be awesome. The hazmat suits is a great idea! I'll talk to the other guys about this idea to see if they want to go for it. Also, this gave me the thought of having people dress up in camouflage suits and blending in with the walls, that way they can pop out. Maybe even be as simple as having people pretend to be inanimate objects. Hiding in plain sight is always the best route. Question about the fog... whenever we try and use it it always disappears super quickly and we have difficulty hiding the machines so there's not a big neon colored spewer in the middle of the room. Any thoughts on how to hide it or maybe an alternative source of fog we could use? Thank you so much for your input!

 

Hiding fog machines... Now theres a tutorial if I ever heard need for one. Ok. a couple of things: In Most cases the machine is going to have to be "in View" but it can be discretely covered or concealed so that it isn't so conspicuous. For a house (cabin) setting try hiding it in a side table or under it. (lighting will play a big part in how it is hidden.) If you use a chiller paint it black. For my chiller I am going to spray adhesive straw to the entire cooler the chiller is made out of Then I'm going to laquer that so it stays in place and when all is said and done it should look like a bale of hay. Your other option for hiding a fog machine is to put it off scene and run tubing. This is problematic though in that many times you loose velocity or density or both because of the run the fog has to make. Now, in terms of the disappation issue. We have all encountered that. Heavy breezes create a problem but indoors your issue isn't the breeze it's density. With out the breeze you'll find that alittle goes a long way. you will definately want to keep it low. If you haven't built a chiller yet you'll want to check out the tutorials here or on Youtube. I built mine out of a igloo cooler and metal airduct. It worked but I'm going to change the pathway to chicken wire to give more surface area to the Ice to super cool the fog. You also have to take into account the ambient air temp. To High and the fog won't last long, to low and you can't get it to stay close to the ground cause it's warmer than the air.

 

Totally LOVE this idea of making over cabins!!! Not sure if this would work for you, but find some old x-rays of various dental/ body parts and tape them to the face of the tv's- the static that glows through the film is really creepy and subtle.... are you going for a "crazy reclusive paranoid killer in the woods" motif? If you're out in the woods and building on a "isolation" theme, then all kinds of old, rusted lumber saws and axes/picks can hang from chains and beams from the ceiling...old tools from farming and home repair can look very menacing. Old falling apart taxidermy animals are always creepy. Stack columns of old news papers with a "trophy wall" of strategically clipped displayed 'pretend' headlines like "North woods Killer Suspected in Disappearance of Family During Camping Trip"... "Mass Grave found 2 Miles from Boy Scout Camp: Police Baffled, Public Outraged" ... "Ranger is Still Missing- Cadaver Dogs Are Now on the Case'... you were talking about a 'maze' Kids have to walk through... a maze of stacked newspapers would probably be really inexpensive and totally unnerving. Plus, you can use mover's wrap to keep the newspaper 'walls' secure. Hope I helped get some ideas peculating!!!

 

Wow! These are all really good ideas! I love the idea of using X-Rays to create an outline on tv screens/window panes. Gets me thinking about other ideas like mirrors and saran wrap around some things to give them an extra creepy effect. We (my group and I) were heading towards an isolation factor, and I think having something outside the cabin such as rusted farm equipment would be a neat affect. I'm not sure about hanging axes or chains from the ceiling because if they fell and hit somebody it would be rather disastrous. If you look at the original sketch at the top you'll see we have this little "welcome room" that they have to go through before actually entering the maze, so having the newspaper clippings there would be super creepy, especially if we had a black or red light illuminating the entry way. I like your headline ideas by the way! Making newspaper clippings look older though is tricky. Any suggestions?

 

UPDATE: We've upgraded our cabin this year to an actual FORT. Four rooms, each connected by a very "compressing" hallway to each and a large space between the four rooms. I'll upload a schematic soon. Any further suggestions?

 

If you wanna really get em, check out this headless man suit. http://www.frightcatalog.com/headless-man-costume-1104049/

 

I don't think Raven meant for you to hang "real" axes. You can get very realistic "safe" props to hang. As far as aging your newspaper clippings (LOVE that idea btw) you can use black tea or coffee. soak the paper, gently remove and lay flat to dry. The longer it soaks the darker it will get.

 

OK you had me at Cabin in the Woods.

**THREAD DERAIL**

GO SEE THAT MOVIE!!

**/THREAD DERAIL**

Seriously, it may provide some interesting ideas & it certainly has changed the face of the stereotypical "cabin in the woods" movies.

 

Good tips! I love these ideas! Isn't the headless man out of production however?

 

I don't know.