[Screaming Demons]

Our drop panels are some of our best scares, but I'm always looking to change them up. Last year we did a white board at the end with a tally asking if we scared them, which dropped down as they went to write on it.

Anyone have any new ideas? The pictures are getting a little stale.

 

[Gumpster09]

I made a drop panel bookcase.

Here's a video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjIpwYks58c

 

[Gumpster09]

This year I'm planning on making one into a door, the window will drop down. The actor side will be dark so they don't see him.

 

[Cephus404]

I made a drop panel bookcase.
View attachment 537929

Here's a video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjIpwYks58c

The problem is, it's obvious. The first people in your video pointed right at it. What might be cooler, and this could take some doing, is to have lightweight fake books mounted to the panel in such a way that they all fall down. It would probably require a thicker or deeper panel, but it would be pretty invisible.

 

[Frankie's Girl]

Mirror! If you have a "make a funny face" type sign or something similar, you could use plexi and some of the mirror film to make a non-breakable mirror.

One of the Ripley's Museums used to have one of those, and it was a two way mirror, so the one side it had a thing about how to roll your tongue and hey, here's a mirror to see if you could mimic the photos... only to discover on the way out that it was a two way mirror on the end and those around the other side of it could see all the folks making extremely silly faces. They did away with it I believe due to the increase of digital photo/phone capabilities (so those that hadn't given permission to be photographed wouldn't be captured and uploaded without their permission).

So not quite the same as the Ripley idea, but using a mirror for a drop panel might be fun if you make it look good. Get an old ornate frame, maybe have a sign about it being a "magic mirror" that shows their true love's form or something to get someone to stand there for a few seconds peering into it... could be a super scare!

 

[Screaming Demons]

Thank you!

All great ideas. Good thing I'm getting an early start this year.

 

[Gumpster09]

I thought it would seem a little obvious too but most people miss it, it would of helped if there was stuff on the shelf or the missing shelf was still there. I believe the people that pointed at the beginning of the video thought the actor was behind the case and was going to jump out, not that they thought the case would move.

 

[J-Man]

It's a bit involved but this would be great idea for a drop panel.
http://learning.sonicrobots.com/201...ray-picture-with-moving-eyes-arduino-edition/

 

[nosefuratyou]

Ours was a ticket window right before the clowns and freakshow area. The actor also had the opportunity to do a scare around the corner.

[URL=http://s36.photobucket.com/user/oldtroll/media/halloween/ticketwindow%20001_zps46fupxnh.jpg.html][/URL]

 

[hhh]

Magic mirrors are fun. We used one in a puzzle room a while back
http://www.halloweenforum.com/party...recipes/146622-escape-room-theme-ideas-2.html
I was unable to think of a reason why people would want to spend time looking in a mirror in a haunted house, but it worked well in a puzzle room because they had to breathe on it to fog it up to read a clue.
But since a magic mirror is not a drop panel, but you might have fun doing both. If you make people encounter the magic mirror first, hopefully you'll get a good reaction and then if they later find another mirror... they may be ready for it to be another magic mirror, but if instead it's a drop panel, hopefully you've got them again.
Still don't have a great idea for why someone would want to look in a mirror in a haunted house though. maybe you can instruct them to check that none of their party is a vampire? and then at the end they check again?